The 11th General Conference of the Methodist Church in Malaysia was held in Sibu from 20 to 23 September and 84 delegates from 6 Annual Conferences nationwide attended the Conference and elected the Bishop for the next term.

The 84 delegates came from Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference, Sarawak Iban Annual Conference, Sabah Provisional Annual Conference, Chinese Annual Conference (West Malaysia), Tamil Annual Conference and Trinity Annual Conference.

The election of the Bishop for the next quadrennial was the climax of this 11th General Conference. After a single round of vote casting, Reverend Ong Hwai Teik of the Trinity Annual Conference was re-elected as Bishop from 2017 till 2020. Anthony Row of Tamil Annual Conference was elected GC Secretary while Tan Swee Ann of Chinese Annual Conference was elected GC Treasurer.

The theme for the 4-day Conference was “A Church after God’s Own Heart”. The Conference was held at Kingwood Hotel, Sibu commencing with the opening ceremony at 3:00 pm on 20th Sept. Rev Duleep Fernando, former President of Methodist Church in Sri Lanka, was invited to share God’s message. He reminded the participants of the importance of “reconciliation” not only with the Lord but with the people as well.

Bishop Wee Boon Hup, the outgoing Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore, Bishop Sudar Shana Devadhar of New England Annual Conference, USA and Bishop James Kwang of Chinese Methodist Church in Australia Annual Conference were the special guests and were invited to conduct the ordination sacrament of the re-elected Bishop Rev Ong Hwai Teck at Masland Methodist Church on 23 September.

Bishop Ong summed up the 11th General Conference in his sermon “Knowing God’s Heart” at the closing ceremony which was held at Masland Methodist Church.

The scripture text was taken from Acts 13: 13-39. Bishop Ong believed that this passage is the summary of the whole Bible and from the passage we can see that God has His wonderful plans.

Jesus is the head and the centre of the church; the church should focus upon Jesus Christ and walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

Even though there are many disappointing incidents in our country recently, God has blessed the Methodist Church in Malaysia abundantly, in the areas of church planting and other facilities as well as development in the field of education.

Bishop Ong also reminded the Methodist family to pray to God for wisdom and to become one that understands and pursues and grasps God’s will so that revival would come as we serve the Lord wholeheartedly.

Reported by April
Translated by KT Chew