Missions

Anglican mission shows promising growth in Southeast Asia

The Anglican Church in Southeast Asia is taking root in the Province as the mission expands in each of the five countries - Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam - according to its latest report.

The Anglican Church in Thailand (ACT) has been growing continuously since its handing of leadership to locals and its registration in 1993 and will convene a Thanksgiving and Fund-raising Concert nearing the end of the month, with the theme Music from Siam, Missions from Singapore, Glory to God, through which the Church wishes to express her thanks to Singapore for her part in bringing the gospel to Thailand and to gather contributions to spur church-planting, particularly in Chiangmai.

As another sign of its growth, the ACT will host the third Diocesan Missions Conference in early October, during which guests from various parts of the world Anglican family will gather for updating, networking and fostering mission partnerships and engage in mission trips immediately after.

The Church is also in the process of purchasing property for Christ Church Ban Chang.

In Indonesia, the long term vision of setting up 6 parishes + 6 daughter extensions by 2017 is making steady progress, with the Diocese of West Malaysia playing an anchoring role. A new Church building was consecrated in Nunukan, and there have been developments in both Tarakan and Pontianak. The Church is also looking to bolster lay leadership training, and has set up a Task Force to facilitate the construction of the first Anglican Mission School in Batam.

The Anglican Church in Cambodia (ACC) has been seeing greater development, having obtained a permit from the government to continue its Project Khmer Hope (PKH) welfare work among the natives. PKH (Humanitarian Outreach for Peace on Earth) was set up by St. Andrew’s Cathedral in 2000 to share God’s love with poor and needy Cambodians by meeting their economic and social needs and works in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Reconciliation.

Youths between the age of 17 and 23 are victims of systematic poverty and forced to drop out of school to work in the fields to earn support for their families, which is still often inadequate to meet their families’ needs. The result is that some have been driven to juvenile delinquency. However, through the Skills Development Programme, a two year intensive course to equip the youths to write and speak English, in professional hospitality and in basic computer skills, the PKH aims to give such youths a hope and future by equipping them with vocational skills to work in the hotel industry, allowing them to feed their families and break out of their poverty cycle. In the last three years, PKH has trained an average of 90 students each year, of which more than 90 percent have gained employment in the cities.

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