Looks Back in Gratitude, Part I.
Aldersgate Methodist Church
In May 2024, we celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Aldersgate Methodist Church. It is a welcome opportunity to express gratitude to God for 45 years of blessings on our community of believers!
In this spirit, AMC’s Archives and History Committee invites you to embark on a journey through several milestones of AMC’s history. Each month, our church website will feature new write-ups on significant moments in AMC’s early years.
For longtime members of AMC, these milestones will be brief but valuable reminders of how far we have come, and how thankful we must continue to be. Indeed, there were moments in our church’s history when it seemed doubtful that AMC would last.
For those who have recently joined us, we invite you to meditate on these milestones with gratitude, to give thanks to God for the vibrant community you and we are part of today.
And, for those still reading, pay close attention to the details shared in these milestones—there will be quizzes during church service from time to time, and prizes, too!
Ready? Let’s Begin!
(2 - 5 mins read)
A long time Ago, in a new HDB estate far, far away…
The First Move
The first moves toward establishing what would become Aldersgate Methodist Church stirred in September 1977.
Bishop Kao Jih Chung of the Methodist Church in Singapore had tasked Rev. William Denver Stone (Fig. 1), a long-time missionary in Asia from the United Methodist Church of the United States, with initiating pioneer work in the vicinity of an entirely new HDB estate bordered by Clementi Road. Here was a part of Singapore that few may recall was not as densely populated as it is today. It was an estate somewhat removed from the more developed residential and business areas of the country, a fresh mission field indeed!
Rev William Denver Stone
Fig. 1. Rev. William Denver Stone (left, in grey suit jacket), founding pastor of what would become Aldersgate Methodist Church.
Our Inaugural Worship Service, 8th January 1978
From September to December 1977, Rev. Denver Stone led a deeply committed nucleus of 7 Christians to reach out to residents in the area around Clementi New Town. They went knocking on the doors of Methodists living in the Clementi, Dover, Ghim Moh, Sunset, and Normanton housing estates to inform them of a Methodist congregation soon to be formed very close to their homes.
In December 1977, the Methodist Church in Singapore’s Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC) formally adopted the project of planting a new church in Clementi New Town.
However, the enthusiasm driving this new TRAC project—known also as the Clementi Town Pioneer Work—met with serious obstacles from the outset.
TRAC’s bid for a site in Clementi New Town for the establishment of a church was ultimately unsuccessful; the tender had been won by another religious institution. TRAC President, Rev. T.C. Nga, undeterred, announced that the outreach programme to Clementi estate would proceed.
Even so, a daunting question still hovered above this project: Where would worship services for this pioneer work be held?
Few could have anticipated that answering this question would take nearly two decades.
Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC)
Fig. 2. Our inaugural service in the SAS theatrette on 8th January 1978.
On the morning of 8th January 1978, braving a heavy downpour, some 70 adults and children gathered at the Singapore American School (SAS), then located in Ulu Pandan Road, for the inaugural worship service of the Clementi Town Pioneer Work.
This venue, the SAS theatrette (Fig. 2), had only been secured after four months of visits to, and searching for, suitable sites. It was also temporary, for our worship services would have to find a new site within four months.
Singapore American School (SAS)
First Hymn Sung
Nevertheless, our founding pastor, Rev. William Denver Stone, sensed that those present on that rainy Sunday morning “knew that we were in the right place at the right time for the beginning of a new Methodist congregation.”
The Order of Worship from that inaugural worship service is preserved in our church archives (Fig. 3). It states that that service began at 9:30 AM, that Rev. T.C. Nga delivered the welcome and opening remarks, that Rev. Ho Chee Sin of Faith Methodist Church (our sponsor church) conducted the Call to Worship, and that the very first hymn sung was “To God Be the Glory.”
To God be the Glory
Fig. 3. The first page of the order of worship of our inaugural service, 8 January 1978.
Church Activities
Sunday School classes, Baptism Membership Class and Bible Study.
Rev. Denver Stone’s sermon that day, entitled “He comes to us – He loves us,” expresses that he understood the momentous occasion. He welcomed worshippers to a “new beginning,” telling them that they were all “taking part” in the establishment of a “witnessing congregation in the Clementi area.”
It would be a congregation to also witness a flurry of other firsts as Rev. Stone strove to roll out Sunday School classes, Baptism Membership Class, and Bible Study, working within the limits of permission to use only the SAS theatrette until May 1978.
Fig. 4. Our last worship service in the SAS theatrette in Ulu Pandan, 30 April 1978.
How could so many activities take place in that one theatrette? Necessity breeds invention! Dr. Seet Ai Mee, our church’s first chairperson for Christian Education, recalls obtaining old cartons from her refrigerator dealer and “fashion[ing] them into collapsible partitions” to create separate spaces in the theatrette for Sunday School classrooms.
While all this was unfolding (some things, like the fridge cartons, literally), the search for a new venue for the worship services of our Clementi Town Pioneer Work continued apace.