Our Vision
A community led by the Holy Spirit to serve all and to make Jesus known.
Our Mission
To form loving disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit.
It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach.
Pope Francis’s vision of every parish in Evangelii Gaudium 28
Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’s exhortation, our parish recognises the importance of developing, supporting, and strengthening our communities so as to allow each and every single parishioner in Holy Spirit Church to live out our mission to be a true disciple of Christ.
Drawing reference from the Archdiocesan Vision and the ten-year workplan, we crafted our Holy Spirit Workplan. Beginning with the formation of intentional disciples, formation, and opportunities to experience a personal encounter of Christ will lead members to know and love God. Through this, members will be led to becoming transformed disciples who will then be able to live out God’s mission and for us to “go out” and make Him known.
Our Vision statement leads us to what we see our parish will be in the future. This is a desired outcome that we will strive to reach in the distant future. Encapsulated in the vision statement is our desired culture. There are three key tenets:
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A community of communities that draws strength, be guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
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Being in service to all requires one to love Jesus and to live our lives to embody the teachings of Jesus, who emphasized love, compassion and service to others. To serve, we are required to be compassionate, loving, humble and inclusive. We are challenged to reflect the love and grace of Christ in tangible ways, especially to the marginalized and those in need.
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To make him known is a call to action. When we love Christ, we want to share Christ with others especially through the transformation of our lives . This will be our response to the call of God, to be His disciples and make Him known to all.
Our Mission statement describes the reason of being for our parish. This is what our parish is called to do and if we do this well, it will lead us to arriving at our Vision. There are three key tenets:
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The key action word is “form”. As a parish, we will need to consider approaches to strengthen the formation of our members.
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A loving disciple of Christ would require the individual to fully follow Christ’s teaching. The loving disciple will be faith filled and who lives out His commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). This requires the loving disciple to be open to all and be charitable, compassionate and be in service to others.
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The final part of our Mission statement is a tacit acknowledgement that especially for our parish we must draw strength and empowerment from the Holy Spirit.
If we are to live out our parish Vision and Mission, we will be truly a vibrant, missionary and evangelistic parish.
Our Parish History
Sometime in the late 1950s, Father Anthony Schotte, a missionary priest from the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM), also known as the Scheut Missions, was commissioned by Archbishop Michael Olçomendy to start a parish.
Together with Father Noel Goh, they began their search, eventually settling for a site at Upper Thomson Road, which had a small bungalow, two wooden structures and a shack. Thus in 1960, the Church of the Holy Ghost, later renamed Church of the Holy Spirit, was founded and that bungalow housed the early beginnings of the parish.
Masses were held at the shack, while on Sundays they were held at the premises of The Little Sisters of the Poor, to accommodate the larger number of worshippers.
On 11th July 1964, the Church of the Holy Spirit, designed by one of Singapore’s well-known architect, Alfred Wong, was completed for Archbishop Olçomendy to bless and officially open. About 1,000 Catholics in the neighbourhood now had a parish, distinctive with its iconic bricked wall façade, high ceiling interiors and accordion-styled timber doors, in which to worship. A plaque was unveiled and the words read simply: “Enter to Worship, Depart to Serve”.
A strong influence in the lives of the parishioners came in the form of Father Louis Fossion CICM, who, upon arriving from Taiwan on 31st December 1968, proceeded to spend the next 28 years serving the people.
In November 1975, part of the parish premises was used to house the Catholic Welfare Vocational Training Centre for Boys, with training provided by the Brothers of St Gabriel. The premises was later given back to the parish at the end of the 10-year lease.
In 1996, the Church of the Holy Spirit passed from the hands of the CICM Fathers to the Archdiocese. Father Joseph Tan became its first diocesan parish priest who took charge of the mammoth task of rebuilding the church to serve the growing number of parishioners in the area.
Groundbreaking took place in 2000 and by September 2002, the newly renovated church building, presbytery and columbarium were opened to greet its parishioners. In 2010, the Church of the Holy Spirit celebrated its Golden Jubilee on the Solemnity of Pentecost.
