The Church of the Province of South East Asia is an autonomous member of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, created in 1996 with the four

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

s of Kuching,

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory o ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

West Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

. There are approximately 98,000 Anglicans within the province, and the current

Metropolitan Archbishop Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

and Primate of the Province is Melter Tais,

Bishop of Sabah The Bishop of Sabah is an Anglican prelate who oversees the Diocese of Sabah in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. Following the death of Albert Vun Cheong Fui on 14 July 2014, Melter Tais was installed as the sixth bishop on 14 May 20 ...

History

Early Developments

Sir James Brooke (1847) by Francis Grant

Anglicanism was first introduced with the establishment of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

's settlement of Penang Island in 1786.

George Caunter George Caunter (c. June 1758 – 25 December 1811) was a British administrator who governed Prince of Wales Island (Penang Island) as Acting Superintendent from 1797 to 1798 and again from 1798 to 1800. As First Assistant under Lieutenant-Gove ...

, a local magistrate, was appointed as a Lay Clerk/Acting Chaplain in 1799 under the jurisdiction of the See of Calcutta. In 1819, the first Anglican church building, the Church of St. George the Martyr, was consecrated by the Bishop of Calcutta,

Thomas Fanshawe Middleton Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (28 January 1769 – 8 July 1822) was a noted Anglican bishop. Life Middleton was born in Kedleston in Derbyshire, England, the son of Thomas Middleton, Rector of Kedleston and educated at Christs Hospital. He then w ...

. In 1826, the Mission Chapel of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

(LMS) started services in

and the first church building in Singapore was built in 1837. In 1842, a missionary of the LMS started the first girls school in Singapore, now known as St. Margaret's School. The work in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

started in 1848 when a group of missionaries led by Francis Thomas McDougall was invited by

James Brooke Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868. Brooke was b ...

, the

Rajah ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested fr ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

. In 1849, a wooden church was built in Kuching. In 1851, this church was consecrated by Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta in honour of St. Thomas the Apostle.

Establishment of Missionary Dioceses

Letters patent was issued in 1855 to establish the Bishopric of

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan), is a Federal Territory of Malaysia. Its territory includes and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capita ...

and McDougall was appointed the first

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of Labuan. McDougall was also appointed the Bishop of Sarawak by the Rajah of Sarawak due to the political conventions of the day ruled that no Anglican Diocese might be created outside the limits of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, and Sarawak was then technically an independent kingdom. This practice prevailed until the Sarawak became a Crown Colony in 1946. In 1867, The East India Company transferred Penang to the British Crown and with that ended the

chaplaincy A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intel ...

of the Madras Presidency in Penang. The Anglican churches in Penang, Malacca and Singapore were organised into the Church in the Straits Settlement while remaining under the jurisdiction of the

See See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

of Calcutta. The Church in the Straits Settlement was separated from the See of Calcutta by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1869 and placed under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Labuan as the United Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak. In 1909, the United Diocese was further divided into the Diocese of Singapore, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak. The 3 separate Dioceses developed independently from then onwards until the creation of the Province.

Anglican work in Malaya and Singapore (1909–1996)

The period between the division of the United Diocese and the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in the Pacific, missionary work continued with increasing ordination of local clergy and planting of churches all throughout the Malaya and Singapore. During the duration of the Second World War, most expatriate clergy and missionaries were interned by the Japanese. Without the benefit of its expatriate clergy, the work of the church fell on the shoulders of local clergy and church workers. This development highlighted the urgent need for training local leaders for this developing part of the Anglican Church and eventually led to the establishment of Singapore's Trinity Theological College in 1951. Malaya gained her independence from British rule in 1957. Following this, in 1960, the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya. In 1970, the churches in

were separated from the Diocese and reconstituted as the Diocese of West Malaysia by an Act of Parliament and the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore.

