The Anglican Church in Malaysia

Book excerpt: This book examines the Anglican Church in Malaysia from multiple angles, unpacking its history from British colonialism to today’s Muslim-majority Asian nation. Analyzing tense Christian-Muslim dialogue and volatile intercommunity relations, themes of ethnicity, identity, gender, and multiculturalism intersect in contexts of war, insurgency, and national independence. The Church’s two centuries of history unfold chronologically, but this study goes far beyond mere description of events; it is a critical, multidisciplinary, multilayered discussion that integrates contemporary, archival, and scholarly perspectives. It focuses on high-pressure interfaces between colonialists, clergy, sultans, indigenous, and immigrant groups. The roles of education and healthcare—as evangelism, or perhaps incentivization—are investigated, within evolving models of mission, conversion, and the broader context of Anglicanism in crisis. These diverse threads intertwine to produce a concise but comprehensive three-dimensional portrait of the Anglican Church in Malaysia.