The TTC community mourns the passing of our seventh principal, the Rev Dr Stephen C K Tan who was called home to the Lord on Friday 24 June 2022 at the age of ninety.

Rev Dr Tan graduated from TTC in 1958 and returned to serve as TTC’s principal from 1975 to 1982. Following graduation, he served as a pastor for several years before going for further studies at New College, University of Edinburgh, the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland, and Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States. He pursued post-graduate studies in pastoral counselling at San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1979 and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Ministry.

A churchman and pastor at heart, Rev Dr Tan was the first to serve in a number of significant roles within and outside his denomination: he was the first Moderator of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Singapore, the Honorary General Secretary of the National Council of Christian Churches of Singapore (NCCS) after NCCS was constituted in 1974, and the first alumnus and first Singaporean to have served as principal of Trinity Theological College.

During his tenure as TTC’s principal, the college made significant progress in the development of an Asian faculty whose members are sensitive to the local and Asian contexts in the tasks of theologising and theological training. It was also during his tenure that the Master of Divinity programme was introduced at TTC. In recognition of his contributions towards theological education in South-East Asia, Rev Dr Tan was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio, in 1979.

We praise and thank God for the life and ministry of Rev Dr Tan, who, in loving his Lord and Saviour, loved and served the church of Jesus Christ.