Having Monday blues?

At least you are not part of the City Harvest Church (CHC) congregation.

In a sermon at the CHC's church service, CHC advisory pastor Phil Pringle described last weekend as “the most difficult weekend in CHC’s church history”.

This is because senior pastor Kong Hee and five other CHC leaders failed in their appeal in overturning their convictions, even though their sentences were reduced from between 21 months to 8 years, to between 7 months and 3 years 6 months.

Earlier today, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has filed a "criminal reference" to the Court of Appeal to clarify a particular section of the law and to seek the reinstatement of the original convictions for City Harvest Church leaders, but that's a story for another day.

"Solemn" atmosphere

CHC's news portal City News reported that the atmosphere was "solemn", adding that there "was nary a dry eye" when Kong asked the church members to continue praying for him and the other five accused, as well as for their families.

Standing ovation for Kong

Nevertheless, the congregation gave a standing ovation to Kong as he returned onstage at the end of the two-hour service.

Kong said,

"These past seven years have been a challenging time for all of us.

Today might be one of the last times I can address you in this way for a long, long time. I can never fully express how thankful I am for all of you — for your prayers and fasting, for your love and support for me and the team...

One of the many lessons that I’ve learned from this is the need to pause and pray more over every decision.

From 2001 to 2009, the church was in constant growth and acceleration. During those times, as your leader, I should’ve slowed down, paused, waited awhile, and prayed even more – but I didn’t. And because of this, Pastor is deeply sorry. If I have caused you to stumble in your faith or hurt you in any way — especially the team, the staff and your families -- Pastor is deeply sorry, and I ask for your forgiveness".

Kong said that CHC version 2.0 has "put in place good corporate governance to ensure that what happened in the past will not happen in the future"

Top image from City Harvest Church Live Stream.

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