City Harvest held their weekend english service at 5pm on August 24, 2019 at Suntec convention centre.

The excitement was palpable before the start of service, when Kong was spotted entering the premises.

After the songs and calls for donations were finished...

the speaker acknowledged that this week was special for the church.

"This week has been special for the church, this week Pastor Kong has come back to us."

At this point, the audience went nuts, with a huge round of applause breaking out.

The speaker however had a rather strange request to make, on behalf of Kong Hee.

He requested that the crowd not clap as he introduced Kong Hee to the stage, a request that was initially broken when the pastor's name was first uttered, however when the introduction was made and Kong Hee ascended the stage, there was silence as he quickly approached the podium.

During his four minute speech, Kong Hee apologised for the pain, anxiety, trauma, and grief he caused the church members.

Kong Hee also announced his intentions to take a step back from preaching, to readjust back to "normal life". He revealed his plans to be a "filial son" to his parents, who are in their 90's, and spend more time with his son, due to the time lost during the trial, and sentence.

He also thanked the members of his church for loving him throughout.

Kong then proceeded to welcome Phil Pringle, a New Zealand-born evangelist, to stage to preach.

Pringle did ask church members to thank God for what had happened this past week, which Sun Ho appreciated quite a bit.

Pringle's wife also took the time to applaud Sun and said she "loved her". The crowd promptly applauded as well.

Here is Kong's entire transcript:

"Church, thank you so much for your love and your very warm welcome.

To be perfectly honest I'm just overwhelmed. This is the only time you'll hear from me for quite a while.

Having been away since 2017, it feels really surreal to be here in this hall and to be home, reunited with my family, especially my parents, my siblings, my in-laws and of course with all of you again.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to stand before you and to say, today from the bottom of my heart that I'm very sorry for everything that has happened.

I was convicted by the court for criminal breach of trust, I have served my sentence, and today I find myself humbled.

I want all of you to know that I'm so sorry, so sorry for any pain, anxiety, disappointment, or grief that you have suffered because of me. The last few years have just been very difficult and painful for me and for everyone involved.

But these years have also been really precious, I have learnt to love and appreciate God, my family, my friends and the church more than ever before.

I'm so grateful that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has been abundantly sufficient and ever present so I want to thank all of you for your unconditional love and for the steadfast support shown towards those who are nearest and dearest to me, always reaching out helping and praying for them.

Thank you for your resilience, your faithfulness, your love toward God in spite of the pain, the trauma/drama and the disappointment you had to go through.

Thank you for not giving up, thank you for staying back to rebuild the church with the leadership, I am forever in your debt.

Please allow me some time to readjust back to a normal life again. My immediate priority at this moment is to reconnect with those at home, I have missed out a significant part of my son's growing-up years with the long drawn court trial and subsequent incarceration.

My absence has also pained my parents deeply. Now, they are already in their 90's and I wish to be a filial son, to be around to take care of them, to let them know that I want to catch up for all the time that was lost.

I am also, looking forward very much to renewing my friendship and my fellowship with you soon. I want to thank you all for your very kind understanding and your patience with me so once again I want to say thank you for making me feel so welcome today.

I hope to serve together with you in this house of God in the many many years to come. Thank you for loving me and from the bottom of my heart, I pray for you that God will bless you, and all you love in your family, God will bless all, thank you."

Images from CHC.sg