Speakers: Minister Edwin Tong and Rt Revd Dr Titus Chung
Date: 23 March 2022
Time: 7.30pm to 9pm
Venue: ZOOM Webinar
Ethos Conversation 2022: Religion, Public Policy and Nation Building
NCCS’ Response to Minister K. Shanmugam’s parliamentary speech on the...
3 March 2022
NCCS’ Response to Minister K. Shanmugam’s parliamentary speech on the Court of Appeal Ruling on Repeal of Section 377A
Follow the link below for the official response in full.
https://ethosinstitute.sg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2.-NCCS-Response-to-Minister-K.-Shanmugams-parliamentary-speech-on-the-Court-of-Appeal-Ruling-on-Repeal-of-Section-377A-.pdf
AGWO Brought Christmas Cheer to More than 20,000 Guest Workers...
In the spirit of Christmas, The Alliance of Guest Workers Outreach (AGWO)—a movement of Hope Initiative Alliance (HIA)—and various other partners and organisations organised eight carnivals for the guest workers from 5 December 2021 to 1 January 2022 in three different places, such as Tuas South Recreation Centre, Kranji Recreation Centre and Terusan Recreation Centre.
Over 8,000 guest workers attended all the carnivals and another 4,000 attended the subsequent carnivals on Christmas and New Year respectively. In total, there were 12,000 guest workers attending the entire Christmas celebrations until 1 January 2022.
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Grant A Wish to 300 Guest Workers
During the festive season, it was very common for many of us to buy things for ourselves and even gifts for our loved ones. However, the guest workers may not have the privilege to buy what they want and hence, AGWO partnered with DBS Bank on the Grant A Wish programme to provide opportunities for 300 guest workers to request any items or gifts that they would like to have this Christmas. Many of them requested watches, perfumes, bags, and other items, which touched their hearts because the gifts were made personalised to them, and personal Christmas letters were also sent to their dorms.
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Recreation Centre Level Futsal Tournament
In collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, JTC Corporation and Team Nila, AGWO organised the futsal tournament which started in late November. AGWO had sponsored the trophy, as well as cash prizes of $1,000, $500 and $300 respectively for each group who won the tournament.
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Satellite Points for Celebrations
More than 10 different partners of AGWO organised smaller scale events on their own to reach out to more than 2,000 guest workers in various locations during the Christmas season. Some of the activities included baking activities where the baked goodies were distributed to the guest workers for free.
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Distribution of Care Packs to 7,000 Guest Workers
Over the period of one month in this season, AGWO organised the distribution of Christmas festive care packs to more than 7,000 guest workers to provide them with the basic daily necessities, especially in these periods of times when the pandemic hit many in Singapore, including the guest workers and the needy communities.
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Outings to Discover Singapore
Having built many buildings and places in Singapore, the guest workers may not have the chance to visit them, including the tourist attractions that they had put extra efforts to build. To bring Christmas cheer for them, AGWO brought 200 guest workers to Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park in December, using the SingapoRediscovers vouchers donated by the Singaporeans. And for the very first time for the brothers, AGWO also brought another 120 guest workers to the Universal Studios of Singapore on Christmas Day, 25 December 2021.
AGWO is grateful that through all these initiatives, they managed to reach out to over 20,000 guest workers just within one month in the whole December to spread Christmas cheer and joy.
As the President of HIA, Reverend Ezekiel Tan shared, “Christmas is a great time to give back to the community and help those in need, especially the guest workers, because it is the season about giving. And in giving, we receive true Christmas joy.”
YOUth-reka!
Calling all Youth Leaders/ Youths, 15 to 30 years old!Join us at YOUth-reka!
Always have burning questions on your heart relating to the Youth scene in Singapore?Join us for a time of real conversations on topics rarely discussed in churches:⬜ Evangelism ⬜ Discipleship ⬜ Backslidden Youths ⬜ Intergenerational Issues
Highlights
1.A SAFE SPACE to share authentically! *Chatham House Rules apply
2.Be heard and be encouraged through small group discussions!
3.Receive PRACTICAL TIPS from the panel with experience in supporting Youths!
