The Presbyterian Church in Malaysia or GPM ( ms, Gereja Presbyterian Malaysia) is a Christian church in

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 ...

. Established as an independent synod in 1974, it currently has approximately 7,000 members in 100 congregations nationwide.Council of Churches of Malaysia
Members - Presbyterian Church in Malaysia
The current Moderator of the GPM is the Rev. Chua Hua Peng.

History

The Presbyterian Church in Malaysia today is the result of the convergence of two parallel historical developments that shares common roots but diverged early in work and emphasis - the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-speaking Synod of the English Presbytery and the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

-speaking Singapore Presbyterian Synod.

Early developments

The earliest contact with the

Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

was through the Dutch control of the

Portuguese Malacca Portuguese control of Malacca, a city on the Malay Peninsula, refers to the 130 year period (1511–1641) when it was a possession of the Portuguese East Indies. It was conquered from the Malacca Sultanate as part of Portuguese attempts to ...

in 1641. The staunchly Reformed

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Dutch banned the practice of Roman Catholicism in Malacca and converted all existing churches in Malacca for

Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

use. The main church used was the old St. Paul's Church (renamed as the ''Bovenkerk'' by the Dutch) built by the Portuguese in 1521 as the ''Nosa Senhora'' ( pt, Our Lady of the Hill) chapel on the summit of St. Paul's Hill. Construction of a new church started in 1741 to replace the ageing ''Bovenkerk'' and was completed in 1753. This church reflects distinctive Dutch Presbyterian traditions within its interior architecture and continues to be used for Christian worship today. When control of Malacca passed on to the British as a result of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the church was re-consecrated according to the rites of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

by the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta in 1838 and renamed Christ Church.

Pioneering work

Many early missionaries from 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) such as William Milne who arrived in Malacca in 1815 were from Presbyterian or Reformed backgrounds and many LMS missionaries assisted in the providing spiritual nurture to the Scots community in Penang and

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 ...

along with chaplains of the

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 ...

who conducted worship for

members. One of the early missionaries was Benjamin Keasberry of the LMS who arrived in Singapore in 1839 while en route to China. Seeing the potential of

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

work, he opted to stay in Singapore engaging the noted teacher,

Munshi Abdullah Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (1796–1854) ( ar, عبد الله بن عبد القادر ') also known as Munshi Abdullah, was a Malayan writer of mixed ancestry. He was a famous Malacca-born munshi of Singapore and died in Jeddah, a part of t ...

, to assist him in improving his Malay linguistic skills. He started Malay language services in the LMS Chapel at Bras Basah and in 1843 acquired a piece of land in Kampong Bencoolen to build the Malay Mission Chapel. The chapel became popularly known as ''Gereja Keasberry'' or "Keasberry's Church" This eventually became the

Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church (Chinese: 布连拾街长老会磐石堂) is located on Prinsep Street within Singapore's central business district. It is approximately 350 metres from Rochor MRT station. The church, previously known as ...

when the

English Presbyterian Mission English Presbyterian Mission was a British Presbyterian missionary society that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty. English Presbyterian Mission work in China The Presbyterian Church of England ...

bought over the property from the LMS. With the departure of LMS missionaries to China after the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the Unequal Treaties. In the ...

in 1847 with the notable exception of Keasberry, the local Scottish communities took steps to call their own ministers. This led to the arrival of Charles Moir in Penang in 1851 followed by Thomas McKenzie Fraser in Singapore in 1856. The

Orchard Road Presbyterian Church The Orchard Road Presbyterian Church (ORPC), also known as Greja Kechil ("small church" in Malay) and the Scotch Church, is a Presbyterian church in Singapore. The church was completed in 1878, and it is the oldest Presbyterian church in Singapore ...

in Singapore was established in 1856 to minister to the expatriates.

The expatriate churches

The Chinese mission

Ministering to the Chinese diaspora

Both Moir and Fraser attempted to extend work beyond the expatriate communities. Moir resigned in 1857 without much success although the congregation in Penang remains functioning, at times, for extended periods without a minister. Fraser successfully recruited an

ethnic Chinese The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...

catechist from south

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

, Tan See Boo, who was later ordained an elder in 1864. Unfortunately, Tan left on 1866 to join the Brethren. In 1881, the Orchard Road congregation finally succeeded in obtaining a full-time missionary to the Chinese. The Rev. J.A.B. Cook, who was fluent in the

Swatow Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...

and

Southern Fujian Minnan, Banlam or Minnan Golden Triangle (), refers to the coastal region in Southern Fujian Province, China, which includes the prefecture-level cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. The region accounts for 40 percent of the GDP of Fujian Pro ...

dialects arrived in Singapore in November 1881. The English Presbyterian Mission under the supervision of the Cook organised the first Chinese congregation in

Bukit Timah Bukit Timah, often abbreviated as Bt Timah, is a planning area and residential estate located in the westernmost part of the Central Region of Singapore. Bukit Timah lies roughly from the Central Business District, bordering the Central Wat ...

. It was the arrival of Cook that was eventually chosen to mark the founding of the present Presbyterian Churches of Malaysia and

Mission expansion to Malaya

In 1886, Cook expanded the mission to the southern tip of Malaya in Johor Bahru to minister to the Teochew Chinese community. This work was supported by a prominent Johor businessman and the son-in-law of Keasberry, James Meldrum, who helped obtain a land grant for the church building from

Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Al-Khalil Ibrahim Shah ibni Almarhum Temenggong Seri Maharaja Tun Daeng Ibrahim ( Jawi: ; 3 February 1833 – 4 June 1895) was the Temenggong of Johor. He was the 1st Sultan of Modern Johor, the 21st Sultan of Johor and t ...

who was a former student of Keasberry. Work was expanded to Muar in 1892 with the Rev. Liau Thian Ek as the first pastor. Work in Penang continued abreast especially after the arrival of William Murray in 1892 who helped put Penang's congregation on a more solid footing. Pastoral responsibility of Penang's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church eventually extended beyond Penang to

Province Wellesley A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km2, and it consists of the mainland ...

, northern Perak, southern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

North Sumatera North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...

Consolidation

In 1884, Cook wrote that a presbytery had been formed with him as the moderator and three Chinese elders. In January 1901, Cook convened a meeting of ministers and elders of the Chinese mission and the Singapore Presbyterian Synod was formed.

Beliefs and practices

* Apostles Creed *

Westminster Confession The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the " subordinate standard ...

Affiliations

World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Chris ...

Council for World Mission The Council for World Mission (CWM) is a worldwide community of mainly protestant Christian churches. The 32 members share their resources of money, people, skills and insights to carry out their mission work. Leadership The 32 member churches ar ...

References

External links

Gereja Presbyterian Malaysia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presbyterian Church In Malaysia Protestantism in Malaysia Christian organizations established in 1974