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Religion
THE total Christian community of Hong Kong now numbers more than 400,000, with Protestants and Roman Catholics in about equal proportions; the fast rate of growth in the number of converts over the last few years was equally maintained in 1963. Statistics for the Protestant churches show an increase of 13 per cent a year.
The estimated population growth in relation to this steady development of the Christian community poses many problems which must be resolved if the Church is to hold its proportionate place in Hong Kong in the years ahead. The magnitude of the task must be viewed side by side with the more obvious problems of environment and the limitations of building sites for new places of worship. The spiritual needs of men and women, uprooted from their accustomed social patterns and thrown together in vast new urban agglomerations, must be met-but few new church buildings go up each year by comparison with the numbers of new offices, apartments, hotels, schools, etc. Moreover, such new church build- ings as are being erected are not generally on the most convenient sites. Among those more recently opened and dedicated in Kowloon are the Anglican Church at Lei Cheng Uk and the Truth Lutheran Church in Waterloo Road and the Methodist Church at Cheong Hong Street, North Point, Hong Kong.
Many congregations make use of rented accommodation, school halls, and roof-tops in the resettlement estates. But the purchase of land in Hong Kong today for the erection of their own church building is an intimidating task for any congregation, even with the help of related Church bodies overseas, which is frequently offered.
The Anglican and Methodist Churches and the London Mission- ary Society have played a notable part in the religious history of the Colony. The Anglican Church now has about 30 churches and mission chapels in the Diocese of Hong Kong, which includes Macau. St John's Cathedral was founded in 1842 and established