Rev Dr Lorna Khoo’s Recollections about Trinity Methodist Church

Pastor Lorna Khoo’s paternal grandfather was Rev Khoo Cheng Hoe, Pastor of Madras Lane Chinese Methodist Church in Penang. Her father and her mother, who were old family friends, moved to Singapore – he to work in the then Singapore Improvement Trust (subsequently as an engineer with the HDB) and she to study part-time at Trinity Theological College (then to teach full time at the Geylang Chinese Methodist Afternoon School). They fell in love then, got married and became members of Geylang Chinese Methodist Church. Lorna was baptised there in 1957 as an infant. When the family moved to Kempas Road, the family attended Wesley Methodist Church. It was only when they settled at Kovan that they ended up at Paya Lebar Chinese Methodist Church (PLCMC).

PLCMC was a Hokkien Church with an English Sunday School and an English Junior and a Senior Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF). Lorna attended the Sunday School and the JMYF and became the president of the JMYF in the early 70s. Since PLCMC then was not ready to start an English service, some of the young people – including her – looked for other churches to attend.

While at PLMGS, Lorna heard Rev Christopher Smith (then Pastor of Trinity Methodist Church) preach at the Christian Fellowship meetings. She had also connected with him via phone to talk about spiritual matters. In contrast to her rather ‘intense, transactional, one-dimensional’ faith (birthed from a then popular evangelistic outreach system of ‘being scared into heaven after being dangled over hell’), Rev Smith’s proclamation was of “a God who will not let go or let off… who allows Himself to be rejected, bashed and crucified, as Christ, the fully human one”.   Deeply touched, she followed classmates June Chew and Carol Ann Tan of PLMGS to Trinity Methodist Church (TMC) to learn about this ‘new gospel.’

Bible study at Rev Smith’s home

She was warmly welcomed by Mrs Catherine Pang on her first visit and within a few months, recruited by Catherine to join the ushering ministry. She attended the membership course led by Rev Smith – not once but twice i.e. even after her confirmation as it was “so lifegiving to hear the gospel preached as really good news”.

On 17 September 1972, she was confirmed during the church anniversary service by Rev Smith and the visiting speaker, Bishop Yap Kim Hao. “It was the most important event in my life,” she said.

Instead of using the usual Methodist order of service for baptism and confirmation, Rev Smith adapted the liturgy from the Church of South India. One vow struck her profoundly, “Do you acknowledge yourself bound to confess the faith of Christ crucified and risen and to continue His faithful servant unto your life’s end, bearing witness to Him both in word and deed?”  Her sincere ‘I do’ sealed her commitment to be His disciple all the days of her life.

Lorna joined the TMC MYF and became its Vice President. Her friend June Chew became the President. Lorna found out to her surprise that the MYF had an existing Tae Kwon Do programme in the church. It was started some years ago as an outreach project of the MYF to the neighbourhood youths. As a leader, she felt it was her duty to be a part of that project and enjoyed her time with the TKD classes, ending up with a blue belt before she entered Trinity Theological College as a student.

MYF then was very active.

Christmas Carolling

MYFers would charter buses and visit several homes to sing carols, pray and enjoy the fellowship and food hospitality of members. One Christmas, while boarding a bus, she recalled seeing a young man with a gas mask. She was baffled until they boarded the bus after visiting the first few homes. As each caroller entered the darkened bus, several vials of liquid stink bombs strategically placed on the steps were crushed under their feet. And the smell in the bus was terrible! There was nowhere for the carollers to escape the smell as the bus proceeded to the next house. Everyone choked as the cheeky lad kept himself well protected with his gas mask.

The Live Nativity Scene at the Front of the Church and on the Rooftop

This was a yearly attraction for residents of Serangoon Gardens. MYFers were dressed up as the Holy Family, angels, shepherds and the 3 wise men. Standing on the church porch (angels up the roof) like statues, moving only to rotate positions (for wise men and shepherds), with Christmas lights shining brightly around them, they would attract passersby and cars to stop and view the sight. Taking advantage of the crowds and the traffic jam (or slow-moving traffic) in front of the church, MYFers like Mal (now Rev Dr Malcom Tan) and Lorna would run around, handing out gospel pamphlets and tracts to everyone who were open to receive. It was fun. Even more fun were the comments made by the ‘static’ display characters to each other as they fought to deal with their boredom for an hour. Fortunately, whatever they said to each other was heard only by their fellow characters standing nearby.

Woodbridge Hospital Ministry

MYFers were tasked with collecting patients from the hospital wards and shepherding them to pick up points. There, members with cars would ferry them to St Luke’s Chapel (Woodbridge) for services. Uncle Andrew Lee headed this ministry. Some of the MYFers who were basically teenagers then, braved the shouting and unusual behaviours of the patients. Pastor Lorna remembered that one patient they accompanied, ran down the side road. She and another MYFer chased the lady. They were stunned when they shouted, “STOP!” and the patient stopped running immediately. It would have saved them the effort of a breathless chase had they realised that a simple command was only what was needed in that situation.

