New Primate elected

THE BISHOP of West Malaysia has been elected Primate of the Anglican Province of South East Asia.

Meeting in Sandakan, Sabah, on 2 September, the bishops of Sabah, Singapore, West Malaysia and Kuching elected the Rt Rev Ng Moon Hing to a four-year term of office beginning in February 2016.

He succeeds the Most Rev Bolly Lapok, Bishop of Kuching. Archbishop Lapok will remain Bishop of Kuching until he retires in 2017.

Born on 12 November 1955 in Ipoh in Malaysia, Ng was educated in Malaysia and Australia and earned a degree in civil engineering from Monash University in Australia. After working as a civil engineer for a few years, he trained for the ministry at the Seminari Teologi Malaysia and was ordained deacon in 1985 and priest in 1986 for the Diocese of West Malaysia.

In 1991, Ng was instituted as the Vicar of St Peter’s Church, Ipoh and later appointed canon of St Mary’s Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur, and, Archdeacon of the diocese’s Lower North Archdeaconry.

In 1993 he founded Anglican Village Ministries (AVM) a mission society dedicated to evangelising the country’s rural poor.

On 5 May 2007, Ng was consecrated fourth bishop of West Malaysia in succession to the Rt Rev Lim Cheng Ean.