Chapter 19: Religion
THE Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong, which includes Macau, covers nine recognized parish churches and eight mission chapels. In three of these worship is conducted in English, and in the remainder in Chinese. St. John's Cathedral, opened in 1849, was established as a Cathedral Church by Letters Patent from Queen Victoria in 1850.
The year has seen extensive changes in the Precincts of St. John's Cathedral including the erection of a new Hall for the Sunday School; and the erection of a new East Window as a Memorial to those who died during the Japanese occupation.
The Anglican Church continues to play an important role in the field of education. In addition to the existing secondary and other schools which the Church administers, a new co- educational secondary school and two primary schools were opened or completed during the year, and building started on two more. The new buildings of the post-secondary Chung Chi College were officially opened in October.
The English-speaking Free Churches are represented by the Methodists, who have their own church on Hong Kong Island; by other denominations grouped together in the Union Church in Victoria and the Kowloon Union Church; and by the non-denominational congregation of Emmanuel Church in Kowloon. The London Missionary Society, whose chief representative arrived in Hong Kong within a year of the Colony's cession to Great Britain, plays a prominent part in education and medicine, and runs the Nethersole Hospital, one of the Colony's foremost medical institutions.
A statistical survey of the Chinese-speaking Churches of the urban areas, published in February 1956, showed that