Photo: Bishop Yong and Julia (center) with family
It’s said that no one retires from ministry, that it’s a life calling, defined by identity. That would probably sum up the situation for one of the leading figures in the worldwide Anglican Church, who has retired for a season to Austin, Texas. The Most Rev. Datuk Yong Ping Chung, until recently one of 38 Primates, or senior leaders, of the global Anglican Communion, retired from his official duties as leader of the Anglican Church in South East Asia and is now, along with his wife Julia, spending time with his daughter and her family-- especially his grandchildren—in the United States. But he is also bringing his decades of experience and gifting as a pastoral leader to encourage a missionary movement in North America that he helped to define.

Bishop Yong will be spending the next year catching up on some much needed rest following his tenure as Bishop and Archbishop in one of the Anglican Church’s fastest growing regions. In addition, he will visit congregations in the Anglican Mission in The Americas and the Anglican Coalition in Canada, two groups that he helped to nurture during the last few years of growing tension in the worldwide Anglican Communion over biblical authority, historic faith and leadership.

“I am very happy to be here, spending time with my family, and also to encourage and help build up the Anglican Mission congregations,” remarked Bishop Yong. “I would like to help the orthodox churches look forward with hope.” The former Primate and Bishop of Sabah will travel about once a month to churches in the US, and also to Canada, but is still deciding the best way to use his time. “I am working closely with Bishop Murphy and Archbishop Kolini of Rwanda in determining my role of encouragement,” Yong stated. The Anglican Mission in The Americas is a missionary outreach of the Rwandan church that enjoyed the oversight of two Primates—Yong and Kolini—before the Malaysian bishop’s retirement. He remains a close friend of Kolini’s and the leaders in the Anglican Mission.

”Before he even retired I asked Archbishop Yong if he would be willing to help us, as I knew he had family here in the states. He is bringing blessing and favor to us, and getting to spend time with his family, as well,” reflected the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, Chairman of the Anglican Mission in The Americas. The missionary movement’s goals of preaching Jesus Christ to the un-churched mirror those of the Asian leader, who has consistently called on the church to be about mission.

Bishop Yong, until his retirement in February, was a major voice and leader in the Anglican Communion, having served at one time as Chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council, a powerful tool in organizing common action of the various provinces around the world. The leadership he provided to his home diocese of Sabah was vital to a dynamic season of growth in which the number of members doubled during the 1990s, a story that Michael Green relates in “Asian Tigers for Christ”.

One thing AMiA leadership would like to see is Bishop Yong’s partnership in planting an ethnic Chinese church among Asian immigrants somewhere in the United States. “This is very much my heart,” enthused Yong. “It’s important that non-European converts become Christians in churches with a strong gospel understanding. So I want to encourage this evangelism among Chinese groups. It’s very much a part of my prayer, but I don’t want to follow my private agenda.”

The Rev. Silas Ng is pastor of Richmond Emmanuel Church in Vancouver, a Chinese church that is growing rapidly. He counts the Bishop as among his key role models and mentors, having met him in the late 1980’s. They worked closely together again following the Diocese of New Westminster’s decision in 2002 to bless same sex unions—a decision that went against the rest of the Anglican Communion. Yong formed a group of five Primates that offered covering for churches that wanted to remain connected to historic and biblical Anglicanism. “Archbishop Yong is just like a father loving all the Chinese ethnic congregations. He has been trying his best to save us all since the crisis,” offered Ng. “Without his vision, courage and spiritual authority our church might still be in confusion without any growth.”

Bishop Yong was back in Vancouver in early September to take part in a celebration of orthodox Anglican churches that are working together in ‘common cause’, even as the tensions in the Communion escalate, and the realignment of provinces along the fault line of biblical truth unfolds. “As the Anglican Church in the west continues to walk in ways counter to the Bible and to historic faith, it’s important to ask--how do the orthodox respond together? Working together is very important,” commented Yong.

It’s not all about controversy and global issues, though, for the retired leader. He is a pastor at heart, and is enjoying his time in a church where he is meeting new people and connecting in new ways. “I am now in the congregation,” he reported, referring to Mesa Community Church in Austin, an Anglican Mission congregation. “I’m sitting and listening to others preach, and meeting ecumenical and evangelical leaders here.”

His wife Julia has been very much a partner in ministry for all of their married life. At Mesa she has joined a Bible study group and is active in the congregation. “She traveled with me all of those years in Sabah diocese-- praying, encouraging, participating in ministry,” Yong recalls. “Her heart is with clergy wives, and that will certainly continue here. But her top priority is with the grandchildren,” he adds with a hearty smile.

The Bishop is spending as much time as possible with the grandchildren, himself. But his gift of nurturing souls, refined over many years in ministry, will not be limited to his family. Ever the evangelist he looks around at Austin, and Houston, and other cities in Texas, and sees places desperate for new churches to be planted. “There is great potential,” he affirms.

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