45th SCAC
Bishop Ong Hwai Teik’s term as the bishop of the Methodist Church in Malaysia will be expiring soon. He regretted that he was unable to come to Sibu in person to attend the 45th Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference. He said that the warm welcome and treatment extended by the people in Sibu was most memorable to him.
He also highly praised the Presidents of various Annual Conferences for their outstanding leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
By God’s bountiful grace, the 12th Session of the General Conference was successfully held online on September 8th, 2020. The new bishop, general secretary and treasurer were elected. They are Rev Dr T Jeyakumar from the Trinity Annual Conference, Anthony Row from Tamil Annual Conference (he is the current secretary of Tamil Annual Conference), and Hii Ru Wei from the Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference. They will be serving from 2021-2024.
At the same time, the General Conference of Methodist Women also convened its 12th Conference online on August 6. The new president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer were elected. They are Evelyn Sim from the Trinity Annual Conference, Angelyn Uchin Maseng from the Sarawak Iban Annual Conference, Rosalind Yong from the Trinity Annual Conference, and Esther Chin from the Chinese Annual Conference (West Malaysia).
The General Conference also paid close attention to the financial status of each Annual Conference, especially in terms of financial integrity, and the General Conference encouraged each Annual Conference to set up its own internal audit unit.
Bishop Ong also highly praised the contribution of the Methodist Crisis Relief & Development (MCRD) in the pandemic relief efforts, and was grateful for the support and cooperation of various Annual Conferences. It was reported that the fund raised through this ministry exceeded two million ringgit. Due to the severe pandemic in Sabah recently, the Sabah Annual Conference established its own relief ministry (SMCRD) to better provide assistance to those in need.
At the same time, he also urged members to continue to pray for the country, and he emphasized the importance of family discipleship for the future of the Methodist Church.
He also expressed his hope that Sarawak’s evangelistic missions would continue to unite and to play a synergistic role to expand church planting and discipleship training to inland and urban areas.