DearColleagues, Yap KimHao, the man who provided the Ecumenical Institute the umbrella for itsactivities in Malaysia in the 60s and 70s , died at the age of 88 in Singaporethis morning. He became the first Asian bishop of the Methodist church inMalaysia and Singapore in 1968.Those of us who worked in Malaysia and Singaporein those years will know how important his support was to us. Thanks to him, wewere able to use Rev Kjell Knutsen’s residence as the KL Religious House. Hewas a progressive thinker in a denomination stuck in the two-storey universe.He spent the last few decades of his retirement in Singapore where he workedwith various groups such as the Inter Religious Organisation and those fightingfor gay rights. Dharmalingam