St James' Church

A part of our 5-year vision states: “…We aim to establish an on-going presence and ministry in Buona Vista (BV) area, cooperating with the grassroot organisations.”

We know that when Canon Guok envisioned a parish at Holland Village (HV) almost 50 years ago, he saw her as a church meeting the needs of her surrounding community. “Parish’ in the original English understanding refers to a geographical area where the parishioners live. To some extent, that vision has come to pass. We now have a vibrant parish with some coming from the Holland Village housing blocks and surrounding estate.

However, from time to time, we have asked: Is our presence felt within this community? Do we really care and pray regularly for those who reside next to us? There are various needs in BV. We do have a quiet but on-going work of befriending kids in some blocks and reaching out to some in the poorer areas of BV. Can we do more? During Christmas, do churches here seek to reach out or bless the community in some way? What are we doing about the increasing number of expatriate staying here? Perhaps a more important question to ask is: What is the Lord saying to us?

It has been many months now since we sensed the Lord’s leading and refocussing our hearts on our BV community. Glenn Lim has joined us as the Director of SJCS. We have formed a working committee. We have met other church leaders, community and religious leaders here. We have also planned for the formation of SJCS as a VWO (Volunteer Welfare organization), which will position us to serve more effectively and long term. SJCS will be our ‘community face.’ To do so, we are making SJCS an affliate of Singapore Anglican Community Services (SACS). This will give us an important legal covering and structural support. We have originally planned to sign the MOU to formalise this arrangement this morning, but SACS Board has yet to make a decision and so we have to delay this slightly.

I have also been involved in various activities which have helped me to be more acquainted with community and religious leaders (see photo taken with some mosque and community leaders). I have felt the Lord challenging me – “Do you really care for them?” Being a pastor myself, am I here just to keep church folks happy or to turn our hearts to those out there? Aren’t they also a part of our BV or HV ‘parish’?

This ministry will take years to mature but let’s take the first few steps in the right direction. Join us in praying that we will keep in step with the Lord.