April 29 1996

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The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican communion, George Carey, officially created an autonomous Anglican province of Southeast Asia in Singapore in February. Moses Tay, 57-year-old evangelical bishop of Singapore, has become its first archbishop.

The new province unites about 200,000 Anglicans in Singapore, West Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The new province will make autonomous administrative and leadership decisions, while still being "in communion with the Church of England."

Anglicanism throughout Southeast Asia generally is more evangelical, charismatic, and conservative than that of the Church of England. Autonomy will allow distinctives to remain. The Anglican church in Singapore is unlikely to ordain women as is now permitted in many Anglican provinces. "Anglicanism at its very best can hold differences of thought together," Carey said. "Catholicism, evangelicalism, charismaticism, and liberalism all contribute."