Churches, Chapels & Cathedrals in Penang

The Churches & Cathedrals of Penang can trace their origin from the time the British settled here to open the island as a free port. Within a few decades since the establishment of George Town, the first churches in Penang have already been built. In addition to the Church of England, which exists to this day as the St George's Anglican Church on Farquhar Street (Lebuh Farquhar), other communities were also building churches in Penang. This includes the Eurasian Catholics who fled Phuket to escape religious persecution. They were invited to settle in Penang. Among them was Martina Rozells, said to be Francis Light's wife.

The Catholic church was initially located in what is now Church Street (Lebuh Gereja), with the bishop dwelling at what is now Bishop Street (Lebuh Bishop). They eventually moved with the construction of the Church of Assumption, today the Cathedral of Assumption, along Lebuh Farquhar. In the earlier days, the congregation worshipping at the Church of Assumption lived along Argus Lane behind the church.

Today the descendents of most of the Eurasians have left Penang to live elsewhere. The churches in Penang are mostly attended by the locals, namely the Chinese and Indians who have embraced Christianity.

On this page I list out the churches that I have been able to identify and describe. For the churches across Malaysia, see my list of the Churches in Malaysia.

List of Churches in Malaysia

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.