Thevathasan, Samuel Muthalithamby

- 1958
Teacher, headmaster, pastor
Methodist
Singapore

Rev Samuel Muthalithamby Thevathasan was born in Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He was educated in Jaffna College and graduated with a BA and MA from Madras University. He became a teacher and later headmaster of the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) in Singapore from 1920-1940. 

He came to Singapore in 1919 after World War I at the invitation of the ACS principal, Rev J.S. Nagle, to teach English and Latin in the School Certificate classes. From then on, he served solely with the ACS and Methodist Church.

Rev C.B. Paul, who studied under Rev Thevathasan and was his colleague in ACS Singapore, wrote “My memory goes back to the year 1909 when I joined Jaffna College as a student. He had then graduated as a Bachelor of Arts of the Madras University, considered a unique achievement in those early days. He started on his studies for his master's degree, while on the staff of the College. Truly in those early formative years he was an emblem of purity and love. Never an unkind word fell from his lips. We all looked up to him. He was worthy of emulation".

Rev Thevathasan’s service to the Tamil Methodist Church was varied and extensive. He was the pastor, district superintendent and executive officer of the Methodist Church during the very difficult period of the Japanese occupation.

When Bishop Edwin F. Lee left Singapore in February 1942, he felt that at least there was one who could shoulder his responsibilities. When the Methodists met in Conference in 1942, Rev Thevathasan was elected executive (presiding) officer of the Methodist Church, Malaya, the first Asian to be elected.

While Rev Thevathasan had many coordinating duties during the Japanese occupation, he was also the pastor of the Singapore Wesley Church, meeting on Sunday evenings at Short Street, Singapore. While services were held at Fort Canning Road for some time, one admired his nerve when he calmly conducted the service while a Japanese soldier, pointing his gun from side to side, walked down the aisle and then left.

He retired from teaching on December 31, 1940.

Mr T.W. Hinch, the ACS principal, described Rev Thevathasan's personality and influence aptly: “He retired on December 31, after 21 years of service all spent in the Anglo Chinese School, Singapore except for 2 years in the Methodist Boys School in Kuala Lumpur. By his high standard of scholarship, the urbanity and gentlemanliness of his manner, as well as by his stressing of the high value of life, he contributed largely both to the scholastic attainments and to the general tone of the school.”

Thevathasan was a teacher and minister with a unique philosophical and godly mind which dominated his life and thought. 

At a world conference of the International Missionary Council held in Tambaram, Madras,  Rev Thevathasan, as a delegate, appreciated the differing points of view and saw his way clear to write: “... the clearest note of Tambaram to me was the note of hope for the coming of the Kingdom of God, perhaps more speedily than many of us dare to think because of the rapid infiltration of the Christian ideals of life, because of our material confidence in our ability to make a contribution (every race included) and because of our willingness to co-operate not only as Christians from the East and West, from the Younger Churches and Older Churches, but as children of God, under whatever name or sign, prospering all endeavours for the betterment of mankind, and promoting the knowledge of God, thereby hastening the coming of the Kingdom of God.”

Perhaps the earliest statement for Asian partnership in leadership made after the war came from him: “An endorsement of this policy of strengthening the Church by advancing local leadership, not tomorrow but today and now, should be unmistakably sponsored by the Mission Board in New York: not that our leaders will be infallible but every mistake they make might be the repetition of mistakes made by their predecessors. This will pave the way for a stronger church. Another war may not overtake us but we must develop self-reliance and self respect.”

In his farewell message to the ACS Magazine, 1940 he wrote, " Every time a teacher teaches, he should be led to the question: ‘Has the Truth come to you? In other words, do you live by the Truth?’”

In an Advent medication he wrote: " The greatest quest of life is Truth, persistent changing, widening and unending quest. Truth must be absolute and if so, how can it change? Truth, absolute Truth, does not change, but the comprehension of it, and expression of it does and must, with the changing circumstances of time. Truth by which man lives and Truth representing his intellectual explanation of what he lives by, though related, must be differentiated. Grace and Truth come from Jesus Christ.”

Rev Thevathasan passed away on June 21, 1958 from a stroke.

His eldest son, Arthur, was a prominent physician, Rotarian and layman while his daughter, Mercy, was a teacher in the Methodist schools and later practiced law. His youngest son, Oliver, was an academic who was prominent in musical circles. All found a niche in church work.

 

Veronica Poore

© CCM-2011. This article from A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Historical Record of Key Pastors in the Indian Churches in Malaysia and Singapore is reproduced with permission of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, with editing for clarity and brevity.