Basel Christian Church of Malaysia
| Basel Christian Church of Malaysia
馬來西亞基督教巴色会 Gereja Kristian Basel Malaysia |
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| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Lutheran, Reformed |
| Associations | Lutheran World Federation, National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, Christian Federation of Malaysia, Council of Churches of Malaysia, Sabah Theological Seminary |
| Region | Sabah Sarawak West Malaysia |
| Origin | 1847 Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, Republic of China |
| Separated from | Chongzhen Church Tsung-Tsin Church |
| Branched from | Basel Missionary Society |
| Separations | 1925 |
| Congregations | 112 |
| Members | 63,000 baptised |
| Primary schools | 12 |
| Secondary schools | 3 |
| Tertiary institutions | 14 |
| Official website | www |
馬來西亞基督教巴色会
The Basel Christian Church of Malaysia or BCCM (Malay: Gereja Kristian Basel Malaysia) formerly known as Borneo Basel Self Established Church is one of the four Lutheran bodies in Malaysia. It currently has 112 congregations nationwide and 63,000 baptised members.
The Borneo Basel Self Established Church was founded in 1925. Though following in the tradition of the Basel Mission, it was an independent institution. After the Second World War, the Chinese segment of the population experienced a period of urbanisation and economic growth. The foundation of the Malaysian state in 1963 was the occasion for the church to change its name to "Basel Christian Church of Malaysia" (BCCM). By the end of the 1960s, the church followed the example of its sister church in Hong Kong and joined the Lutheran World Federation. By the end of the 1970s, the BCCM’s awareness for its mission among the native population of Sabah grew. The missionary work, which the BCCM began to do independently and in different places in Sabah, led to the establishment of local Malay-speaking congregations. Since a few years, this native branch of BCCM congregations is organised in a separate synod, which is part of the overall synod of the BCCM. Its name is BCCM – Bahasa Malaysia (BCCM-BM); it represents 22'000 congregation members and is mainly present in central and west Sabah. In many places, the dependency on the Chinese-speaking congregations is still considerable and is seen as a burden by the Chinese. The BCCM-BM has six congregation districts with a total of 90 congregations (including Kuala Lumpur).
The current president of Basel Christian Church of Malaysia is Soon Chong Voon.
In the beginning, the Basel Missionary Society Mission sent her missionaries to Africa, later to India in 1833. In 1846, missionaries were also sent to China. The first two missionaries to Mainland China and Hong Kong were Rev. Theodore Hamberg and Rev. Rudolph Lechler. They worked especially among the Hakka linguistic tribe in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong. After many years of labour and hardship, about two hundred congregations and more than one hundred schools were built up.The church membership was about twenty thousand. In the aftermath of the failed Taiping Rebellion in China, Hakka speaking Christians affiliated with the Basel Mission were viewed with suspicion by the Qing Government as the leader of the rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, was himself a Hakka who claimed to be a Christian. This resulted in an increase in the number of Hakka speaking refugees from China into the Southeast Asian region.
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Wikipedia