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History of Chapel of Christ the Redeemer (Inception to Parish Status) Challenge to launch outreach project for the then new housing estate of Bedok was made by Rev Ronald Hu, chaplain of Golden Harvest Centre, an extension centre of St Andrew’s Cathedral. Prayer teams were formed to seek the Lord’s direction for the outreach. At the beginning of 1980, a team of 8 volunteers comprising of 6 members from Golden Harvest Centre and 2 members of the Saint Andrew’s Cathedral Young Adults Group began training for door-to-door evangelism. The team met regularly to pray, plan, train and gather information on the area, and to make exploratory visits. The first phase of the evangelistic visitation commenced in July.
The fledgling church became known as the Bedok Extension Centre of St Andrew’s Cathedral and in October, the Bedok Extension Centre Committee was formed. The Committee consisted of Rev Tan Pek Hua (a priest attached to the Cathedral) as its Chairman, Paul Tan as Vice Chairman, one Hon Secretary and five committee members.
The first worship service was held on 2 Nov 80 at the office of Mr and Mrs Arthur Phua. By then a small pool of “born-agains” had been gathered through visitations and re-visitations. Besides these, many well-wishers were present. The service marked the end of Golden Harvest Centre’s and the SAC Young Adults Group’s formal commitment of helpers. Bedok Extension Centre (BEC) was to continue from there. However, we continued to receive help from these two supportive groups on an ad hoc basis.
1981 Congregation was about 30 people who met regularly for worship in the office unit. Sunday School was formed with the teachers and children sitting along the corridor adjacent to the office. Evening Bible studies were conducted weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays. At the same time, door-to-door tracting and revisitation resumed.
In April, BEC had a new priest-in-charge, Rev Fred Vergara. Under his leadership, the leaders and members of BEC experienced the move of the Holy Spirit which led to a revival in the church.
In July, BED shifted its place of worship to the AVA room of Anglican High School.
BEC held her First Anniversary Rededication Service in November. At the service, Rev Fred Vergara shared his vision for BEC: “There is great hope for Bedok Extension Centre to attain its objective and be a parish church in the future.”
Christmas that year was brought to several factories in the Bedok area in the form of songs and skits. Called “Christmas Cheers”, the outreach program was produced in cooperation with Golden Harvest Centre and the Young Adults and Youth Fellowship groups of the Cathedral. The year ended with the formation of two home cell groups.
1982 The main activity during the year was the participation in Gospel Rally ’82 held at the National Stadium.
The worship services had a regular attendance of about 60 people each week. The home cell group ministry was further developed with the addition of one new group. A Youth Fellowship was also formed. The BEC Committee saw a change in its composition with the departure of some core members and the inclusion of two new members.
A major development during this time was the disappointment of being turned down in our efforts to join All Saints Church in Changi as its English-speaking congregation. With this development, the PCC of St Andrew’s Cathedral passed a resolution directing its Church Development Committee to seek suitable sites for building a church in the Bedok area, Perhaps, God had a better plan.
1983 This was a year of emphasis on prayer and intercession. 42 members made up of 33 singers, 2 narrators and 7 musicians presented a musical “If My People” to a number of Methodist and Anglican churches sharing a message of prayer and intercession.
BEC saw active and expectant participation in her prayer meetings. All-night prayer meetings were held on the eves of public holidays. It was in fact at one of these all-night prayer meetings that we received a word of prophecy that the Lord would provide us with a place of worship.
Structurally, there was a broadening of the leadership base to achieve greater effectiveness in the ministry. BEC also had her first full-time secretarial assistant. Financially, BEC began work towards being a self-supporting congregation, initially by meeting a percentage of the pastor’s stipend.
1984 It was a year of disciple making, and training. Baptism and confirmation classes were conducted regularly. Rev Fred Vergara led a team which included seven members from BEC to Seoul, South Korea to attend a Church Growth Seminar.
It was also a year when many BEC members became involved in outreach activities – Good News Drama which was performed at various shopping centres, and Mike McIntosh Rally at Anglican High School. Two members went on a mission exposure trip to Thailand and Indonesia following the Diocesan Mission Conference.