Date: 02 April 2022, Saturday Time: 10am-1pmVenue: 7 Armenian Street, Bible House, Rooftop Pavilion
Registration closes on 26 March 2022. Register HERE
The Voice of Tradition
Author: Dr. Roland Chia
In The Future of Evangelical Christianity, Donald Bloesch expressed his anxiety over the perceptible theological immaturity of the evangelical Church. “Modern evangelicalism”, he writes, “is confronted with the embarrassing fact that its special emphases reveal considerable theological immaturity and even theological heterodoxy rather than dynamic vibrant orthodoxy.”[1]
The noted theologian and scholar of Reformation theology, Timothy George, offers his diagnosis of the problem and identifies the trenchant individualism of modern culture as its cause. He argues that ‘many Evangelicals interpret their own conversion as the supreme act of individualism, a private response detached, if not divorced, from the corporate community of faith.’[2]
Evangelical Christians have prided themselves as the heirs of the 16th century Reformers in that they uphold Holy Scriptures as the authoritative Word of God. However, their general disregard for Christian tradition and the individualistic ethos they seem to have imbibed have made this belief in Scripture’s absolute authority in faith and conduct a dangerous liability.
Without the guidance of tradition, evangelical Christians have in their possession an authoritative text (Scripture) but without an authoritative interpreter. In a culture of postmodern individualism and subjectivism, where there is no objective truth, and where we create our own meanings, the Bible is often interpreted and applied in idiosyncratic and harmful ways when the guiding light of tradition is ignored.
In disregarding tradition, evangelical Christians have simply failed to acknowledge the fact that the Church has been reading Scripture, as well as appropriating and applying its teaching throughout her history. They seem to think, rather naively (or perhaps even arrogantly), that this rich history of interpretation and theological reflection has nothing to teach them about how the Bible should be read and understood.
Some writers have laid the blame for the current malaise in contemporary evangelical Christianity at the door of the 16th century Reformers. This, however, is not entirely fair and it betrays a somewhat caricatured understanding of the Reformers.
To be sure, Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin emphasised the supreme and unrivalled authority of Scripture in their famous assertion sola scriptura (Scripture alone). However, although the Reformers insisted on the primary authority of the Bible, they also revered the secondary authority of Christian tradition.
In Luther’s Large Catechism, we find these words: “Here you find the whole essence of God, his will and his work beautifully portrayed in few but comprehensive words. In them all our wisdom consists – a wisdom which transcends all human wisdom.”
The Reformer is not here describing the Bible, but the Apostles’ Creed. He boldly adds that “the Creed brings us full mercy, sanctified us and makes us acceptable to God.” [3]
In the same way, John Wesley, who claimed to be homo unius libri (‘man of one book’),[4] read voraciously across the traditions – especially the writings of the early Church Fathers – and drew extensively from them. As Albert Outler has observed, while Wesley affirmed the Protestant principle of sola scriptura he interpreted sola to mean ‘primarily’ rather than ‘solely’.[5]
In a book that deserves more serious attention than it has received, the Methodist theologian William Abraham perceptively states that:
The Church possesses not just a canon of books in its bible, but also a canon of doctrine, a canon of saints, a canon of Fathers, a canon of theologians, a canon of liturgy, a canon of bishops, a canon of councils, a canon of ecclesiastical regulations, a canon of icons, and the like.[6]
It is this body of tradition, in all its richness and diversity, that should guide the Church in every age in her reading of the Bible.
Properly understood, Christian tradition may be said to be the result of the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth whose role is to guide the Church into all truth (John 16:13). This is the same Spirit who inspired the writers and texts of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Thus, while evangelical Christians must continue to uphold the supreme authority of Scripture, and diligently read it as the Word of God, they must never ignore the voice of tradition. For to fail to come under the tutelage of the Church’s rich theological and spiritual traditions is to become susceptible to the seductions of the tempers of our time and the spirit of the age (zeitgeist).
[1] Donald Blesch, The Future of Evangelical Christianity: A Call for Unity Amid Diversity (Colorado Springs: Helmers and Howard, 1988), 9.
[2] Timothy George, ‘An Evangelical Reflection on Scripture and Tradition’ in Charles Colson and Richard Neuhaus (eds), Your Word if Truth: A Project of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 13.
[3] Martin Luther, Luther’s Large Catechism, J. N. Lenker (trans), (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1967), chapters 165, 167.
