What an eventful and encouraging day.  Though a good sleep would be welcome.

I was up early, to leave KL with Mr and Mrs Chee at 7.15 by car to Genting Highlands, a purpose-built casino ‘city’ 2000’ above sea-level and about 50km north of KL.  It’s Malaysia’s answer to Las Vegas: a gambler’s dream (with a theme park for all the family), and made an interesting venue for the West Malaysian Diocesan Clergy Conference – I must mention to Bishop Jonathan that we might look for an alternative to Swanwick sometime...

I arrived on the last morning of a four day conference, at which (in response to the grab-grab culture of consumerism which dominates this part of the world as much as the West) the devotional addresses had been looking closely at the fruit of the Spirit (the session on gentleness being especially significant, I understand).  I given an opportunity to speak, and was able both to share greetings from the Diocese and Cathedral in Lichfield and to give a plug for the Cross Talk project I’m here to promote and plan. The rest of the morning I was able to eavesdrop on some interesting discussions between the new bishop and his clergy and deaconesses.  The culture of the church here is very different from ours at home.

There is a great deference to authority still, and a social conservatisim which I’d underestimated.  I met only one deaconess, for example, with an aspiration to be ordained – and even then I only discovered it because her priest husband told me!  The ordination of women is not in the offing here, which sets the controversy over homosexuality in a stark light.  A decision to allow licensed Readers to administer the bread as well as the wine at the Eucharist was taken while I was present, and was clearly something of a breakthrough in terms of the honouring of lay ministries.  It’s a far cry even from the licensing of Eucharistic ministers at the Cathedral (which is itself a far cry, I sometimes catch myself thinking, from what goes on week by week in many parishes!).  A scheme to introduce an elementary ‘Ministry Review’ scheme was a source of some anxiety, and made the scheme we employ at home look positively sophisticated.

But the event left me heartened really.  The new bishop, Ng Moon Hing, is clearly making a great early impression and seems to have enjoy confidence and support of his clergy.  There was a sense of excitement about the future.  There is a five year Vision Statement in operation here called Transformation in Christ – about which I had to chuckle, considering the controversy over that word in our Cathedral sabbatical last year.  Transformation of Individuals in Christ in 2006, gave way to Transformation of Families in Christ in 2007, then Transformation of Congregations in Christ in 2008, leading to Transformation of Communities in Christ in 2008 and Transformation though Celebration in Christ in 2010.

There are great challenges facing the church here: it’s clear that it can be difficult for Chrisitans and churches to operate in an Islamic state; and there is a real scarcity here of candidates for ordination.  But an exciting programme of church planting in underway (the aim is to triple the number of congregations within ten years) and the church here really does seem to have found wonderful ways of expressing unity in diversity.  The multi-cultural character of Malaysian society is reflected and maybe even intensified in the church: Chinese Christians alongside Indian ones, indigenous Malaysians alongside those from other South East Asian countries – Burma, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand.  You can’t operate effectively as a parish priest here, I gather, unless you can speak at least English and one other language.  And most churches comprise congregations of at least three language groups: there is an English-speaking congregation, a Chinese-speaking congregation (ie, either Mandarin or Cantonese speaking, and sometimes both), and a Bahasa Malay congregation.

I pressed one of the archdeacons about how far these diverse congregations shared a sense of unity, of being part of one single parish church.  But he assured me that they do, for four reasons: they share one pastor (and in a culture in which there is such deference to authority, this is a hugely significant unifier), one purse, one vision statement and one Anglican liturgy.  What’s more, this positive experience has generated a model of evangelism for the future: as new ethnic groups move into Malaysia in increasing numbers, the church here has begun to address itself to establishing new congregations: Bangladeshi speaking, or Thai speaking.  I found myself trying to imagine a parish at home brave enough to attempt to establish a Polish or Latvia or Bulgarian speaking congregation in its midst.  I suppose the Church among Deaf People in Walsall is as near as I’ve ever got to such a thing, although the Asian Congregation at St Matthew’s offers a parallel, I suppose.

I met up over lunch with my present hosts – Canon Fred David and his wife Yoke Fong.  It took me a while to rumble the fact that these names are not usually shortened.  Fred David is not Fred and Yoke Fong is not Yoke.  It’s more like an American ‘Mary Lou’.  They are a lovely couple.  Fred Davis is a former Archdeacon in the Diocese of Sabah, and someone with long experience of mission and church planting in ‘the Interior’ (the rural, jungle tribal areas).  For the last two years, he has been the Director of Alpha in Asia, and he’s now working as Ministry Adviser to Bishop Moon Hing.  He has spent time in the past studying at both Nottingham and Durham and we have found many friends in common. Yoke Fong is a nurse, who trained in Sheffield and went out under her own steam as a missionary to Sabah, where she and Fred David met at a church housegroup.  They have two boys, Jonathan (21) and Timmy (17), who’ve been stars trying to get my laptop wired onto the net.

He drove us back to KL yesterday afternoon.  I kept nodding off on the journey and must have seemed like a pretty uncommunicative guest, but they’ve been very patient with me.   We went out again in the evening, for a prayer meeting at a local house, where a group is gathering regularly to prepare for a church plant in an area of new housing later in the year.  Again, I was uplifted by the simplicity and hopefulness of the people I met (and the quality of lay leadership), as well as by the warmth of welcome and generous hospitality.

Pete