Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church


Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, is located on Telok Ayer Street within the Downtown Core of Singapore's central business district. The church is approximately 450 metres from Telok Ayer MRT station.
Founded in 1889, TACMC is the first Chinese Methodist Church to be established in Singapore. It has stood on Telok Ayer Street for more than a century.
TACMC is presently affiliated to the Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore. It was gazetted a national monument by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority on 23 March 1989.

History

In 1889, a Methodist missionary and medical doctor, Dr. Benjamin Franklin West, arrived in Singapore to set up his dispensary and home on Japan Street.
The Chinese living in the area were mostly Hokkiens and many were opium addicts. Dr. West started services in a rented house in Upper Nankin Street in August 1889.
Initially, the congregation was mostly Hokkien-speaking. However, as more migrants from China came from the Methodist strongholds of Henghua, Hockchia and Foochow, many of the Hokkien speakers in the congregation left the church. This led to two Chinese Methodist churches being developed namely, Foochow Methodist Church and the Hokkien Methodist Church.
Gradually, the house on Upper Nankin Street where services were being conducted became overcrowded, so new premises were found on Japan Street for the Hokkien Church. In 1906, the Hokkien church became known as Telok Ayer Church.
In early 1913, the church bought a piece of land at the junction of Telok Ayer Street and Cecil Street for 3,600 Straits dollars. The site was up the road from Japan Street. A tent was put up on the vacant plot, and services and a Sunday school were held here. In 1914, the tent collapsed and the church moved to the former Fairfield Methodist Girls' School on Neil Road. In September 1915, the congregation returned to the Telok Ayer Street site after a building made of wood and corrugated iron was constructed for about 900 Straits dollars.
In 1921, Ng Hong Guan, a church steward, donated 10,000 Straits dollars towards the construction of a new church building and undertook to solicit more funds. Tenders were called for the construction of a three-storey building. The French firm Bross and Mogin offered the lowest tender fee of 46,000 Straits dollars, a sum that excluded the architect's fee and foundation work. The architectural firm that designed the building was Swan and Maclaren. On 19 January 1924, the church’s foundation stone was laid by Bishop George Harvey Bickley. Work commenced and the building was ready in December 1924. On 11 January 1925, the Telok Ayer Church was consecrated by Methodist Bishop Titus Lowe. It was in this building that the well-known Chinese evangelist, Dr. John Sung conducted his revival meetings in 1935.
Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church was gazetted a national monument on 23 March 1989.
The church later underwent restoration works which started in October 1993 and were completed in August 1995 at a cost of S$3 million. Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church later built a new branch church building on Wishart Road, off Telok Blangah Road. Its new branch building, with an 800-seat auditorium, was completed in 2004 and it is presently known as TA2. The church's Chinese and Hokkien services have been conducted at this church since 2005, while English and afternoon Hokkien services are conducted at the main church building on Telok Ayer Street.
The church presently has a weekly attendance of about 1,200 members.
Its music programme, which was started in 1935, boasts six all-volunteer choirs — three adult, one youth, and two children's choirs. TACMC’s Honorary Music Director is Dr. Emilia Wong; the church’s senior pastor is Rev. Chua Ooi Suah.

Architecture

The basic design of Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church is western: it has a rectangular main body sitting on arch colonnades.
The church is a highly mannered, somewhat eccentric building. Unlike the architecture of traditional churches, TACMC does not have a cruciform plan. Instead, the church reflects its Chinese environment and the time in which it was built.
The body of the church is demarcated at its four corners by large, full-height tapered buttress-like forms, within which access is gained to offices and other accommodation on the upper floors. These "buttresses" are punctured by rectangular and circular window openings and broken by projecting tiled porch roofs at the first storey level. Further, the church itself is arched, lit through large arched, quasi-Byzantine windows and crowned with a continuous tiled roof loggia. Art Deco features can be seen in the ornate window styles. The roof of the pavilion atop the last storey of the building is distinctly Chinese.

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