Places around P.E.E. (8) - Church of St Mary of the Angels

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary of the Angels was established at Bukit Batok in 1970 when the parish was carved out of the huge St Joseph's Church domain.

It was given to the Australian Franciscan Friars (a religious order) to manage. The pioneer team of Friar Sylvester Campbell, Friar Brendon Rogers and Friar George Boggs took over the premises that was previously used by another group of Franciscans Friars who ran a sociological institute.

At that time, there were only 12 families registered in the new parish but this was soon to change with the establishment of Bukit Batok New Town. Located at the other end of Hillview Avenue from Princess Elizabeth Estate, the parish continued to grow to such an extent that the church building had to be torn down and rebuilt twice over  the next years just to accomodate the growing Catholic community. Today it is estimated to have a congregation of 8,000.

The 1st Church of St Mary of the Angels (left) in 1970.
The building in the rear is called the Friary where the religious friars lived.

Pictured below is the current church building which was designed with people at its heart.
The building was planned to ensure close interaction with the congregation and provide a conducive environment for community worship.

The cobblestone Piazza provides a medieval feeling to the place.

The church nave.

Quiet spaces for personal prayer inside the church

Statues of St Francis of Assisi and St Clare at the entrance welcome visitors.

Aisle leading to the underground Columbarium

The Garden of World Peace, built above the Columbarium.
The building is the Friary where the friars live in community.

A 10m overhead cantilevered roof provides sheltered outdoor space.

Christmas Tree erected over the Reflection Pool.

Though it was never done for that reason, the church building has been recognised as a work of architecture. It won the President's Design Award in 2006, the SIA Architectural Design Award in 2004, the International Dedal Minosse Prize 2004 and the 9th SIA-ICI Colour Award.

I have been a parishioner of this church since 1971 and was the Parish Administrator from 1985 to 1990 when I left to further my career in the commercial sector (sigh).

If you are ever in the area, please do feel free to drop in and enjoy the ambience and to look at the architecture. Free guides are available by the main door for you to make your own way around the premises.

For more info, you can visit the church website at this link.

Related links:
The friars at Hillview
The Franciscans
The Columbarium

The Friars of Hillview (2)

THE FRIARS HAVE ARRIVED.

In an earlier blog, I introduced the Franciscan Friars who live at the hilltop of what is now the Church of St Mary of the Angels at Bukit Batok.

Historically, there were 2 different groups of Franciscan friars who worked at Bukit Batok.
The 1st group arrived in 1958. This group was the international chinese scholars whose given task was to produce anti-communist literature to counter the threat of communism in the region.

This group of friars was more reclusive as their priority was not directly to the catholics living in the district. They stayed from 1958 till 1970 when when they moved their Studium Sociologicum to Taiwan.

The 2nd group of Franciscan Friars were from Australia.
They came after the Archbishop of Singapore requested for their assistance in running a new parish. This new parish, or church administrative district, was carved out of the huge domain of St Joseph Bukit Timah.
This later group of 4 Friars were tasked to look after the welfare of the Catholics living in an area marked out in Bukit Batok, Jurong East and parts of Bukit Timah area.

Catholics living at Hillview and Princess Elizabeth Estate were in a quandary.
The new Franciscan parish church was at their doorstep, just a short distance away down Hillview Avenue. It was easier to get to St Mary than their own parish church St Joseph at Upper Bukit Timah.
But 'technically', they were still within the boundary of St Joseph's.
Should they 'defect' and join the new church out of convenience?
It was left to the Catholics themselves to decide which church to attend.
So, many like myself, found ourselves shuttling between the two but most eventually settled for one or the other.

The Australian friars slowly built up the community from an initial 20 rural families to today's congregation of over 7,000. The Australian friars have now been replaced by local friars whom they had trained up over the years.


