Bishop's Page

·                      So will you be coming to the Methodist Prayer Convention 2007 (MPC)? This has been announced at the various Annual Conference sessions last year, through the Pelita Methodist and other Methodist publications, and by your pastors and leaders. It will begin at 9.00 am, Friday morning, 31^st August, and end at 1.00 pm, Sunday, 2^nd September. For those who are coming from Sarawak and Sabah, we would advise you to fly to Kuala Lumpur by Thursday, 30^th, evening at the latest, and plan to leave by late Sunday afternoon flights.

The theme of the MPC is ‘One in Christ through Prayer,’ based on our Quadrennium theme, which is ‘That We May be One in Christ (Jn 17:22)—Through Prayer, Studying God’s Word, Discipleship, and Mission.’ The goals of the MPC are fourfold:

• To bring Methodists from all over Malaysia to worship and pray together, thereby to know ourselves as a united people in Christ.
• To help foster a prayer movement at every level of the Methodist Church, from the local church to the General Conference.
• To come before God in repentance for our failures, and also to seek reconciliation and healing, both within each Annual Conference and between them, as the needs may be.
• To seek God together so that He may pour His Spirit out for the revival of the whole Methodist Church. 

The venue for the MPC will be Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre, Bandar Sunway in Petaling Jaya. At the time of writing we are still awaiting confirmation for the use of an auditorium big enough to house more than 10,000 persons for Sunday worship on 2^nd September. If this is approved, the Presidents of CAC, TAC and TRAC have agreed to ask all the churches in the Klang Valley to merge ALL their Sunday morning services with this one Combined Worship Service instead. Finally, for those who are able to come early on Thursday, 30^th August, there will be a Preliminary Prayer Meeting from 7-10 pm at the Hokkien Methodist Church, Kuala Lumpur, to pray for the preparation, organization and smooth running of the MPC.

We are thankful to God for making it possible for us to have three outstanding Asian Christian leaders to speak at the MPC. Dr Sam Kamaleson was a prominent Methodist pastor in India before joining World Vision International more than 20 years ago. Since then he has had a wide speaking and lecturing international ministry. Many of our own Methodists, especially those from the TAC, have heard him speak and been much blessed spiritually as a result. Rev Morley Lee (Li Xiu Quan) has ministered extensively in student work and in churches in Taiwan and USA. He is presently the General Secretary of the Chinese Coordinating Centre of World Evangelism (CCCOWE), the Chinese wing of the Lausanne movement. Again, he is well-known to many of our Chinese-speaking Methodists. The third speaker is Dr Patrick Fung (Feng Hao Liu) who comes from Hong Kong, trained as a doctor and physician in Australia, and served many years as a missionary doctor in Pakistan. He has the distinction of being the first Asian General Director of OMF International, formerly called China Inland Mission.

This year is the 50^th Anniversary of Merdeka, our nation’s independence. It is only fitting that we should set aside Friday, 31^st August, evening to celebrate and pray for our country. For that evening we are privileged to have two Methodists who have served the nation well through politics. YB Datuk Dr Ron Tan Kee Kwong is the MP for Segambut and Gerakan State Chairman, Wilayah. YB Ngeh Koo Ham is the State Assemblyman for Sitiawan, the State Opposition Leader, and DAP State Chairman, Perak. Both of them will speak on our responsibilities as Christian citizens and how we may serve our country faithfully.