History

INTRODUCTION

A moment in history that had a far reaching effect throughout the world took place on May 24th 1738 in England. On that day God touched John Wesley and gave him his famous “heart-warming experience”. Wesley was given at that moment the assurance that his sins were indeed forgiven, for in faith he trusted Christ. This experience brought revival first to England and then to every part of the world. This spiritual awakening also reached the shores of Singapore and Malaysia.

Methodism came to our part of the world when on the 25th of November 1884 William F. Oldham was appointed as a missionary to Singapore by the South India Conference. Oldham, along with James M. Thoburn arrived in Singapore on 8th February 1885. On the next day, at the Town Hall, the first Methodist English Evangelistic Meeting was conducted with Thoburn preaching the first sermon based on Zechariah 4: 6 “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord”. Fifty years later, Oldham exclaimed, and indeed today we all may say, “See what God has done!”

Subsequently, the Oldhams began ministry in Penang. Along with the Oldhams, Simon Peter and P. F. Gnanamuthu worked among the Tamils in Penang and in 1894 they founded the first Tamil Methodist Church in Malaya at Northam Road. Two years later the church moved to Datuk Keramat Road. The present site at Perak Road was purchased in 1932. Rev. William Horley began ministry in Ipoh among the Chinese and the Tamils in 1895. The following year, in 1896, the present Ipoh Church was organized as the second Tamil Methodist Church in the country. Next in 1897, the Kuala Lumpur Church was organized as the third Tamil Methodist Church. The work then spread south to Malacca where it was established just before 1910. In 1927 the work spread east to Raub and on to Kuantan, where the local church was organised in 1938.