Archbishop of Singapore re-elected Primate: CEN 8.21.09 p 6.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. The Archbishop of Singapore, Dr John Chew has been re-elected as Primate of the Anglican Church of the Province of South East Asia. The Provincial Extra-Ordinary Synod meeting July 29-30 at Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia re-elected Dr Chew to serve a second four-year term as primate. Dr Chew also serves as President of the Singapore Anglican Community Services, President of The Bible Society of Singapore, and President of the National Council of Churches of Singapore. Primates of the province are elected to a set term of office, but may stand for reelection up to the age of retirement. On Feb 2, 1996 Archbishop Moses Tay was installed as first archbishop of the new province by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey , while the second Primate, Archbishop Yong Ping Chung of Sabah, served from 2000 to 2006. In other business, the synod approved the election of the first indigenous bishop in North Borneo. The Ven Melter Jiki Tais was consecrated as suffragan bishop of Sabah at All Saints Cathedral, Kota Kinabalu on Aug 14, and will assist Bishop Albert Vun in the supervision of the fast growing diocese. Archdeacon Tais is the first Kadazan-Dusun to be consecrated as bishop. Sabah’s Anglican bishops have historically drawn from the ranks of British missionaries and in the past 30 years, from Chinese-Malaysians. At age 44, he will be the youngest bishop in the province, and at less than five feet tall, its smallest bishop. Archdeacon Moses Chin described the new bishop as a “small man with a big heart.” The bishop’s duties will be to train youth and lay leaders and develop mission churches to parish status “so that they are self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating,” Archdeacon Chin told the Daily Express.