Last Sunday, Revd Hambali Leonardi and Revd Calvin Wee were priested. They have served for more than a year as deacons. A clergy grows in community and may we continue to provide an encouraging environment for them to grow in their leadership and ministry.
Hambali is currently serving as Service Pastor of the eleven:30 Service. He also serves in the 9 am Service Team, which is currently headed by her Service Pastor,
Ds Bessie Lee. Hambali also leads our Alpha Course ministry team. Calvin will assume the role of the Service Pastor for 4.30 pm Service. He will also serve in the 8 am Service Team. He is also the clergy in charge of our Worship and Creative Arts Ministry (WCAM).
Moses Israeli was also made a deacon. He has served for many years now in our CITY Community Services and our Myanmar Worship Service (MWS). His Archbishop, Stephen Than was present to pray and lay hands on him, along with another bishop from the Province of Myanmar, Bishop David Nyi. Moses has also just completed his studies at Trinity Theological College and should be able to focus full-time on the pastoral needs of MWS and also assist in our outreach to foreign workers.
As of 16th June 2019, as he turned 67, Revd Freddy Lim retired from his employment as a clergy of the Diocese of Singapore. The Cathedral has decided to re-engage him as an Auxiliary Clergy. In our next issue of the Courier magazine, we will do a more complete write up of his ministry journey. Indeed retirement is an important milestone where we can pause to reflect and give thanks for the ministry of our clergymen and pastors.
As a part of our leadership renewal, Revd Freddy will step down as Service Pastor of the 4.30 pm Service but he will continue to assist with the work of pastoring as clergy in that Service and in the wider community at SAC. He remains Service Pastor of the Hokkien Service.
I should pause to say something about the special ministry of my clergy brothers who have retired but continue to serve as Auxiliary Clergy. Their names are listed on the front page of the bulletin. As people live longer and healthier, the government and society in general are constantly debating and reviewing the age of retirement and the associated process. I will leave the details of the debate to another forum. On balance, we have found it fitting to find various ways to enable them to continue their pastoral ministry.
Indeed a clergy-member relationship is unique and an important source of support as one traverses through life. As one ages into senior years, life has its own challenges and various forms of alienation will set in. It helps that the Church can provide a stable point of pastoral connection for the community through clergy and pastors who are familiar with fellow ageing members with a shared history. Generally, we try to encourage them to focus on direct pastoring and leave the leadership and management responsibilities to our regular clergy. This also fits well with the idea that a clergy is called for life and can continue to serve in whatever capacity his health will enable him.
