CHANGING times have forced religious leaders in traditionally non-English-speaking groups to reconsider how best to reach new devotees, many of whom are young and English-speaking.

The speed of conversion today has ramped up as devotees become increasingly wired and English-educated.

Most eager to adapt among the faith groups are Taoists, who have the most to lose if they stay monolingual. Since 1980, its followers fell from 30 to 9 per cent of overall faiths here, according to the 2000 population census.

To extend their reach, Mr Tan Thiam Lye, president of the Taoist Federation, has begun promoting the religion as English-friendly.

Today, all of its publications are printed in both Mandarin and English.

Its newly launched Taoist College in Bedok, which trains aspiring priests, also requires students to be bilingual.

And by year-end, the federation's Chinese-language-only website will be re-designed to include an English version with explanations of the religion's beliefs and scriptures.

At Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery off Sin Ming Avenue, 'Gum', an English-language magazine launched in April, is the Buddhist temple's latest initiative to connect older, Hokkien-speaking devotees with English-speaking youth.

Explaining the magazine's name, the temple's youth ministry executive Cell Tono Lim said: 'In English, we want our devotees to 'stick together', but it's also a word our older followers can understand - 'gum', as in the Hokkien term to mean 'get along'.'

Young Buddhists are also using the Net to attract English-speaking newcomers.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.