Protestant Church in Sabah

Infobox Christian denomination
name = Protestant Church In Sabah


imagewidth = 100px
caption = Logo of the PCS
main_classification = Protestant
orientation = Lutheran, Reformed
polity =
founder =
founded_date = 1963
founded_place =
separated_from =
leader/moderator =
leader = Rev Jimmy Ojlim Asam
parent = Basel Christian Church of Malaysia
merger =
separations =
fellowships =
associations =
area = Malaysia
hospitals =
nursing_homes =
aid =
congregations = 322
members = Approx. 38,550
ministers =
missionaries =
temples =
primary_schools =
secondary_schools =
tertiary =
footnotes =

The Protestant Church in Sabah or PCS ( _ms. Gereja Protestan Sabah) is one of the four Lutheran bodies in Malaysia. It currently has 322 congregations nationwide in 21 parishes [Asian Lutheran News: "Lutheran World Federation Regional Office for Asia"; Page 8, Issue 36; November - December 2007; Singapore] with a total of 38,550 members [Lutheran World Federation: [http://www.lutheranworld.org/Directory/ASI/ProtestChurchSabah-EN.html Member Churches] - Protestant Church in Sabah (URL last accessed December 20, 2007)] making the PCS the second largest [Lutheran World Federation: [http://www.lutheranworld.org/Directory/ASI/Welcome-EN.html Member Churches] - See individual denominational statistics for comparison (URL last accessed December 20, 2007)] Lutheran body in the country. The PCS' membership is primarily made up of the indigenous peoples of Sabah [Asian Lutheran News: "Lutheran World Federation Regional Office for Asia"; Page 8, Issue 36; November - December 2007; Singapore] .

The current president of the Protestant Church in Sabah is the Rev. Jimmy Ojlim Asam.

History

The PCS was established on December 24, 1952 amongst the Rungus people who have converted to Christianity. Earlier on in 1951, the Basel Christian Church (BCC) which had been established much earlier among the immigrant Chinese community in Sabah sought the help of the Basel Missionary Society to establish a mission among the Rungus people. Hans Bienz, the sixth and last Basel Missionary Society advisor to the BCC began touring Rungus villages such as Kimihang, Lajong, Handal, Angkob and Rondomon in early 1952 [Zhang, Delai: "The Hakkas of Sabah", page 118, Sabah Theological Seminary, 2002, ISBN 983-40840-0-5] .

Merger Attempt With The Basel Church

On January 23, 1968, the Basel Missionary Society started advocating a merger of both their Sabah affiliates; the BCC and PCS. A joint mission consultation was held in Kota Kinabalu on 9 - 13 May, 1969 and was also joined by the Lutheran Church of America [Tsang Kwok Fu (ed): "BCCM Centenary Magazine 1882 - 1982", page 34, Kota Kinabalu: The Basel Christian Church of Malaysia, 1983] .

References