Datuk Bolly Lapok
KUCHING: The Anglican Bishop of Sarawak and Brunei, the Right Revd Datuk Bolly Lapok, will be installed as the fourth Archbishop of the Anglican Province of South East Asia tomorrow.
The first Sarawakian to hold the post, Bolly will be one of 38 Primates in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Over 2,000 Anglicans, including nearly 100 guests from England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and the Philippines, are expected to attend the installation service at St Thomas’ Cathedral, Jalan McDougall, which will begin at 5pm.
Bolly was elected during the Extraordinary Provincial Synod in Kota Kinabalu last September.
His task will be to oversee the province, which is made up of the Diocese of Kuching (Sarawak and Brunei), Diocese of Sabah, Diocese of West Malaysia and the Diocese of Singapore, which also covers Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam.
He takes over from the Most Revd Dr John Chew, who is Bishop of Singapore.
The previous Archbishops were the Right Revd Dr Moses Tay (Singapore – 1982 to 2000) and the Right Revd Datuk Yong
Ping Chung (Sabah – 2000 to 2006).
Enthroned as the 13th Anglican Bishop of Sarawak and Brunei in 2007, Bolly was first consecrated Assistant Bishop in 1999.
Currently chairman of the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS), he is also on the boards of the Sabah Theological Seminary, Seminari Theoloji Malaysia, and Trinity Theological College, Singapore.
Bolly graduated from the House of the Epiphany, Kuching with a Diploma in Theology in 1974.
He was made deacon and later priest in 1975 at St Luke’s Church, Sri Aman with special dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he was under the canonical age of 24.
From 1984 to 1985, he continued his studies at Westhill College, Birmingham in the UK under a United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) scholarship and majored in pastoral theology, ecumenism and English.
He also went to Rome to study ecumenism, particularly Anglican-Roman Catholic relations.
Bolly continued to study New Testament Greek and obtained a Licentiate in Theology from the Australian College of Theology in 1991, as well as a degree of Scholar in Theology.
In 2001, he received a Master of Arts with distinction in Missiology from the University of Birmingham.