Heritage
The first Tamil Methodist Church was then established with Rev Underwood as its pastor. This then become the second Methodist Church in Singapore.
God laid the foundation for the Tamil Methodist Church in Singapore when in 1884, the South Indian Annual Conference appointed William F Oldham as a Missionary to Singapore. Oldham, accompanied by Rev and Mrs James Thoburn, arrived in Singapore on 7 Feb 1885, to pioneer the Methodist work here. A Tamil speaking Englishman, William Oldham had a strong yearning to bring the Gospel to the Indians in Singapore. In September 1885, with his fluency in Tamil, Oldham began holding regular Sunday services in the prisons for the incarcerated Tamil prisoners. By the end of 1886, regular Sunday and weekday services were being held in Tamil.
In 1887, a Tamil preacher, C W Underwood, was recruited from Jaffna, Ceylon, to work with the Tamil people. The Tamil Methodist Church was thus established with Underwood as her pastor. This then became the second Methodist Church in Singapore. Rev Underwood was instrumental in starting the Tamil Boys School in 1885 and Tamil Girls’ School (now known as Methodist Girls’ School) in 1887.
By 1889, the congregation grew too large for its chapel and moved to Short Street. In 1912, the Epworth League (now known as the Methodist Youth Fellowship) was established. The church embarked on a program of financial selfsufficiency and launched its building fund in 1915 towards its efforts to build a church on a piece of land in Short Street. In 1925, the foundation stone for the new church was laid by Bishop Titus Lowe.
Church Planting and Missions
TMC is the mother-church of seven other churches of the ETAC. Missionaries have been sent to Indian sub-continent, the Americas, and now Africa.
After 1925 when the church premises were completed, the church then turned its attention to evangelistic work in the Pasir Panjang area and constituted the Pasir Panjang Tamil Methodist Church from a preaching point in 1927. The first Methodist Church was also constituted in Johor under the pastoral care of Rev Pakianathan, TMC’s pastor at that time. It was during this time when evangelism amongst the Tamil Christians in Seletar Naval Base began. Preaching points in Seletar and Sembawang were then constituted as churches in 1935 and 1937 respectively.
Rev T R Doraisamy, who ministered between 1951 and 1954, was instrumental in ministering to the Hindustani congregation which in 1953 matured into the Punjabi Church. He went on to become the first Tamil Bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia.
Rev Prabhu Das Roberts became pastor in 1969 for the next 27 years and it was during this time when the church sent out a number of missionsaries in various mission fields.
In the 70s and 80s, members offered their houses as places of worship and house churches were started in Jurong, Ang Mo Kio, Marsling, and Toa Payoh. These house churches were eventually constituted as churches in 1977 , 1980, and 1982 respectively.
Rev R Prabhu, who pastored TMC between 2002 and 2003 pioneered the Telugu Fellowship . What started out as 4 members grew into a formally constituted church in 2008 with hundreds of regular attendees at Sunday evening services.
Pastor Roll
Called to serve – Pastoral leaders of the Tamil Methodist Church
| 01. | William Underwood | 1887‐1890 |
| 02. | Rev H I Hoisington | 1890‐1892 |
| 03. | Simon Peter | 1897‐1903 |
| 04. | Thomas Paul Ponniah | 1904‐1907 |
| 05. | Manuel Gnanamuthu | 1907‐1909 |
| 06. | Rev Paul Kuppusamy | 1909‐1910 |
| 07. | Rev J A Supramaniam | 1909‐1910, 28‐31 |
| 08. | B D Henry | 1910‐1914 |
| 09. | Rev J J Kovilpillai | 1914‐1916 |
| 10. | Rev Y J Jesudason | 1916‐1919 |
| 11. | Rev M R Doraisamy | 1919‐1924, 31‐33 |
| 12. | Rev S S Pakianathan | 1924‐1928, 34‐37 |
| 13. | Rev S M Tevathasan | 1931 |
| 14. | Rev J J Kingham | 1932‐1933 |
| 15. | Rev Abel Eklund | 1933‐1934 |
| 16. | Rev J V Ayaduray | 1938‐1947, 55‐64 |
| 17. | Rev C B Paul | 1948‐1951 |
| 18. | Rev T R Doraisamy | 1951‐1954 |
| 19. | Rev Robert Foster | 1965 |
| 20. | Rev C A Watson | 1965‐1968 |
| 21. | Rev R Prabhu Das | 1969‐1982, 84‐96 |
| 22. | Rev I G Sunderarajan | 1982‐1984 |
| 23. | Rev Dr Robert Solomon | 1996-1998 |
| 24. | Rev Dr J Daniel | 1997 |
| 25. | Rev Dr E J Thoraisingham | 1998-1999 |
| 26. | Rev S D Sadagopan | 2000-2002 |
| 27. | Rev R Prabhu | 2002-2003 |
| 28. | Rev Dr Vinson Samuel | 2004-2007 |
| 29. | Rev Nagulan James | 2008-2013 |
| 30. | Rev Anil Kumar Samuel | 2013 |
| 31. | Rev. Jeyapaul Sitther | 2013-2015 |
| 32. | Rev James Nagulan | 2016 – 2020 |
| 33. | Rev Vijay Joseph | 2021 …. |
