Welcome to the 2012 Website of the Anglican Diocese of Sabah Our Year of Golden Jubilee


In which we commemorate

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit In and through Anglican Christians in Sabah and their supporters throughout the world.

The Jubilee Year in ancient Israel was not simply a celebration of time passed nor of man’s achievements, but a celebration of God’s faithfulness in its history. It was a reminder that the land and its people belonged to God by virtue of Creation and Redemption, and that Israel’s destiny was to be blessed and to be a blessing to the nations.

Breaking the annual cycle of planting and harvest, and completely trusting in God for a triple harvest for the 49th year, Israelite slaves were released and land bought returned to the owner. Social justice was re-affirmed for the foreigners as well as Israelites.

We don’t need to mimic the Jubilee laws since they have been fulfilled in Christ. However, we uphold the spirit of Jubilee which is gratitude, faith, repentance and obedience in personal morality as well as social justice.

Focus on relationship to God through Christ and serving one another in the name of Christ deals with any grief, fear or pride as we reflect on past, present and future. Celebratory joy recognizes that peace and gladness comes from knowing Jesus Christ’s love through the cross and its outworking in the foundation of the Diocese.

Jubilant for the past:

Our heritage goes back to James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak in 1842 as well as Governor of Labuan in 1848.  Being Church of England, he requested his Denomination to send missionary priests to serve in his territories. With voluntary British financial and prayer support, the first missionaries, Rev McDougal and two other missionaries with their families, arrived in Kuching in 1848. Although Rev McDougal’s first visited Labuan was in 1852, John Scott, the Lieutenant Governor of Labuan, had been authorized to conduct weddings and burials as necessary.

In 1878, Mr W B Pryor, the founder of Sandakan and a keen Anglican layman, brought Christianity to Sandakan.  The British North Borneo Company was inaugurated in 1881 and in 1883, Bishop Hose sent Catechist Ah Leng to Sandakan.  By 1888, the SPG were able to send Rev Henry Elton to Sandakan. As Kudat and the other new coastal towns began to grow, missionaries, assisted by locals, planted Anglican churches and schools.

WWII brought terrible suffering in 1942-45, but God raised up good out of rubble and ashes. Reconstruction of Church and Community and the start of the Interior Mission, the Anglican Church in North Borneo grew to become a Diocese on 24th July 1962.

The Diocese has continued to flourish after missionaries handed over responsibility to local leadership and diverse ministries in multiple languages.

Click here for a more detailed history of the Diocese.

Jubilant for the present

By God’s grace, the Diocese, now led by Bishop Albert Vun, is self-supporting, self-governing, self-propagating and reaching out to mission areas beyond its borders.  This grace is demonstrated through over 60,000 members (27,500 average Sunday attendance - 2011's statistic), in 100 over churches (with a total of over 300 congregations), ministered to by over 120 full time clergy and lay pastors, so that church members in turn are the salt and light in all fields of endeavour in the community eg in education, medicine, social concern, business, government, and sport.

Jubilant for the Future

God’s love for the world - in Sabah and beyond – has inspired exciting new plans for the future:

·   evangelism using a variety of methods - Alpha, EE3, evangelistic events.

·    reviving expertise in Education - building church-run schools.

·    selecting and training clergy and workers,

·    expanding mission work in Sabah and other countries,

·    preaching the Word of God faithfully and powerfully

·    looking for success only from the Spirit of God,

·    multiplying vibrant worshipping congregations

·   where people come to know Christ, grow in Christ and make Him known.

Our vision statement is: "To build strong local churches in Sabah and beyond that are passionate in worship, powerful in preaching and prepared for effective mission and evangelism."

All to the glory of God the Father.