“Soundings” is a series of essays that, like the waves of a sonogram, explore issues in society, culture and the church in light of the Gospel and Christian understanding. Christians of every stripe and from all traditions—Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant —have maintained that prayer is absolutely central to the spiritual life of the true believer […]
During a recent session with a couple, the wife used a metaphor to describe her view of her in-law troubles. She saw the parties involved as living in separate rooms and her husband as shuttling from one room to another. Their doors remained tightly shut and no-one else was to enter. Her husband quickly latched […]
For the last eight years, I have been writing a new prayer or psalm every weekday. As a Christian, I often struggled with prayer; I felt it was either a wishlist that I had to “upload” to God, or a sense of guilt when I made that empty promise of “I’ll pray for you” and […]
Eat Share Connect A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.1 When reaching out to the underprivileged in the community, many of us tend to feel nervous and uncertain. For Emmanuella Cheng, who worships at Faith Methodist Church, her experience befriending an underserved group in the community showed her that sometimes, a smile is […]
It is the Lent season and we are in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, which has rattled the world. While it has exposed human failings, it has also shown there is still human goodness in times of tribulation, as seen in the selfless services of the frontline healthcare workers and mutual help among people […]
What does a Christian Creative do with their gift? This is the question that Irrevocable Gifts, a collection of essays by six Christian creative practitioners, addresses. “Creating is making meaning of life,” Dawn Fung writes in the Introduction. “For Christians, the process and fruit are meditative, so much that we often blur the lines between […]
Is anything ever an accident? The Rev Ling Kin Yew, pastor at Fairfield Methodist Church, ponders this question in his book Accident? When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn. One early morning in May 2005, the Rev Ling received a harrowing phone call from his sister, Dawn, who was in Mobile, Alabama in the US. Their […]
“One in Ministry” at Toa Payoh MC 20 to 23 Jan 2020 I am grateful to the Archdiocesan Catholic Council for Ecumenical Dialogue (ACCED) for taking the initiative to bring us together annually to pray for Christian unity. Every year, I look forward to this sacred time when I am inspired and enriched by our […]
The Rev Stanley Chua (left) with church leaders at the launch of ‘Directions 2020—Impacting the World’ in Jan 2020 “Milestones or Tombstones: What will become of our church in the next 135 years?” These were the soul-searching words on the cover of February’s Wesley TIDINGS, a special bumper edition to commemorate the 135th Anniversary of […]
In Feb 2020, several people who attended churches around Singapore were reported to have tested positive for COVID-19, including one who had attended Paya Lebar Methodist Church. On 14 Feb 2020, Bishop Dr Chong Chin Chung and other church leaders met with Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace […]
