Early developments

Anglicanism was first introduced with the establishment of the British East India Company's settlement of Penang Island in 1786. George Caunter, a local magistrate, was appointed as a Lay Clerk/Acting Chaplain in 1799 under the jurisdiction of the See of Calcutta. In 1819, the first Anglican church building, the Church of St. George the Martyr, was consecrated by the Bishop of Calcutta, Thomas Fanshawe Middleton.

In 1826, the Mission Chapel of the London Missionary Society (LMS) started services in Singapore and the first church building in Singapore was built in 1837. In 1842, a missionary of the LMS started the first girls school in Singapore, now known as St. Margaret's School. The work in Borneo started in 1848 when a group of missionaries led by Francis Thomas McDougall was invited by James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. In 1849, a wooden church was built in Kuching. In 1851, this church was consecrated by Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta in honour of St. Thomas the Apostle.

Establishment of missionary dioceses

Letters patent was issued in 1855 to establish the Bishopric of Labuan and McDougall was appointed the first Bishop of Labuan. McDougall was also appointed the Bishop of Sarawak by the Rajah of Sarawak due to the political conventions of the day ruled that no Anglican Diocese might be created outside the limits of the British Empire, and Sarawak was then technically an independent kingdom. This practice prevailed until the Sarawak became a Crown Colony in 1946.

In 1867, The East India Company transferred Penang to the British Crown and with that ended the chaplaincy of the Madras Presidency in Penang. The Anglican churches in Penang, Malacca and Singapore were organised into the Church in the Straits Settlement while remaining under the jurisdiction of the See of Calcutta.

The Church in the Straits Settlement was separated from the See of Calcutta by an Act of Parliament in 1869 and placed under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Labuan as the United Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak. In 1909, the United Diocese was further divided into the Diocese of Singapore, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak. The 3 separate Dioceses developed independently from then onwards until the creation of the Province.

Anglican work in Malaya and Singapore (1909–1996)

The period between the division of the United Diocese and the outbreak of the Second World War in the Pacific, missionary work continued with increasing ordination of local clergy and planting of churches all throughout the Malaya and Singapore.

During the duration of the Second World War, most expatriate clergy and missionaries were interned by the Japanese. Without the benefit of its expatriate clergy, the work of the church fell on the shoulders of local clergy and church workers.

This development highlighted the urgent need for training local leaders for this developing part of the Anglican Church and eventually led to the establishment of Singapore's Trinity Theological College in 1951.

Malaya gained her independence from British rule in 1957. Following this, in 1960, the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya. In 1970, the churches in West Malaysia were separated from the Diocese and reconstituted as the Diocese of West Malaysia by an Act of Parliament and the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore.

Anglican work in British Borneo (1909–1996)

Work in British Borneo after the division of the United Diocese until the outbreak of the Second World War followed a similar pattern to the work in Malaya and Singapore. It was supported from 1909 by the Borneo Mission Association. Anglican missionaries were however more successful than their counterparts in Malaya and Singapore in evangelising the indigenous peoples.

Following the devastation of the Second World War, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak was joined together as the Diocese of Borneo and the first bishop, Nigel Cornwall, was consecrated in 1949. In 1962, the Diocese was again divided into the Diocese of Jesselton (later Diocese of Sabah) which included Labuan, and the Diocese of Kuching which included Brunei.

Province of South East Asia

In 1985, the four Dioceses of West Malaysia, Singapore, Kuching and Sabah requested the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to create a new province for the region.^[1] The request was affirmed by Carey.^[1]

In 1996, autocephaly was attained when the Province of the Anglican Church in Southeast Asia consisting of the Dioceses of West Malaysia, Singapore, Kuching and Sabah was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. Moses Tay, Bishop of Singapore, was installed as the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province the same year.^[2]

On 23 January 2024, Titus Chung, Bishop of Singapore, was installed as the Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church in South East Asia at St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore.^[3]

Current diocesan bishops

• Melter Tais – Bishop of Sabah
• Steven Abbarow – Bishop of West Malaysia
• Danald Jute – Bishop of Kuching
• Titus Chung – Archbishop of South East Asia and Bishop of Singapore

List of primates of South East Asia

Ecumenical relations

The dioceses of the Church of the Province of South East Asia participate in the ecumenical World Council of Churches via their respective national church councils:

• Council of Churches of Malaysia^[10]
  • Diocese of Kuching and Brunei
  • Diocese of Sabah
  • Diocese of West Malaysia
• National Council of Churches of Singapore^[11]
  • Diocese of Singapore

However, unlike many other Anglican churches, the Church of the Province of South East Asia is not a member of the World Council of Churches in its own right.^[12]