The Bishop’s House, the oldest European building in Kuching, and the bishop’s chapel

The Bishop’s House is the oldest European building still standing in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Bishop’s House in Kuching was designed by a German shipwright and built in 1848-1849. It stands on College Hill and is said to be the oldest European building still standing in Kuching.

The Bishop’s House shares the same compound on McDougall Road as Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral, the House of the Epiphany, the diocesan theological college, the diocesan and parish offices, and a multi-purpose hall that is used for funerals and community events.

The Bishop’s House and the bishop’s chapel are not usually open to the public. But when we were visiting the diocesan offices last month, we were also invited to have a private viewing of the chapel.

The Bishop’s House and the bishop’s chapel were built under the supervision of Theodore Auguste Stahl, a German shipwright and carpenter (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Bishop’s House was built soon after Sir James Brooke established himself as the Rajah of Sarawak. College Hill and the surrounding area were given by the Rajah James Brooke in September 1848 to the Revd (later Bishop) Francis Thomas McDougall, the first leader of the Anglican mission in Sarawak, when he arrived in Kuching from England with his wife Harriette at the invitation of the Rajah.

McDougall designed the original residence himself and the house and chapel were built using with local labour and materials, closely supervised by a shipwrecked German shipwright and carpenter, Theodore Auguste Stahl.

Stahl was out of work after the ship he was on was shipwrecked in the Straits of Malacca. McDougall employed him in his passage through Singapore and Stahl’s carpentry and deign skills were invaluable to both the bishop and the rajah in early Sarawak.

The bishop’s private chapel is on the ground floor of the Bishop’s House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

At first, the house was known as the Mission House. It also served as a residence for Anglican missionaries, a school, a store, a dormitory with girls’ and matrons’ rooms, and the first dispensary in Kuching with McDougall himself as the doctor.

When the Bishopric of Sarawak was formed in 1855, McDougall became the first bishop and the Mission House became known as the Bishop’s House.

The house was the only building in Kuching that was not attacked during the Chinese Miners’ Rebellion on 18 February 1857, and it provided shelter and safe refuge for a number of Europeans and Chinese converts as the rebel miners rampaged through the town.

Stahl married Elizabeth Richardson, a maid in Harriette McDougall’s household. He taught classes in industry and carpentry in the new school before he returned to Singapore with his wife in 1858 after spending 10 years in Kuching.

The corridor in the Bishop’s House keading fron the diocesan offices to the bishop’s private chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Bishop’s House was originally built of wood. The ground floor was reinforced with brick, mortar and plaster in 1885. It was again renovated in 1912 with the addition of a garage, bathrooms and a porch that was an extension of the sitting room upstairs.

The house has sweeping views over the town and across the river to the Astana, now the official residence of the Governor. Like many other visitors, I could almost imagine the Anglican Bishop and the Rajah of Sarawak, at one time the two most prominent men in Kuching, waving to each other in the morning from afar, or imagine tea parties on the lawn.

The house has undergone some renovations recently. Although it was not carried out strictly according to conservation principles, the house is relatively intact.

Today the Bishop’s House serves as the Anglican bishop’s residence upstairs with his offices, diocesan offices and the bishop’s private chapel on the ground floor. The grounds provide a place of quiet and peace and the majestic and beautiful trees on the hill are of bicentennial vintage.

The Bishop’s House is a private residence and generally it is not open to the public, but the gates are usually open and it is possible to have a discreet look at it most days.

The Bishop’s House is a private residence and the chapel is not open to the public (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Advent 2024: 8, Sunday 8 December 2024, the Second Sunday of Advent

‘… the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth’ (Luke 3: 5) … a rough way made smooth in Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent – and the real countdown to Christmas – began last Sunday and today is the Second Sunday of Advent (8 December 2024).

Later this morning, the motet at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, is John Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing. This morning too, the Greek Orthodox parish in Stony Stratford is celebrating the patron saints of the community, Saint Stylianos (26 November) and Saint Ambrose (7 December), and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the community.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Luke 3: 4) … a tree-lined pathway in Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 3: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.’