Anglican work in British Borneo (1909–1996)

Work in British Borneo after the division of the United Diocese until the outbreak of the Second World War followed a similar pattern to the work in Malaya and Singapore. It was supported from 1909 by the Borneo Mission Association. Anglican missionaries were however more successful than their counterparts in Malaya and Singapore in evangelising the indigenous peoples. Following the devastation of the Second World War, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak was joined together as the Diocese of Borneo and the first Bishop,

Nigel Cornwall Nigel Edmund Cornwall CBE, (13 August 1903 – 19 December 1984) was an English clergyman in the Church of England. He held the post of Bishop of Borneo from 1949 until 1962. Early life Cornwall was the son of Alan Cornwall, who was Archdeacon of ...

, was consecrated in 1949. In 1962, the Diocese was again divided into the Diocese of Jesselton (later Diocese of

) which included Labuan, and the

Diocese of Kuching The Diocese of Kuching is a diocese of the Anglican Church of the Province of South East Asia that covers Sarawak (in Malaysia) and Brunei. Founded in 1962, the see was originally established as the Bishopric of Sarawak linked to the Diocese of La ...

which included

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

Province of South East Asia

In 1996, autocephaly was attained when the Province of South East Asia consisting of the Dioceses of West Malaysia, Singapore, Kuching and Sabah was established by the then- Archbishop of Canterbury,

George Carey George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the C ...

Moses Tay Moses Tay Leng Kong ( zh, t=鄭靈光; born 1938) is a retired Singaporean Anglican bishop. He was the 7th Bishop of Singapore from 1982 to 1999 and the first Archbishop of the Province of Anglican Church in South East Asia from 1996 to 2000. Tay ...

, Bishop of Singapore, was installed as the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province the same year. The Province celebrated its 20th Anniversary in February 2016.

Membership

Today, there are at least 98,000 Anglicans out of an estimated population of 33.9 million.

Structure

The polity of the Church of the Province of South East Asia is

Episcopalian church governance An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. (The word "bishop" derives, via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*bisc ...

, which is the same as other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

es organised into

s. The Province is divided into four dioceses. Furthermore, the Dioceses of Kuching, West Malaysia and Singapore are further subdivided into archdeaconries and

deaneries A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

. *The

*The

Diocese of Sabah The Diocese of Sabah is an Anglican diocese which covers Sabah and Labuan in Malaysia. Founded in 1962, the see was originally part of the much larger Diocese of Labuan and its Dependencies which was established in 1855. Following the carving ou ...

*The Diocese of Singapore *The Diocese of West Malaysia

Current diocesan bishops

* Melter Tais – Archbishop of South East Asia and

* Steven Abbarow – Bishop of West Malaysia *Danald Jute – Bishop of Kuching * Titus Chung –

Bishop of Singapore A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

List of primates of South East Asia

Worship and liturgy

The Church of the Province of South East Asia embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

is used.

Doctrine and practice

The center of the Church of the Province of South East Asia's teaching is the life and resurrection of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes: *Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead. *Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe. *The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine. *The two great and necessary sacraments are

Holy Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

and

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

*Other sacramental rites are confirmation,

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

reconciliation of a penitent Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of one's sins (sinfulness) or wrongs. Christianity Catholicism In Catholic teaching, the Sacrament of Penance is the method of the Church by which individual men and women confess sin ...

, and

unction Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or ot ...

. *Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory. The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University ...

, a sixteenth-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.

Ecumenical relations

The dioceses of the Church of the Province of South East Asia participate in the ecumenical

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

via their respective national church councils: *Council of Churches of Malaysia **Diocese of Kuching and Brunei **Diocese of Sabah **Diocese of West Malaysia *National Council of Churches of Singapore **Diocese of Singapore However, unlike many other Anglican churches, the Church of the Province of South East Asia is not a member of the

in its own right.

Anglican realignment

Together with the Church of the Province of Rwanda, the Church of the Province of South East Asia maintained a missionary organisation, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, from 2000 to 2011. The Church of the Province of South East Asia has been active in the

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States ...

, as member of the Global South and the

Global Anglican Future Conference The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...

. The province was represented at the GAFCON III, held on 17–22 June 2018, in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, by a 18 members delegation, coming from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...