RELIGION AND CUSTOM
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ignored in the Chinese world; but it is nevertheless rooted deeply and growing rapidly in Hong Kong.
Its roots go back indeed to the earliest days of the Colony. St John's Cathedral was founded in 1842, and established as a Cathedral by Letters Patent from Queen Victoria in 1850. A rep- resentative of the London Missionary Society arrived at about the same time; several of the big Chinese churches are now within a few years of celebrating their centenary. Rapid growth continues. A statistical survey recently showed that the Protestant churches had increased their membership by 111 per cent in eight years. The movement into new estates and satellite towns is now being pursued with resolution and devotion.
The year under review started with moving signs of increasing sympathy and understanding between the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches during the Week of Prayer for Church Unity. An innovation was a joint meeting for prayer and exposition of a passage from the Bible under the title 'The Living Word'. A Bible exhibition was held in April at the City Hall and repeated at Kowloon Union Church. It was sponsored jointly by the Bible Societies on behalf of Protestants and by the Studium Biblicum on behalf of Roman Catholics, and aroused great interest.
But the first impression of Hong Kong's church life might well be one of almost bewildering variety and energy rather than ordered unity. The contrasts are striking. Efforts to serve people in their need, through clinics, feeding programmes and social welfare centres, are balanced by efforts to deepen spiritual life. Typical of these are the annual 'Keswick' in English and the Pui-Ling meetings in Chinese, both held during the summer. The churches, already committed to educational work from primary to university level, are now re-thinking their contribution. During the year the Anglican Church opened two secondary modern schools in addition to others. In May the Lutheran World Federation opened a new vocational training centre at Kwun Tong designed to house 1,000 students and provide training in 13 trades.
The habit of co-operation is growing and is presented here in two groupings. These are the Chinese Christian Churches Union- already 40 years old-and the Hong Kong Christian Council, whose membership is by denomination. The Chinese Christian