The Diocese of Singapore ( zh, s=圣公会新加坡教区, p=Shènggōnghuì Xīnjiāpō Jiàoqū; ; ) is a diocese of the Province of the Anglican Church in South East Asia consisting of 27

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parishes in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and 6 deaneries throughout the

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

region. It has an established history of church-planting as well as providing educational, medical and social services in Singapore and the neighbouring region. The Diocese of Singapore is in communion with the

See of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop was Augustine of C ...

. St Andrew's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the diocese. The diocese is headed by The Most Revd Titus Chung Khiam Boon, who was preceded by the bishop and former vicar of St John's-St Margaret's Church, the Right Reverend Rennis Ponniah.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the Diocese of Singapore, which belongs to the category of

ecclesiastical heraldry Ecclesiastical heraldry refers to the use of heraldry within Christianity for dioceses, organisations and Christian clergy. Initially used to mark documents, ecclesiastical heraldry evolved as a system for identifying people and dioceses. It i ...

, consists of a

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

surmounted on a

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

's Shield. The mitre symbolises apostolic authority and divine endorsement to govern the Anglican diocese in the region. The

crozier A crozier or crosier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholi ...

symbolises the bishop's episcopate and the key represents the access to heaven. Emblazoned upon the St Andrew's Shield are four bunches of wheat symbolising the harvest fields which God has entrusted to the diocese.

History

The Anglican community in Singapore has its roots in 1826, shortly after the

founding of modern Singapore The establishment of a British trading post in Singapore in 1819 by Stamford Raffles, Sir Stamford Raffles led to its founding as a British Empire, British colony in 1824. This event has generally been understood to mark the founding of Singapo ...

Sir Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles ...

in 1819 and the arrival of the first English settlers from the

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

. Raffles allocated a piece of land between Hill Street and

North Bridge Road North Bridge Road () is a one-way road in Singapore, running north of the Singapore River. It starts at the junction with Crawford Street in Kallang, on the western bank of the Rochor River, and continues in a southwest direction before ending ...

in his Town Plan of 1822 for the siting of an Anglican church. However, construction of the church did not begin until funds were raised by the community in 1834. The church was named

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...

after the patron saint of Scotland in honour of the Scottish community who had donated to the building fund. After falling under jurisdiction of the bishop of Labuan and Sarawak (and no longer Calcutta) in 1869, St. Andrew's Cathedral was made the cathedral church of the diocese in 1870. Officially titled Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak in 1881, a diocese over such a large area was quite unmanageable. In 1909 Singapore was made a separate diocese covering the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

, Peninsular Malaya, Siam, Java, Sumatra and adjacent islands, with Bishop Charles J. Ferguson-Davie as the first bishop of the diocese. On 6 February 1960, it was renamed to Diocese of Singapore and Malaya. On 8 April 1970, the diocese was dissolved and split into Diocese of Singapore and Diocese of West Malaysia. In 1996, the

autocephalous Autocephaly (; ) is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. The status has been compared with t ...

Church of the Province of South East Asia (the "Province") consisting of the Dioceses of Singapore, West Malaysia, 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 1934) is a retired Singaporean Anglican bishop. He was the 7th Bishop of Singapore from 1982 to 2000 and the first Church of the Province of South East Asia, Archbishop of the Province of Anglican Church ...

, Bishop of Singapore, was installed as the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province the same year. The Province, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in February 2016, declared itself to be in impaired communion with the Episcopal Church (previously Episcopal Church of the United States of America or ECUSA) following the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003. In 2018, the Province recognised the Anglican Church in North America (“ACNA”) as a fellow Anglican province and declared itself to be in full communion with the clergy of ACNA. The ACNA advocates strict adherence to an orthodox Anglican theology based on the traditional doctrinal statement of Anglicanism in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of 1571 and stipulates that these be “taken in their literal and grammatical sense”. In the installation of Titus Chung as the 10th Anglican Bishop of Singapore, the bells at St Andrew’s Cathedral – where the consecration and enthronement service took place – were rung 39 times to symbolise the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church.

List of bishops

* The Right Revd George Frederick Hose, Bishop of Singapore, Labuan & Sarawak (1881–1909) * The Right Revd Charles James Ferguson-Davie (1909–1927) * The Right Revd Basil Colby Roberts (1927–1941) * The Right Revd John Leonard Wilson (1941–49) * The Right Revd Henry Wolfe Baines (1949–1961) * The Right Revd Cyril Kenneth Sansbury (1961–66) * The Right Revd Joshua Chiu Ban It (1966–1982) * The Right Revd Moses Tay Leng Kong (1982–2000) * The Right Revd John Chew Hiang Chea (2000–2012) * The Right Revd Rennis Ponniah (2012–20) * The Most Revd Titus Chung (2020–)

Parishes

As of 2018, there are 27 Anglican parishes in the diocese: * St Andrew's Cathedral * All Saints' Church * Chapel of Christ the King * Chapel of Christ the Redeemer * Chapel of the Holy Spirit * Chapel of the Resurrection * Church of Our Saviour * Church of the Ascension * Church of the Epiphany * Church of the Good Shepherd * Church of the True Light * Holy Trinity Parish * Light of Christ Church Woodlands * Marine Parade Christian Centre * My Saviour's Church * Parish of Christ Church (Tamil) * St Andrew’s City Church * St Andrew's Community Chapel * St George's Church * St Hilda's Church * St James' Church * St John's Chapel * St John's–St Margaret's Church * St Matthew's Church * St Paul's Church * St Peter's Church * Yishun Christian Church (Anglican)

Deaneries

There are six deaneries in the Diocese of Singapore: *Cambodia *Laos *Indonesia *Nepal *

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

*Vietnam A dean oversees the mission work in each deanery and regularly reports to the director of missions of the Diocese of Singapore.

Schools

Anglican schools in Singapore: * Anglican High School * Christ Church Secondary School * Saint Hilda's Primary School * Saint Hilda's Secondary School * St. Margaret's Primary School * St. Margaret's Secondary School * Saint Andrew's Junior School * St. Andrew's Secondary School * St. Andrew's Junior College
St. Andrew's Autism SchoolSt. Andrew's Mission School
ref> Additionally, there are eleven preschools as of 2024: * Little Seeds Preschool (Ascension) * Little Seeds Preschool (Church of the Ascension) * Little Seeds Preschool (Church of the Good Shepherd) * Little Seeds Preschool (Kiddy Ark) * Little Seeds Preschool (Praiseland) * Little Seeds Preschool (Sonshine) * Little Seeds Preschool (St Andrew's) * Little Seeds Preschool (St. Hilda's Church) * Little Seeds Preschool (St. John's-St. Margaret's) * Little Seeds Preschool (St. Paul's Church) * St. James' Church Kindergarten

Medical services

The St Andrew's Mission Hospital (SAMH) is a non-profit voluntary welfare organisation under the Diocese of Singapore. It is the corporate headquarters that oversees several medical arms: *St Andrew's Community Hospital, located at Simei Street 3 with over 100 beds *St Andrew's Autism Centre *St Andrew's Senior Care which provides eldercare services at four centres island-wide *St Andrew's Mission Hospital Clinic, a primary care clinic in Simei and Elliot Road *St Andrew's Lifestreams, located at St Andrew's Village, this Centre provides counselling services primarily for Anglican schools *St Andrew's Nursing Home

References

External links

*
St Andrew's CathedralAnglican Communion official website
{{Authority control

Anglicanism in Singapore