A SAINT AMONG THEM
The Christian faith calls for all believers to be saints, i.e. to be holy.
The honorific 'St.' conferred by the Catholic Church goes beyond this call.
Among the millions of believers over the centuries, occasionally one or two individuals pops up who, by their lives or work, exemplifies holiness beyond the norm.

It is not easy at all for a Catholic to be a Saint.
Firstly, you got be be dead!
Then, whilst being dead, you have to perform two verified miracles.
How is this so? Like I said, it is not easy.

If Singapore were to lay claim on anyone who might possibly be a Saint, the nearest candidate would be someone very few would have heard of. He lived and worked at St Anthony Friary located at Old Jurong Road for two and half years as part of the team fighting communism in S.E.Asia.
His name is Friar Gabriel Allegra, originally from Sicily, Italy. He lived in Singapore from 1961 to 1963.

Fra Gabriel Allegra OFM.

Unlike other 'famous' personalities who may, or may not, eventually be called Saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta or Pope John Paul II who visited Singapore,  Friar Allegra actually lived in Singapore and would have moved all around the Bukit Batok area.

Friar Gabriel Allegra was the first person to translate the entire Bible into Chinese. His translation is still used as the definitive translation in the Catholic Church today. His cause for promotion to Sainthood is being actively promoted by the church in Hong Kong where he spent the last days of his life. He died in 1976.
In 1996, Pope John Paul II pronounced Gabriel Allegra as "Blessed', passing the 1st stage in the long process in gaining Sainthood. And yes, one miracle has been attributed to him. The Church needs another to qualify him as an official 'Saint'.

I recall speaking to another friar around 1990, Fr Fulgence Gross, who was one of the original chinese scholars and I asked him about Friar Allegra. "Oh, I couldn't stand that guy!", he exclaimed, "He was too good!"

In the early 1960s, I was too young to intimately know Friar Gabriel, unlike my parents who did, but even having met him when I was a young boy,  I hope that one day he will be officially named a Saint, so that we can claim him as one of our our own.

The friars of Hillview.

Friars are men who live spiritual lives in a religious community. You may be more familiar with the term 'monks'. The difference between a monk and a friar is that a monk is normally cloistered within a monastery, whereas a friar does his missionary work outside amongst the people.

St Francis of Assisi started the Franciscan Friars order in Italy more than 800 years ago.
Perhaps the only friars you may have heard of are Friar Tuck associated with Robin Hood, or Friar Lawrence from Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet?

Friars, besides evangelizing by example,  do work amongst the community in whichever field they may be needed. There are friars who are medically trained, educators, administrators, lawyers and some running church parishes.

There is a group of Franciscan friars living in the Hillview area at a community house called a friary.
They have friaries located both at Bukit Batok East as well as Chestnut Drive .

Their presence in Singapore started in 1958.
It came about when the Vatican realized that communism was a serious threat to society in Asia with the rise of Communist China. The Vatican decided to  establish a Studium Sociologicum, or social center, with the purpose of writing and propagating anti-communist literature to counter this threat. The task was given to the Franciscan friars to set up this center in Singapore. And so a small group of international chinese scholars, amongst them Irish, Italians, American and Taiwanese were sent here to begin their work of countering communism.  They set up their Social Center called St Anthony Friary at 8-3/4ms Old Jurong Road. When the threat of communism diminished somewhat in later years, the Social Center was moved to Taiwan.

The Archbishop of Singapore wanted to keep the Franciscan presence in Singapore and offered the Franciscans a new task of running a parish community instead. And so in 1970, the Franciscan Order sent friars from Australia to Singapore to establish a new parish church community at Bukit Batok. This was named the Parish of St Mary of the Angels and was based at the original St Anthony Friary. In time, the parish grew from a few rural Catholic families to today's congregation of around 7,000. They are still served by the Franciscan Friars today.

The Church of St Mary of the Angels at Bukit Batok East.

In a forthcoming blog, I will highlight the work of some friars and you may be surprised that a saint may have walked amongst you !