A Wedding and A Funeral

Monday, 14th July 2025

Back in 1994, there was a highly-successful box office movie starring Hugh Grant entitled Four Weddings and a Funeral that also featured the chart-topping song Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet.

Well, I have entitled today's blog entry ONE Wedding and ONE Funeral, because it relates to exactly that: the wedding being that of my daughter's (whom I affectionately refer to as "sweetie") and the funeral being that of my father's (whom I affectionately refer to as "dad").

Those who have been following my blog would be aware of the multi-generational involvement of my family in Methodism, specifically Paya Lebar Methodist Church ("PLMC").  My great-granddad Rev Wee Chin Kam pastored her Peranakan service in the 1940s-1950s.  My grand-dad Loh Khie Lock served in the LCEC for decades, chairing the Stewardship & Finance Committee for a number of years in the 1960s.  

My dad Dr Michael Loh was the most illustrious leader of them all, serving in the LCEC for close to 5 decades, from the 1970s into the 2010s.  Not only was he in the PPRSC (it was known as PPRC then) for a decade, he even levelled-up to the General Conference and served as its Layleader for a full 4-year term in the 1990s with Kim Seah as Assistant Layleader.

In fact, the Loh family was featured in PLMC in a coffee-table book entitled "Being & Beginnings".  You can read that article entitled Legacy of Faith

I naturally followed in his footsteps, serving in the LCEC upon graduating from NTU in 1991, and was appointed Treasurer in September 2006 (after declining it twice in 1992 and 1999 because I was not ready, having just gotten married and starting a family respectively) and a CG Leader in January 2007 when Bishop Emeritus (then-Rev) Wee Boon Hup was the Pastor-in-Charge ("PIC").

However, because I could not find satisfactory answers to my son's medical condition, sometime in May 2005, God took me on this journey of discovering the true gospel of Jesus Christ (which the apostle Paul explained so clearly in his letter to the Galatians). The journey culminated in my wife and I officially making New Creation Church our home church in 2018, some 13 years later.  You can read about My Journey of Grace through Faith

Truth be told, I had wanted to move on as early as 2008 when the then-PIC of PLMC, the law-based Peter Koh relieved me of my leadership roles and disbanded my CG. But God in His grace and mercy prompted me to stay on by arranging (through by then the President Boon Hup) for Rev Reuben Ng (now President) to be posted in as her youth pastor to replace another law-based pastor in the form of Barnabas Chong.  So we stayed on in PLMC by attending the Youth Service (located in PLMGS) and then started attended Toa Payoh Methodist Church when Rev Reuben was posted there as her PIC in 2013.

Meanwhile, my daughter has grown roots and remains in the church of my forefathers as a 5th-generation Methodist, while my son now attends (and works in) a Brethren church near to where we stay.  While not ideal for my immediate family to be worshipping in different churches, what is more important is that we all love and serve the same God.  After all, there are no denominations in heaven.

Upon semi-retiring in July 2020 (my last full-time job being CFO of a listed company), I had much more spare time so I took golf more seriously, playing once, twice and even thrice a week.  Among those I golfed with were ex-churchmates Roland Teo, Choo Kim Gang and James Tham, amongst others.

The subtler ones would ask me when they would see me back in PLMC to which I would reply "when I walk my daughter down the aisle".

The more blatant ones would ask me when this "prodigal son" would "return home" permanently, to which I told them frankly that I am currently very settled in NewCre, and the only push factor would be if a new covenant, grace-based pastor (such as Rev Reuben Ng) was posted to PLMC as its PIC.

Now onto the title of today's post.

I have stepped into the church of my forefathers just twice since 2018, viz:

(1) WITH REFERENCE TO THE WEDDING

walking sweetie down the aisle

I walked my sweetie down the aisle on 21 September 2024.  

You can watch the video here.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M5bEHCTKwl4

But what was more amazing was that my dad actually took the effort to physically witness the ceremony in person! Since Covid hit in 2020, he had only watched PLMC's services online.  That's him on the bottom left of the photo.

Dad witnessed sweetie's wedding in person

(2) WITH REFERENCE TO THE FUNERAL

My dad went to heaven on 2 July 2025. 

We held the wake at home and numerous PLMC members came to pay their respects.  

I will blog about his funeral in a future post.

To honour his memory and legacy, my wife and I decided to attend PLMC's 93rd Anniversary service on 13 July 2025.

Here are snapshots capturing the main highlights of the celebration.