[4] John Wesley, ‘A Plain Account of Christian Perfection’, in Thomas Jackson (ed), The Works of Rev. John Wesley, Vol. XI (London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1829-1831. Reprinted Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 373.
[5] Albert Outler, John Wesley (New York: OUP, 1964), 18.
[6] William Abraham et al, Canonical Theism: A Proposal for Theology and the Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 2.
Smart Phones and Not-so-smart Persons?
Author: Rev. Dr. Andrew Peh
Apple officially released the first iPhone on June 29, 2007, and with almost ten upgrades later, it has brought about significant changes in our lives. In tandem, the development of the Android smartphones, has revolutionised the way we live. There have been rapid changes in communications, convenience and connectivity. We live in a context where the mobile phone has become an indispensable part of our everyday life. It is no longer merely a communication device but has become our alarm clock, our camera, our timetable, our diary, our photograph album, as well as a portable word processor. It acts as a bank, an automated teller, an encyclopedia, a games arcade, a food and travel guide, a shopping portal and library of books, music and movies. It preserves our past, plans our present and even predicts our future. And presumably life would be inconvenient and perhaps even miserable without instant access provided by a mobile phone. It is no surprise that the editors of Time named the iPhone the single most influential gadget of all time, saying that it “fundamentally changed our relationship to computing and information – a change likely to have repercussions for decades to come.”
With the family feastings behind us, most of us can relate to scenario where very often the first order of events was to whip out our mobile phones to take an Instagram-worthy photograph of the food. It is not uncommon to leave the mobile phone thereafter within easy reach, just so that we could reply the incoming message or greeting. And it really would not be too long before everyone around the table was busily ‘chatting’ with the other person(s) on the other side of the line, rather than take time to converse with those seated on the other side of the table. According to Jacob Weisberg, in his article “We Are Hopelessly Hooked”, he approximated that the average person now checks his/her smartphones every 4.3 minutes of his/her waking lives. Hence on the average of a one hour dinner, most present would have checked their mobile phones more than twelve times in that one sitting! It does seem ironic that in a gathering of family and friends, many seem much more absorbed with the virtual instead of the physical.
In many ways, the technological advancement in communications (both hardware and software) has fueled this obsession, which I may perchance regard as an addiction. Sadly, Christians are in no way insulated from such excesses. The timely word that warns against this is well captured in the Chinese: 守机碍情, which literally means “fixation on the phone impedes relationships”. Interestingly the phrase is also a homonym for “a mobile (phone) love affair.” This was the title of Chinese play written by Lim Hai Yen, which highlighted the real-life obsession of social media and its impact on the day-to-day interaction among people.
Our preoccupation with the virtual perhaps smacks of the old Arian heresy where the very material presence (humanity) of Jesus was questioned; where the spiritual is valued and the physical is denied. Arius’ infamous dictum was that “There was a time when He was not.” This is subtly evidenced in our obsession with the virtual communication (constantly checking our mobile devices) especially in the physical presence of people that we are meeting! It also communicates the unspoken conviction that the virtual relationship seems more important (to have our ‘undivided’ attention and to elicit an immediate response) than the actual physical relationship with those whom we are currently meeting.
Athanasius’ response to the Arian controversy is contained in his seminal work, On the Incarnation: “He (Jesus) could simply have appeared to us, coming to us in some grander way, but this was not what he wanted. He took a body like ours, from a pure and spotless virgin who had never been with a man.” Against a virtual presence, he insisted on Jesus’ incarnation into a physical realm, to be one of us. This perhaps has important implications on the discussions of the interchange between virtual and physical reality.
In many ways, our phones have made us obsessed with the virtual world, such that we are oblivious to the physical reality of others around us. Spadaro reminds us that “the crux of the problem is that connecting and sharing on the web are not the same as meeting someone in person, which requires an effort to sustain and make relationship work.” He further explained that “the concept of the neighbour is not hung on a wire, but has its roots in and is tied to spatial proximity.” We must not forget that there is indeed a difference between (virtual) connection and (physical) presence.
How are our smartphones changing us? Are we any smarter or have we become addicted and imprisoned by the very devices that were invented? It is perhaps unhelpful to offer a list of smartphones rules. But I am instead reminded of Schaeffer’s admonition: “Christians have two boundary conditions: (1) what men (and women) can do, and (2) what men (and women) should do. Modern man does not have the latter boundary.” In application, Tony Reinke rightly commented that “the essential question we must constantly ask ourselves in the quickly evolving age of digital technology is not what can I do with my phone, but what should I do with it?”
