Heads of Churches Retreat

Various heads of churches and their proxies met recently at the Grand Continental Hotel, Melaka from 21-23rd January 2008.

The yearly meeting gives an opportunity for the heads to fellowship with one another and discuss some issues of current concern.

The retreat was guided by the new president of CCM, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Philips. He noted in his introduction that there were a number of heads who attended the retreat for the first time. They are Bishop Ng Moon Hing of the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia; Bishop Hwa Yung of the Methodist Church in Malaysia, Rev. Wong Fong Yang of the Presbyterian Church, Bishop Thomas Tsen, of the Basel Christian Church in Malaysia.

Receiving an update of the CCM Building Project by its chairman, Dato Dr. Tan Kee Kwong, the heads pledged to work together to see the project to its completion.

On the issue of the use of "Allah" in Bahasa translations of the Bible and in Christian literature, the heads reaffirmed the CFM Kuching Declaration of 1989 which stated that the Christians have the right to translate scriptures in terms of its precise meaning and using the best linguistic scholarship. While together the heads also caught up on personal news of each other's families.