The Open Door Coffeehouse

Singapore in the early 1970s was faced with an increasing drug abuse problem. Young people were attracted to and drawn into drug addiction. Toa Payoh Methodist Church had started a coffeehouse in their church to befriend young people in their neighbourhood. Rev Smith encouraged the TMC MYF to consider starting one. The LCEC did not think it was a good idea as they felt that the youths might not be able to sustain long term commitment to such a project. But the MYF persisted. Rev Smith who was also the Deputy Director of the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) trained the MYFers with the help of church member Mdm Khor Peck Hoon (also a SOS leader). The Open Door Coffeehouse started in 1975. However, it lasted only a few months. Soon after Rev Smith returned home to UK, the coffeehouse closed. The LCEC could have thought their initial hesitation was accurate – that the youths cannot be relied upon to carry on such a project. Perhaps in the minds of many in the church, the Open Door coffeehouse was a ‘failure.’

In 1987,12 years after the project folded, a congregation was started at the Bukit Batok area, which eventually became a church in 1991. The METHODIST CHURCH OF THE INCARNATION (MCI), was birthed from the seed God had planted in the heart and mind of an Open Door Coffeehouse team member (Pastor Lorna herself). During the Open Door Coffeehouse befriender training, the MYFers were told that ‘we are called by the Lord to get alongside i.e. incarnation…not above people…in our ministry of reaching out to others.’ That seed of ‘incarnational ministry’ became the inspiration and impetus for the establishment of a Methodist Church with that name. What people thought was a ‘failure’ was a seed that the Lord allowed to be buried until the time came for it to bear fruit… the raising up of a congregation (now at Teck Whye Lane) with the same vision.

TMC therefore has a very strong link with MCI.
The seed of MCI was birthed and incubated at TMC.

CHANGES TO TMC

BUILDING

The building façade had changed. The open air carpark where the MYFers played football and had their TKD classes, is gone. What remained -was the shape of the church building and the wooden interior of the sanctuary.

PEOPLE

Many people whom Lorna knew in the 1970s have either passed on or migrated- to other countries or churches. Park Ming, Darlene, Dr Khor Tong Hong, Victor Seah are among the few who are still around. Eunice Chew, the younger sister of June Chew her cohort mate- is still active in TMC.

CONGREGATION

The church today has a lot more members than the original 300 plus during her time. In the 70s, there was a morning service and an evening one. Now there are multiple services to accommodate the growth in congregational numbers, worship style preferences and language groups. Services have evolved from being primarily traditional to one that included contemporary and Chinese services. Lorna noted that the church had stronger intergenerational mixing in the 70s: the youths and adults were closer: the older ones were seen as uncles and aunties (and referred as such) by the youths. This was because the youths attended the same services as the adults.

When asked for her views on TMC’s current vision of MAKING DISCIPLES WHO MAKE DISCIPLESand its transition from a family church to one reaching out to a wider community and building strong communities. Pastor

Lorna said, “I think it is much needed. Much more is needed to do this. This is still within the ‘comfort zone’ of many. What would be needed is a stronger strategic thrust e.g. ‘territorial commitment’ – where a place is identified e.g. Serangoon Gardens or nearby HDB areas and a decisive push to make it more effective.’

ON RETURNING TO TMC

Pastor Lorna had waited to return to TMC for a very long time. 46 years. (4 years at TTC, 42 years as a Methodist pastor away from TMC). This has been the church where she experienced Christ in a real way, given a vision of the church as it is meant to be in the Lord. It was here that she fell in love with Christ and with His Church and felt the call to pastoral ministry.

There was an unwritten rule in the 1970s and into the late 80s and perhaps early 90s where theological students and pastors were never allowed to be sent back to their home churches.

When Pastor Lorna returned in 2022 (upon retirement), she felt awfully lonely as most of her friends were no longer in the church. Many attendees were masked (she was too) and recognition was difficult. Although Pastor Alvin introduced her to the church one Sunday, she still felt out of place. After the service, everyone was busy talking to their own friends. She remembered going home one day and crying.

Pastor Chong Hui, who was her classmate at Trinity Theological College, tried to encourage her to stay and meet the people after service. She has been doing so. Joining the church camp was a breakthrough as she got to know more people and vice versa. However, the current programmes at TMC – line dancing, ukelele playing, singing and cooking are not exactly activities that she has interest in. She still hopes to find some way of ‘entering more fully’ into the church life of TMC.

At present, Pastor Lorna attends TMC once a month, usually on Communion Sundays. As she lives at Kovan and the nearest church within walking distance (less than 8 minutes) is St Paul’s Anglican Church where Holy Communion is celebrated every week, Pastor Lorna has decided to attend that church 3 Sundays a month.

This article contributed by Rev Dr Lorna Khoo in June 2024 was written in response to a set of questions which the Archives Team posed to her. The photographs included were from Pastor Lorna’s own personal collection.

Permission must be sought from Pastor Lorna for a reprint or reuse of any content in this article.