Burmah Road Gospel Hall is the oldest of the New Testament Assemblies in Southeast Asia. Also known as the Brethren Movement, the Assemblies are a conservative evangelical Christian movement. While there is at the moment no conclusive documentation over the matter, the Penang Assemblies in Penang trace their history back to 1855 or earlier, through mission work conducted at 35 Farquhar Street, Penang. A missionary from Switzerland by the name of Johann Georg Bausum is said to have been involved. Whether Mr Bausum was involved in assembly work is not conclusive, as he is said to be a German Lutheran rather than one associated with the Swiss Assemblies. However, he could have encouraged Brethren members in Great Britain, through the London Missionary Society, to consider coming to Penang to do mission work.
Mr Bausum is said to have passed away in 1855. In his place, at the encouragement of Mr George Müller of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution and Müller Orphanages, came a missionary couple, Mr & Mrs John Chapman, who arrived from their assembly, Bethesda Hall in Bristol, England, in 1859. They accommpanied another missionary, a lady by the name of Miss O. Callaghan, from the Chinese Evangelization Society to Singapore, and from there they came to Penang. The mission work, in the Brethren tradition, is traced to the Chapmans, if not to Bausum, even though Bausum may have started mission work in Southeast Asia as early as 1844. In any case, the Brethren movement is older in Penang than anywhere else in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, where the Brethren churches date to 1864.
The earliest venue for mission work was at Mission Chapel at 35 Farquhar Street. Next to it is the Mission House, constructed some time between 1876 and 1878. Together, the premises was known as the Farquhar Street Mission House and Chapel. It belonged to the London Missionary Society, having been bought through Bausum and his wife. When the London Missionary Society pulled out in 1853, the Bausums continued to use the premises at Farquhar Street until at least 1855, when Mr Bausum died. Mission Chapel was demolished in 1939 to make way for the widening of Farquhar Street, while the Mission House is still standing, albeit in a state of ruin.
The Brethren assembly moved from Mission House into Burmah Road Hall, later renamed Burmah Road Gospel Hall, on 25 May, 1938. Burmah Road Gospel Hall occupies a 60,000 sq feet (to be exact, 59,461 sq ft) plot of land along Jalan Burma bordered by Jalan Chow Thye. The building was designed in the art deco style and surfaced with Shanghai plaster. The premises at Burmah Road, or Jalan Burma, is occupied by the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking assemblies, which co-existed and cooperated harmoniously.
In 1961, Burmah Road Gospel Hall built the BRGH Mission House to house missionaries. It cost RM40,000, paid for through the sale of the Farquhar Street Mission House. A surplus of RM28,000 from the sale was used to partly fund the construction of the Butterworth Mission House, which was completed in 1976 at a cost of slightly over RM70,000.
Over time, Burmah Road Gospel Hall seeded new assemblies on Penang Island as well as in Seberang Perai. These included Island Glades Gospel Centre in 1970, Sungai Nibong Gospel Hall in 1980, Bukit Mertajam Gospel Centre in 1984 and Sungai Ara Gospel Hall in 1999.
Acknowledgement
Penang Travel Tips would like to thank Mr KC Ung of Berita Bethel (http://www.berita-bethel-ung.com/) for assistance in verifying the accuracy of the information about Burmah Road Gospel Hall.
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