Free Community Church is Singapore’s only affirming church. This means that they openly support transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, and celebrate same-sex relationships. This extends to the ministry: pastors Miak and Pauline are both gay. Last month I went on vacation to Singapore to see my partner, and joined FCC for their Sunday service on March 10th (1st Sunday of Lent, if you prefer).

They might not be as vibrant and full of life as the temples of Hinduism, Buddhism, or traditional Chinese religion, but whether you’re walking around or viewing the city through the windows of the MRT, the variety of churches is an impossible to ignore feature of the landscape of Singapore. Some are ornate, some plain, others just plain imposing. But they all seem to be tall, proud, and desperate to be noticed.

Free Community Church is the exception: you couldn’t find it by accident. You really need to know where it is, or know someone who can show you. Once you find the right office building which the church rents its space from, it’s up a couple of floors and then a lovely walk through a car park. Looking outside once you get there, you have a sort of one-way mirror: most of the view is taken up by a large Methodist church. But I doubt any of the Methodists look out their windows to be reminded of FCC.

The service began with congregational singing. Contemporary worship music isn’t my thing, but it felt special in this setting, and I always enjoy the feeling of singing. The first song, You Are, was one written by the lead singer. Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) was another song whose lyrics carried special meaning for this congregation. But Blessed Be Your Name, an alright song that I remembered from my regrettable evangelical adolescence, stood out most:

Every blessing you pour out,

I’ll turn back to praise.

Even when the darkness closes in, Lord,

Still I will say:

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The words of this song are simple and uplifting, the tune middle-of-the-road. But it managed to move me to tears. It took me back to a time when I believed in an entirely vengeful, petty and small god, not allowing anyone near him who hasn’t gained the right testimony or uttered the right words. In all likelihood, the god who the song was written for.

I’m enough of a Quaker that I like to look at as many of the people I’m worshiping with as possible. So I turned around during this song, and in these faces I saw instead the God that I know. It called to mind my journey, and all that had changed since I last heard this song, which I assume was at Soul Survivor about 10 years ago. But it also made me wonder about everyone else’s. I surely wasn’t the only one who had gone through a transformation of understanding.

There are a good number of affirming churches in the UK now. A few individual congregations have took this up, like Bloomsbury Baptist Church, while some denominations have made the change as a whole. Maybe this is because of the greater number of these churches, or because they have a history as another kind of church, or maybe it is a simple question of choice. In any case, FCC is different: it is very much the Gay Church of Singapore, and was founded as such. And that colours everything. As well as the music, the language of the Holy Communion is given a new life, and the simple feeling of being in communion with other Christians is strengthened by our mutual struggles. The sermon by Rev Miak Sew was much more focussed on our actions in this world, not speculations about the next, and used two stories from Jesus’ earthly ministry as his illustration. He also spoke about a current issue in Singapore, of breaches in privacy by medical professionals. After the service I heard from others that they disagreed with Miak’s take on this. But that’s okay — church can be a place for debate and to “reason together,” and this sermon had encouraged that spirit.

The preaching itself is very conventional: one person speaks, you listen, no interaction. But if you like church to be more of a dialogue, I would still attend FCC. Just make sure you go to the nearby hawker centre afterwards for lunch. This is where the real conversations happen.