 Kampong Kapor Methodist Church, Singapore
The Kampong Kapor Methodist Church is a church at the corner of Cuff Road and Kampong Kapor Road in Little India. The church has a history going back to November 1890 when a Sunday Malay language worship service was started by Sophia Blackmore, the first female Methodist missionary in Singapore. The attendees were Peranakan Chinese - twenty Babas and Nyonyas.
In the beginning, the congregation comprised 25 girls from the mission hostel, boys from Epworth Home and Malay-speaking Christian workers from Mission Press as well as 2 missionaries. A few years later, on 25 January 1894, the group shifted to the Christian Institute at 155 Middle Road, sharing the premises with the Methodist Girls' School. That year is taken as the start date of the church and is also confirmed by the Kampong Kapor Methodist Church website.
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (10 July 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
By the late 1920s, the church had outgrown the space at Middle Road, necessitating a shift to a new building. A plot of land was bought at Kampong Kapor Road and the new church building constructed there. It was completed in 1930 in the Art Deco style which was all the rage at that time, and was called the Straits Chinese Methodist Chuch (Bickley Memorial), to reflect the largely Chinese membership of the church as well as its Peranakan characteristic, and the fact that funds for its construction amounting to $50,000 came from the family and friends of Bishop Bickley. In 1957, the church was renamed Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. It celebrated its hundredth anniversary in January 1994.
Today Kampong Kapor Methodist Church has a membership of a thousand in its congregation, split into six services, three in English, one in Peranakan, one in Mandarin and one in Tamil. The church also has a Prayer Ministry and an outreach work including a Boys' Brigade, a Girls' Brigade, a family service centre, a kindergarten, evangelising work as well as mission work, sending about 20 missionaries to seven countries.
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (10 July 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Contact
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church
3 Kampong Kapor Road,
Singapore 208676
Tel: +65 6293 7997
Fax: +65 6291 0501
Email: mailbox@kkmc.org.sg
Getting there
Take the Singapore MRT East West Line to the Bugis MRT Station or the North East Line to the Little India MRT Station and walk from there.
Sights in Little India
These are all the sights I've grouped under Little India, listed in alphabetical order. I would recommend that you visit them together. See the Little India Walking Tour for a recommended walk of this area.
- Abdul Gaffoor Mosque *
- Angullia Mosque
- Beo San Hood Chor Temple
- Church of the True Light
- Foochow Methodist Church
- Hock Siew Tong Temple
- Kampong Kapor Methodist Church
- Leong San See Temple
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hall
- Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple (Temple of 1000 Lights) *
- Shree Lakshminarayan Temple
- Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple *
- Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple *
- Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple *
Shopping in Little India
The following are places where you can do a bit of shopping. These include places where the locals shop for their local items, but it provides an interesting glimpse of life in Singapore.
- Little India Arcade
- Mustafa Centre
- Serangoon Plaza
- Tekka Market
Location Map of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church
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