The Early Years: Planting the mustard seed

Designed and built by Rev Fr. Paul Tay, the Church of the Holy Trinity was officially commissioned by the late Archbishop Gregory Yong in 1988. From the first day, Fr. Tay did not waste a single moment, with his selected team of architects, planners and designers he went straight to the drawing board. The entire 5,150 square-metre complex was built for a sum of close to $8 Million.

At that time, the Singapore government was in the midst of developing new towns all over the country to cater to the radical spike in its population. Tampines was one such town. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore had to move in tandem with the development plans as a sizeable Catholic population was forming.

 

The surmountable task of heading this building project was appointed to Fr. Tay. Despite a difficult start in conceptualising the building plans, Fr. Tay’s vision for the structural aesthetics and layout of the church soon started to take shape. Before any construction took place, Fr. Tay and a small group of dedicated Catholics went around door-to-door to start forming the community for this new church. At the same time, Fr. Tay also visited several parishes to sing to raise funds for the building of Holy Trinity Church.

The ground-laying ceremony was performed by the late Archbishop Yong on 8th August 1988 with the commencement of the building project following suit. After two years of construction, the doors of Holy Trinity Church were officially opened on 30th October 1990, making it the 30th Catholic Church in Singapore.

The church was planned not only to cater to parishioners in Tampines, but to a growing number of approximately 8,000 Catholics living in Pasir Ris, Simei and Changi at that time. As such, the building was constructed to be self-contained.