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Luke 3: 4) … a straight path lined with trees in Kilmore, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The second candle lit on the Advent Wreath this morning traditionally recalls the Prophets. The first candle last Sunday represented the prophets, and the third candle next Sunday reminds us of Saint John the Baptist. This morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 3: 1-6) provides a link between the Prophets and Saint John the Baptist.

Saint Luke places the events in his Gospel firmly and historically in the time of particular rulers, both political and religious. The ministry of Saint John the Baptist and of Christ are incarnational and take place in real time, in history.

What is to come is a new authority that is inaugurated in very real time and is measured by grace and not power, a challenge to the people of God and to the authorities of the world. It is a time of renewal linked to the past, lived in the present and looking forward to the future.

The words of Saint John the Baptist are not only for a people long ago but words for us today.

Saint John the Baptist is announcing judgment at the end of the era and the beginning of a new pact with God that is available to all. He travels throughout the Jordan Valley, preaching a return to God’s ways and being ethically and spiritually renewed. He quotes from the Prophecy of Isiah we have already heard quoted by Baruch (see Isaiah 40: 3-5).

However, Saint Luke makes one change in the quotation: the word ‘his’ (verse 4) emphasises that it is for Christ that John prepares the way. For Saint Luke, all flesh, all people all people will have the opportunity to be rescued from sin.

The world is a place and we find our home as foreigners in a strange land, longing for the Kingdom of God present, and not yet fully realised. In the wilderness, we long to hear the voice crying out, to hear that we are welcome.

As we hear in the canticle Benedictus, which the lectionary provides in the place of a psalm this morning, Saint John the Baptist is the agent to fulfil the promises of the prophets (see Isaiah 40: 3; Malachi 3: 1, 4: 5).

Christ who is coming at Advent is bringing the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and is the living word who brings the promise of transformation and change.

Saint John makes his proclamation to the whole world. The whole of creation will be remade, the world of authority will be turned upside down, the word of salvation will raise up new children of God, and even the stones will shout as the kingdom message becomes a message of embrace and love, with a new order of family and kinship that embraces all people.

In this season of Advent, how do we connect with the real world which is wilderness for so many people?

How do we encourage people in our churches to take the promise of the Kingdom of God outside the walls of the church building, to take the Gospel of grace into the world around us, proclaiming Christ and the opportunity of hope and joy and transformation that he brings with him at his coming?

‘And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth’ (Luke 3: 5) … the yew tree walk at Gormanston, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 8 December 2024, Advent II):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Peace – Advent’. This theme is introduced today with Reflections by the Revd Nitano Muller, Canon for Worship and Welcome, Coventry Cathedral:

Read Luke 3: 1-6

John the Baptist’s voice calls out from the wilderness, urging the people to prepare the way for the Lord by making straight paths and levelling mountains – metaphors for transformation. This passage captures a sense of urgency and hope: a new world is possible, but it requires transformation. It raises a fundamental question: Is peace possible in a world marred by violence?

Coventry Cathedral’s story offers a resounding answer: Yes, peace is possible, even in the ruins of war. When the medieval cathedral was bombed in 1940, it could have become a monument to vengeance and loss. But instead, the ruins were preserved alongside the new building as a symbol of forgiveness, reconciliation, and the transformative power of peace. The decision to rebuild not with a spirit of revenge but with a commitment to reconciliation echoes the prophetic message of John the Baptist: prepare the way, make room for healing and restoration.

Peace-building is not an abstract idea to be envisioned, but requires brave individuals who will cry out. Those who will name the injustices experienced in the world and call others to pay attention and act, too. We are all called to consider our voice and part in the ministry of reconciliation, our contributions to domestic and systemic violence and our own experience of forgiveness.

We must actively choose the way of peace every day, as a way of preparing our hearts, homes, churches and our communities for the arrival of the Prince of Peace who is birthed in every decision and action we take in building a culture of justice and peace.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 8 December 2024, Advent II) invites us to pray:

Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds,
that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

An icon of the Birth of Saint the Baptist from the Monastery of Anopolis in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org