With no baptismal pool of our own, baptism services also became an evangelistic affair. Baptism services were usually held at the beach along East Coast Parkway, and were often followed by an evangelistic mime presented by members from Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
1984 ended with an average attendance of 103.
1985 By this time Golden Harvest Centre had become the English-speaking congregation of All Saints Church. BEC began looking towards the newly built Tampines New Town as its mission field. This was spurred on by the possibility that with the relocation of St Hilda’s Schools to Tampines, BEC could move to the chapel and counseling centre that was being planned for the school. At this time BEC became greatly encouraged as the vision of having a church building and full-time pastor was beginning to become a reality.
BEC continued to participate in Diocesan supported public rallies and the Reinhard Bonnke Mission.
1985 was also the year when two members made decisions to pursue full-time theological studies, Stephen Lim at Trinity Theological College and Arthur Phua at Tung Ling Bible School.
1986 Two significant changes took place during the year. Firstly, BEC saw the departure of her beloved pastor, Rev Fred Vergara, who left for a new posting in the US. Rev Freddy Lim became our priest-in-charge. Secondly, St Andrew’s Cathedral had a new vicar, Rev Dr Louis Tay, who took over from Canon Frank Lomax who had been providing oversight since BEC’s inception. It was therefore a time of adjustment for the leaders and members of BEC.
Towards the end of the year, Rev Freddy Lim encouraged BEC to prepare herself for the fulfillment of her hope to move into the new chapel in Tampines. He shared how he had seen in a vision a crude looking lampstand that was dim and weak amid great darkness. Gradually the darkness faded away and the lampstand became very beautiful and gigantic with lustrous brightness surrounding it. The vision was further confirmed by the following verse from Habakkuk 2:2-3: “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
1987 As the construction work on St Hilda’s Schools and the chapel and counseling centre was progressing, we focused much on doing preparatory work in Tampines. We were not successful in finding a suitable temporary place of worship in Tampines because of governmental restrictions on the use of HDB premises for religious purposes. It was finally decided that the emphasis should be on the formation of home cell groups in Tampines as well as fund raising for the new chapel and counseling centre.
The Christmas program that year was an open air presentation of the musical, The Apostle, at Tampines New Town. It was an exciting time with 75 members participating in one way or another in the presentation.
1988 As the time of completion of the chapel drew near, Rev Gregory Chiang took over as pastor of BEC. BEC became an extension centre of St Hilda’s Church to effect a smooth transfer to St Hilda’s Schools which had all this while been associated with St Hilda’s Church. BEC then became officially known as Chapel of Christ the Redeemer and a new logo was adopted. The constitution for CCR (as it is now affectionately called) was drawn up and approved by the Bishop.
Meanwhile, work in Tampines intensified, with Sis Wai Keng becoming more involved in work among the students of St Hilda’s School. In December, an evangelistic dinner was held for parents of the new intake of Primary One students. The Christmas service was held in the new school hall and thereafter Sunday worship services (English and Chinese) were held there until the new chapel was ready.
1989 This was the year that we had the joy of seeing the long awaited vision fulfilled – indeed in far more wonderful way than any of us had dared envisaged CCR was granted the status of parish church on 29 May 1989 and Rev Gregory Chiang was inducted as her first vicar four months later. Rev Gregory Chiang was posted to Church of the True Light as her vicar on 1 September. Rev Then Chee Min was inducted as the new vicar on 10 August.
2000 – PRESENT Rev Daniel Tong was inducted as the new vicar on 1 July 2000. A three-year goal was presented by the vicar at the Leaders’ Retreat in October 2001:- (i) To create a systematic training program to equip members in Bible knowledge and leadership skills. (ii) For each cell group to have the active participation of at least 75% of its members in all weekly meetings. (iii) To develop programs to retain 80% of our youths in CCR. (iv) To raise a pastoral care team and to get the church actively involved in at least 2 major SHPS events each year. (v) To identify and adopt a mission partner (preferably from within the Province of SE Asia.) |
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