We have made the smart phone but the smart phones are in many ways unmaking us. Our uncritical dependence of our mobile devices has perhaps not made us any smarter, but instead it has made us more attracted and addicted to the things of this world, than to the One who has given all things to us. It’s perhaps time for us to get ‘smarter’?
Imitatio Christi
Author: Dr. Roland Chia
In their book, As Iron Sharpens Iron, Howard and William Hendricks emphasise the importance of spiritual mentoring before the idea became fashionable in evangelicalism. Stressing the cruciality of this work of spiritual direction in the Church, they state emphatically that mentoring is not an option “but an essential”.
They write, “At their best, mentors nurture our souls. They shape our character. They call us to become complete men, whole men, and, by the grace of God, holy men.”
In contemporary evangelical Christianity, mentoring may, at times, appear faddish, but it is not a novel concept. Rather, it is a very ancient practice indeed.
What exactly is spiritual mentoring? And what resources can we draw from the Bible and the rich spiritual tradition of the Church that would help us to understand—and revive—this lost art?
Although mentoring involves teaching, it is much more than that. Mentoring, which can take place either in a group or individually, involves intentionally helping others deal with life and is, therefore, very personal.
We see this in the way in which Jesus related to His disciples. In their book, Spiritual Mentoring, Keith Anderson and Randy Resse point out that the “kind of teaching Jesus provided them was very different from the classroom instruction of the academy today”.
Jesus’ approach “assumed a relationship and style that made different demands on both rabbi and disciple, teacher and learner, mentor and protégé”. It is closer to the relationship between a master craftsman and a young apprentice than that between a professor and a student in a modern university.
Relationship is key in the mentoring process, and there must be profound trust between the mentor and his protégé. This intimate relationship is clearly exemplified by Jesus in the way He regarded His disciples-not as servants, but as friends (John 15:15).
As the New Testament scholar William Hendriksen explains: “Clearly implied in these words of Jesus is the thought that he is not satisfied with merely servile obedience. His friends are motivated by friendship when they do his bidding. Obedience is an expression of their love.”
It is through this close relationship between the mentor and his protégé that transformational learning, on the part of the latter, takes place. The protégé learns not only from the teachings of his master, but also by observing his behaviour in certain situations. He is slowly transformed by following his master’s example.
This concept of imitation (imitatio in Latin) has a long history in Christian spirituality, and its origins can be traced to the apostle Paul. In a letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul exhorts his readers to “imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1 NKJV).
Like Paul, the spiritual mentor must lead an exemplary life that will serve as a model for his protégé. The fifth century theologian, Augustine, considers himself “the servant of servants of Christ”. The spiritual mentor must adopt the same posture and live a blameless life of faith, humility and service.
The spiritual mentor should never try to mould his protégé into his own image. Rather, he should nurture and guide his protégé so that he may—by the grace of God—become more and more like Christ.
Like his protégé, the mentor, too, is a disciple, a learner who must always be willing to be challenged and transformed by God’s inexhaustible Word. In exhorting the Corinthians to imitate him, Paul was in fact urging them to imitate Christ.
The spiritual mentor must take heed of the wise words of Augustine: “Although it is more fitting that old men should be teachers than learners, it is nevertheless more fitting for them to learn than to continue ignorant of that which they should teach others.”
Religion, Public Policy And Nation Building
| Religion is sometimes seen as a private matter, having to do only with an individual’s relationship with God. This is, however, a reductionistic view.What one believes has a profound impact not only on the person,but also on his or her community. What is the contribution of religion to public policyand nation-building in the Singapore context?We are privileged to have two eminent speakers address this issue:Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture,Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law andRt Revd Dr Titus Chung, the Bishop of Singapore (Anglican). Join us as we explore a facet of religion not often emphasised:Its role in the public life of our nation. Date: Wed, 23 March 2022 Time: 7.30 – 9pm Venue: ZOOM Webinar Speakers:Mr Edwin Tong and Rt Revd Dr Titus Chung |
| FREE ADMISSION Register HERE |