St. Michael's and All Angels Church, Sandakan

The North Borneo Chartered Company controlled North Borneo in 1881. The mostly British employees of the company desired for an Anglican church to be established. Initially, laymen were used to conduct religious ceremonies in a detached room in the Colonial Secretary's House and, if present, would take over the service from the highest-ranking government officials, Governor William Hood Treacher. William Burgess Pryer, founder of Sandakan and an active layman himself, already wrote in January 1883 a pleading letter to the head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury. During mid-1888, a news reached Sandakan that Reverend William Henry Elton was appointed as a priest for Sandakan.[2]

The west stained glass window.

Elton arrived in Sandakan on 2 September 1888. Governor Charles Vandeleur Creagh asked the religious authority to select a vacant piece of land for the construction of a mission station. Assisted by Von Donop, Elton explored in the following weeks around the forest and finally found a two-acre property, in which the construction of a temporary church with the associated vicariate, schools for boys and girls and the necessary outbuildings seemed suitable. His plan was unanimously adopted on 5 October 1888.[3]

The church building is also the first completely built stone building in Sabah. The foundation stone was laid on 29 September 1893 by Governor Creagh and it took more than 30 years to complete.

Memorial stone for the 100th anniversary of the parish. In the bottom half, there are two time capsules.

When the plans of the New Zealand architect BW Mountfort were unveiled, Elton was hugely involved in choosing the materials. The use of Eusideroxylon zwageri (Bornean belian wood) would dramatically increase the cost of construction, while the usage of bricks was not considered to be cosmetically pleasing, so they finally agreed on a building made of stone blocks, specifically granite.[4] While the white stones that adorn the windows and doors were imported from Hong Kong, the darker stones came from a quarry near Kampong Buli Sim Sim, where they were carved by prisoners at a cost of about 1.50 Straits dollar per cubic meter. One of the stone blocks is 30 cm in length and weighed about 63 kilograms.[5]

The sanctification of the main nave was made on 30 September 1906 during Michaelmas. The western portal, which is the main entrance to the church, was not completed at that time and was consecrated only in 1925, 32 years after construction began. In May 1941 Rev Reuben Henthorne and Rev Denis W.A. Brown were interned by the Japanese. Services continued at the church until 1943 when it was closed and used as a store. The church was dynamited by the Japanese forces before surrender in 1945 as World War II ended, although the shell of the church remained standing.[6] Reconstruction began soon after the war, and St Michael's is still one of the few historic stone buildings in Sabah. The coloured stained glass windows were donated to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the World War II by Australians.[5]

At the northwest corner of the church is a memorial stone erected in 1988, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the parish. On the stone, a metal plate is fitted with the inscription:

The interior of the church.

Below the plaque are two time capsules that are to be opened in 2038 and 2088.

Since the founding of the parish in 1888, the following persons acted as pastors and priests of St. Michael:[7][8]

• Reverend Brian Taylor: THE ELTON HILL ‘DIARY’ — The story of the founding of St. Michael’s Church (PDF; 3,1 MB) Lai Hing & Company, 1976
• 75 Years on Elton Hill, The History of St. Michael’s Church Sandakan, North Borneo, hrsg. vom Church Council of St. Michael’s, Sandakan, 1963; Festschrift

• Anglicanism
• Anglican Communion
• Christianity in Malaysia
• Church of the Province of South East Asia
• Diocese of Sabah