News ¢ Aldersgate SG 2021 Sheri Goh is the Editor of Methodist Message. / Photos courtesy of Joash Lee (Faith MC). Screenshots courtesy of the MCS Comms Team
Celebration Service LOVE GOD BY LOVING OUR NEIGHBOUR
Clockwise from top left: Rev Dr Niam Kai Huey (Pastor-in-Charge of Sengkang MC); Dr (Mrs) Teo Li Bee (President of GCWSCS); Mr Jeffrey Lim (General Conference Secretary); Rev Stanley Chua (TRAC President); Rev Dr Gregory Goh Nai Lat (CAC President); Bishop Dr Gordon Wong; Rev Philip Abraham (ETAC President)
Behind the scenes at the livestreaming of the service
The Aldersgate SG service was livestreamed on 23 May 2021. It is available for viewing at https://aldersgate.methodist.org.sg/livestream.
“The Greek New Testament five times tells us to greet each other with a holy kiss,” said Bishop Dr Gordon Wong at the opening of the Aldersgate SG Celebration Service on 23 May 2021. “The fact that I cannot even give you a holy handshake—even those who are here in the Sengkang Methodist Church [MC] sanctuary—is a reminder of the difficult times that all of us are going through during this pandemic.” Aldersgate SG is organised annually by The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) to celebrate our Wesleyan heritage and what it means to be Methodist. The last time congregations from the various churches gathered in person was in May 2019. Aldersgate SG 2020 was held in the thick of the “circuit breaker” and thus the service was pre-recorded and screened on the Methodist churches’ online platforms on 24 May 2020. This is the second year running that Aldersgate SG has been held online due to government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions. Planning for the Aldersgate SG 2021 took place during Phase 3 of Singapore’s COVID-19 re-opening. Churches could have up to 250 congregants and congregational 6
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METHODIST MESSAGE July 2021
singing with masks on was allowed. The plan then was to have a hybrid Aldersgate service with pastors and representatives from the 46 Methodist churches gathering at Sengkang Methodist Church, which was hosting the service, and the rest of the congregations joining in online. But when community cases of COVID-19 surged and measures were tightened, together with consideration for congregants’ safety, a decision was made for the event to go purely online.
Coming together while physically apart “It is easy to be tired and discouraged during this time,” acknowledged Bishop Dr Wong. “We long for the day we can see [each other] face to face again.” At the same time, he pointed out, coming together as a Church does not necessarily mean having to be together physically. The livestreamed service was put together by the pastors and members of the three Annual Conferences: the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC), Emmanuel Tamil Annual Conference (ETAC) and the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC). The Emmanuel Thuthi band and the Methodist
