Assistant Priest's News - 26 April 2026

18 minutes ago
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ANZAC MEMORIAL SERVICE 10am Sunday

This is my thirty‑first year singing the Australian National Anthem, and it still stirs something deep within me. Perhaps that is because I was born in Singapore and grew up immersed in a different culture; yet my life has always been shaped by the wider Commonwealth story.

Many people know that my late father served as a first-generation Regimental Sergeant Major in the Singapore Armed Forces. The roots of the modern Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) trace back to the 1st Singapore Infantry Regiment (1 SIR), formed in 1957 – eight years before independence. This first battalion emerged under British colonial administration, and its officers and NCOs were shaped by British military doctrine, discipline, and organisational structure. That inheritance mattered. It meant that Singapore’s earliest soldiers were formed within a tradition that prized precision, regimental identity, and a certain stoic professionalism – qualities that would later become hallmarks of the SAF’s ethos.

Needless to say, our home was formed by discipline, service, and respect for those who wear a uniform. However, that story goes back even further in my family. My great and grandparents lived through the First and Second World War — not as soldiers on the battlefield, but as quiet, courageous villagers who hid wounded Allied soldiers in silos and underground shelters in the village. Their bravery was not recorded in history books, but it was written into the fabric of our family: a deep instinct to protect, to serve, and to stand with others in times of danger.

I have now lived in Australia for thirty years, and I am proud to call this country home – not only by citizenship, but by love, belonging, and shared history. So ANZAC Day speaks to me in a very deep way. It is an Australian moment, yes, but it is also a moment that resonates across the Commonwealth, across generations, and across the many nations whose sons and daughters stood together in times of great cost.

As Christians, we hold this day within an even larger story – the story Jesus names in John 15:9–17. On this day of remembrance, his words ring with particular clarity: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The men and women we honour today lived out, in their own way, this profound truth about love, duty, and self‑giving.

Today, it is an honour to stand with you – as your priest, as a fellow Australian, and as someone whose own story has been shaped by the values we remember on this day: courage, sacrifice, duty, and the hope for peace. May the memory of the ANZACs call us not only to gratitude, but to the kind of love Christ commands – a love that seeks the good of others, a love that heals, a love that makes peace possible.

Lest we forget.

Music for Anzac Memorial Service

CHORAL EUCHARIST @ 10.00 AM SUNDAY

Trumpeter: Mads Sørensen

Prelude: Prelude to a ‘Te Deum’ – Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

God Save the King and Advance Australia Fair

Hymns: Your hand, O God, has guided TiS 456

O God, our help in ages past NEH 417

Alleluya! Alleluya! Hearts to heaven NEH 103 (t362)

God who watches o’er the nations tAHB 478

Setting: Parish Eucharist – Michael Dudman (1938-1994)

Psalm: 46 (NPCW)

Anthem: Requiem aeternam from Requiem JWV 108 – Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)

Motet: Pie Jesu from Requiem – Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948)

Postlude: [Trumpet and Organ]

War Memorial Grand Organ

In memory of the fallen. The World Wars: 1914-18 / 1939-45

During our Anzac Memorial Service at 10am this Sunday, we will be blessing our War Memorial Grand Organ. The Organ is a memorial to Australians killed in the 20th century's two World Wars, and resonates in 'one of the most beautiful acoustics' in Australia.

St Andrew’s original organ was destroyed in the devastating 1961 fire that consumed much of the church. The new organ was conceived not merely as a replacement, but as a memorial instrument – a symbol of resilience, remembrance, and the rebuilding of community after loss.

Because the organ itself is a war memorial, every ANZAC service at St Andrew’s is enriched by its presence. When it plays the introit, postlude, or hymns, the instrument is fulfilling the very purpose for which it was built.

It is not just accompanying worship – it is participating in remembrance.