CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS AMONG CHINESE POPULATION IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA AND THEIR UNDERSTANDING ON TRINITY DOCTRINE

Abstract

Data from the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia (Census 2010) found that 9.2 per cent of Christianity is based on religious affiliation. Christianity accounts for only 11.1 per cent of the Chinese population. The Christians are heterogeneous by denominations and it was observed that Catholicism and Protestantism are two major denominations of Christianity in Malaysia. The Trinity doctrine in general has been practiced in almost all of the Christian churches. This article focuses on Chinese Christians in the Peninsular Malaysia particularly in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. This study aims to explore the Christian denominations among the Chinese Christians in both places as well as to identify their understanding of the Trinity doctrine. There are many different church groups. Roman Catholic Church is the oldest church denomination which began with the Portuguese arrival in the early 16th century. Meanwhile, the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia, Lutheran Church of Malaysia, Methodist Church of Malaysia, Chinese Annual Conference and Trinity Annual Conference, and Presbyterian Church of Malaysia are some of the Protestant churches registered under the Council of Churches of Malaysia. Their headquarters are located in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Chinese members can be found in all of the churches. The Chinese Christians are further divided into Chinese-speaking congregation and English-speaking congregation. Qualitative content analysis is used for analysis of records and census data reports related to the issue being studied. Questionnaire-based survey is also conducted in this study. The preliminary study found that the Trinity doctrine remained as central Christian belief with different level of understandings identified among the Chinese Christian members. Finding of this study is crucial to discover how Chinese Christians in Malaysia are involved in describing their understanding of the Trinity belief in the Malaysian context as a multi-religious country.