While Esther and I were living at St. Peter's Hall at Trinity Theological College during the first year of our marriage, we both continued to teach at St. Andrew's and St. Hilda's Schools respectively. In the afternoons I attended some of the classes which were offered at the College (part-time during 1964) and then went into full-time study in 1965 before graduating in December. I was ordained as a deacon in February 1966 by Bishop C.K. Sansbury and priested a year later in 1967 by Bishop Chiu Ban It.

Ironically, in all my years of service in the Diocese I had never been formally inducted as a Vicar of any parish. This includes my previous position as Vicar of the Chapel of the Resurrection which was founded 22 years ago. When I was teaching at St. Andrew's School, my first parish where I served as lay reader and on the Parish Church Council was the Ascension Church (where Esther and I were married on 28 December 1963.) After we joined St. Peter's Hall, the Vicar of St. Matthew's Church, the late Canon James Leung requested me to serve (1964-1965) in the recently formed English congregation of this church.

After my ordination as Deacon I was posted to St. Paul's Church as a curate to the Ven. Dr. D.D. Chelliah who was also the Archdeacon. I served 3 years in this wonderful family church. Jonathan was born while I was in this parish. Esther was still teaching at St. Hilda's, and so as a young and proud father I took him around the whole parish of St. Paul's when I did my pastoral visitations every afternoon and teaching classes in the evenings. Jonathan was literally immersed in church life from the time he was born!

At the end of 1967 I was posted to St. Andrew's Cathedral, serving under the Very Rev. A.C. Dumper who was the Dean of the Cathedral. I learned much about good preaching, how to conduct traditional and dignified worship services, and I also spent much time praying alone at the daily 7am communion service and evensong at 5.15pm. The number of pastoral staff at the Cathedral was few then. Besides the Dean and the Chinese-speaking pastor, there was only myself. And yet the daily offices and communion were conducted at the Cathedral from Monday to Saturday. Many times I grumbled about being alone at these public services, until the Lord revealed to me that whenever we worship Him in Spirit and in truth, we are never alone. We are always surrounded by a great cloud of unseen witnesses (see Heb. 12:1) I was greatly blessed during my four years of apprenticeship at the Cathedral in the early years of my ministry.

In September 1971, I went with my family to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. I was the first Singapore student at this world-renowned institution. After I returned one year later, Bishop Chiu posted me to Queenstown. I became the first Asian pastor at the English Congregation of the Church of Good Shepherd (COGS). Prior to that, beginning with Rev. Chris Ellison, COGS had always been in the care of OMF missionaries, preserving and protecting this youthful evangelical congregation from the "contamination" of the other liberal, Anglo-Catholic influences in the diocese then.

Although I have always been an evangelical Anglican, somehow until my appointment as priest-in-charge of this congregation, I never understood why the members refused to participate in many of the diocesan events. When they heard that I would be their pastor, there was resistance and many of them were openly critical. The congregation was inward looking, fairly small (about 60 members) and not very friendly towards outsiders who did not reflect their ethos. I knew it was not going to be easy to manage and grow this congregation which had such strong feelings ... but God moved in an amazing way. He had to deal with me first. I needed to be humbled and changed!

While studying at Fuller Seminary in 1972, I was asked to attend a number of charismatic functions organized by the Full Gospel Businessman Fellowship (FGBMFI), and healing services conducted at Melodyland Christian Center and also the Kathryn Kuhlman meetings at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. I was also invited to meet the Anglican charismatic pioneer in the U.S., the Rev. Dennis Bennett as well as Pastor Chuck Smith who was a leader of the growing Jesus People movement at Calvary Chapel.

Although I came into the heartland of the Charismatic Renewal movement in Southern California, yet I managed to avoid any contact with these Pentecostal Christians. I was prejudiced against them and regarded them as shallow, emotional and not very sound in their bible knowledge. Before coming to Fuller, I had stopped by in London and spent a week at All Souls' Church, Langham Place where the Rev. John Stott, the fore-most evangelical leader was the Rector. John had counseled me not to be involved with the charismatic renewal. At that time I had very little knowledge about its threat to the evangelicals. I accepted his advice and so throughout the whole period in California I never attended any charismatic meeting.

I was glad that there was no direct personal contact made with the Pentecostals at a human level. Upon my return to Singapore in Sept 1972, over the next 3 months, I became inwardly fearful and spiritually unsettled. There was a sense of dissatisfaction and inadequacy in my spirit. I was restless and I felt that something important was missing in my own life. I did not know anyone I could turn to for counseling. My bishop then held a very different theological viewpoint from myself.

I still remember his rebuke of me when I shared about my personal experience of salvation and the need for repentance and deliverance when he asked us at the weekly Tuesday clergy meeting of what we think of "Salvation Today." It was the theme of a World Council of Churches conference which was to be held in Bangkok in December 1972. He told me that no one could be sure of one's own salvation. I was greatly upset with the rebuke and was discouraged at first. If God did not intervene in my life as well as in Bishop Chiu's life sovereignly at that time, I would have left the Anglican Church then.

I was so desperate for God to reveal Himself to me in a fresh personal way. At the beginning of 1973, I cried out to the Lord in prayer, that if God had something real and new for me I would be ready to receive. I was hungry for God. One night as I prayed I sensed that God was going to do something to answer my cry and the longing of my heart. After praying for a while I became still for a moment. Then I felt my tongue begin to move and as I vocalized it I found myself speaking in an unknown tongue. Up till now I had no contact with Pentecostal Christians and so speaking in tongues was entirely a new and unfamiliar experience for me. I concluded that it was God who gave me this experience and that Jesus Christ Himself had baptized me with the Holy Spirit. I did not seek for this gift of tongues but God was gracious in giving me this faith-building experience. I discovered that mine was not an isolated event.

A few days later, Bishop Chiu had just returned from the WCC Conference. He shared with me about his experience and encounter with the Holy Spirit while he was in Bangkok. He too had been touched by the Lord at about the same time as I was in Singapore! As soon as I learned of his experience, I was thrilled and rejoiced in the amazing grace of God. We became knitted in one spirit. Very soon after that, the fire of the charismatic renewal which was ignited at the Church of the Good Shepherd and St. Andrew's Cathedral, began to spread in the Diocese as well as to the other churches throughout Singapore from 1973 onwards.

In March of that year, I was introduced to Brian Bailey, originally from England and now living in the United States. After his ministry in the Philippines he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to come to Singapore. Mr. Goh Ewe Kheng, an elder of the Church of Singapore brought Brian Bailey to meet me and he told me of what God was doing through the charismatic renewal all over the world. I invited Brian to speak to our young congregation at Good Shepherd and he taught us this song with a prophetic message: "All over the world the Spirit is moving ... And all over the Church the Spirit is moving ..." I asked Brian Bailey how would I know this would happen in Singapore and in Good Shepherd Church. He then told me that God had revealed to him that there will be a mighty out-pouring of His Spirit upon the Church in Singapore and we will see a revival soon.