In order to get to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (also called Zion Cathedral or Zion Redeemer Lutheran Congregation), you need to make your way to Kuala Lumpur’s “Little India” neighborhood, driving past chai wallas and restaurants advertising tandoori chicken. Zion ministers primarily to this segment of the city’s population and offers services in Tamil, Indonesian, and English. There are two(!) services in English each Sunday.
They have people standing near the door to greet people as they come in, and on our first visit they asked us to sign a visitors book with our names and where we’re from (they used this information later to publicly welcome us during the announcements). After we’d seated ourselves, Pastor Moses also came over to say hello and welcome us. The members of the congregation looked like they were mostly Indian with possibly some Malay members, as well as several African immigrants, and everyone spoke English fluently. The first Sunday we visited there were several other guests from around the world, including a pastor from Finland.
The worship service itself was a blend of very traditional Lutheran liturgy, including chanting by the pastor, and contemporary music led by a praise band. There would be an invocation, confession and absolution, a responsive reading of a psalm, bible readings, and then a ten minute interlude of singing and clapping and drums, then back to solemnity with the sermon and holy communion before the offering and some more music time and prayers. Their services were quite long, about two hours, due partly to the extended music time and partly to long sermons – quite a contrast with the five-minute sermons at the church in Hoi An!
I thought the history of this church was interesting. Zion was established by Tamil Indian Lutherans who moved to Malaysia during the British occupation to work on plantations. They eventually decided that, since they were staying, they needed a Lutheran church and pastor. They purchased land to build on and Zion was opened in 1924, and has since sprung up additional Lutheran congregations throughout Malaysia. They seem to be involved in their community and have several social ministries like a health care clinic and a school on their campus.
