Church of the Sacred Heart, Singapore

Church of the Sacred Heart
Country	Singapore
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	catholic.org.sg
Administration
Diocese	Archdiocese of Singapore
Clergy
Priest(s)	Rev Fr Paul Tay(Parish Priest), Rev Fr Paul Tong, Rev Fr Vincent Chee

The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic church in the Museum Planning Area of Singapore.

History

The Church of the Sacred Heart was built in 1906 by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and completed in 1910. The finances for the construction was largely donated by 3 wealthy Chinese benefactors, one of which was Mr Jacobe Low Khiok Chiang (1843–1911), the founder of the Bangkok and Singapore-based merchant firm, Kiam Hoa Heng. Mr Low was of Teochew decent and born in Swatow, China. The name of this church is given in Chinese (圣心堂)and the Church is mainly built for the Cantonese Congregation.

The church was renovated in 1969 and a 3 story Parish Welfare Hall was established on 21 February 1971. The top level is now used for catechism and meeting rooms, the second level is a canteen and the ground level is a small carpark.

The church was renovated again by Rev Fr Paul Tay a few years ago who also started the columbarium in the Church of St Theresa and filled the church with parishioners which once had only a few parishioners. He also built the Church of the Holy Trinity, Singapore which is the largest parish in Singapore.

Present

Present Church of the Sacred Heart

The Church's current address is 111 Tank Road, Singapore 238069. Rev Fr Paul Tay is now building a 7½ story building which sits on freehold land beside the Church. The land has been vacant for many years and they are now finally working on it. The Church is air-conditioned and has an excellent sound system equipped with Shure microphones. On the first Sunday of each month, the Church's canteen will have free food and sometimes a band who plays country music. They call that day 'agape day'. It will also have the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul which members must be registered, gives free food and some money to the poor at the ground floor. The masses will have a second collection for the Society of St Vincent De Paul. On every Sundays, coffee and tea will also be free in the canteen and there will be a DOULOS,which originates from the Greek word for "servant", at the front of the Church which serves food to the poor and gives them each a loaf of bread to bring home. Every third Sunday of the month they will also have a second collection for the Church Community Building fund which is the 7½ story building.

Community building

With the newly proposed seven-and-a-half storey church community building to fulfil its parish needs the Church of the Sacred Heart at Tank Road will have the most-up-to-date state-of-the-art facilities. This community building is part of the general development program for the church.

Costing an estimated S$4.5 million, the building with a total floor area of 3,100 square metres, sited on freehold land is expected to be completed by middle 2008. It is so aptly designed to blend in with the facade and structure of the parish existing two shop-houses. This is where the cafeteria will be.

The church community building will have a 800 capacity multipurpose hall, meeting, catechism and prayer rooms, a music studio, a canteen and refreshment area, priest office, a secretariat and a religious bookshop.

It will also have a 200 capacity chapel, resident and retired priest quarters, a roof garden, three levels of car park with a total of 60 lots and a 1,000-double niche columbarium garden behind the church.

There will be a dining place which gives free meals to the poor. Facilities will also be provided for free medical services.

All these are to fulfil the needs of the parish community. The name Doulos which means "slave/servant" in Greek was given by Rev. Fr. Paul Tay to the building. The motto of the building is "Glory To God And Service To Mankind".

Exterior

Organisation

The church currently has 3 priests administering the church of about 500 parishioners.

• Rev Fr Paul Tay (Parish Priest)
• Rev Fr Paul Tong
• Rev Fr Vincent Chee

Fr Joseph Chao was also an assistant priest there, he died in January 2006.