BCCM - Christian Basel Church in Malaysia

The Basel Christian Church in Malaysia (BCCM) was founded in the 19th century by immigrants from southern China. These settlers were allocated land in Kudat by the Chartered Company to establish coconut plantations. Later immigrants spread out along the coasts of North Borneo, where they established independent communities. 25 years after the first large refugee migration, the congregations asked the Basel Mission for support in creating a general church. This church was the first partner church of the Basel Mission in Asia that practiced the ideals of the "Three-Self Movement" (self-determining, self-supporting, self-propagating). The founding of Malaysia in 1963 prompted the church to change its name to "Basel Christian Church of Malaysia" (BCCM). At the end of the 1960s, the church joined the Lutheran World Federation. From the 1970s onwards, the BCCM's independent missionary work in various places in Sabah led to the founding of local Malay-speaking congregations. 

Since 2004, this local branch of the Malaysian-speaking BCCM congregations has been grouped together in its own synod, which is also part of the overall synod of the BCCM alongside the English and Chinese synods. It bears the name BCCM - Bahasa Malaysia (BCCM-BM), comprises eight congregational districts with a total of 90 congregations and thus has around 22,000 parishioners. It works primarily in remote areas of Sabah for marginalized population groups that lack state support. Mission 21 supports programs of the Malaysian-speaking synod in the areas of education, livelihood security and overcoming violence in partnerships. This includes schooling for children of migrants from Indonesia and the Philippines who are denied access to state schools because they do not have valid papers. The BCCM also works in the following areas with the support of Mission 21: Women and income support, awareness raising and counselling for sexualized and intimate partner violence, as well as providing scholarships for school children and students experiencing poverty. Scholarships are awarded to girls in particular, as they are at risk of being married off as minors. In addition to members of various indigenous groups, many migrant workers from Indonesia are also members of the Malaysian-speaking synod of the BCCM. The Malaysian-speaking synod has around 30,000 members, served by 57 pastors in 127 congregations. 

Website of the BCCM