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should wish to make their contribution to social service. This takes the form of educational and welfare services. The churches are responsible for approximately 164 primary schools and 101 middle schools and colleges in the Colony, a number which may be expected to increase with the growing population. They also sponsor hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and social service centres. While some funds for social service are locally raised, generous contributions are received from outside the Colony, many of them channelled through the Hong Kong Christian Service-the organization formed this year by merging the Christian Welfare and Relief Council and the Church World Service.
Churches which are in relationship with the World Council of Churches come together with missionary societies, YMCA, YWCA, and other groups in the Hong Kong Christian Council. The council's new headquarters, the Christian Centre, was opened early in 1967. The centre also houses the offices of the Hong Kong Christian Service, the Audio Visual Evangelism Committee and the Chinese Christian Literature Council and there is an Ecumenical Library and conference room. A near neighbour in the same building is the old-established Chinese Churches Union, in which churches are linked on a congregational basis. The two main Protestant groups in the Colony will now be in a closer relationship than before.
The Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong dates back to the beginning of the Colony. The first priests to arrive were chaplains serving the spiritual needs of British soldiers. On April 23, 1841, Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Hong Kong with Msgr Theodore Joset as the first prefect. He built a permanent church, established a seminary to train Chinese priests, and brought in religious sisters to start schools and welfare institu- tions. The Colony's first trade school, the West Point Reformatory for Homeless Boys, was also established by the Catholic Church.
In 1867, the Prefecture of Hong Kong was entrusted by the Holy See to the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), whose fathers have worked in the Colony ever since. The first bishop, Msgr Timoleon Raimondi, was consecrated in 1874 when the pre- fecture was raised to an Apostolic Vicariate. Under Bishop Raimondi, the work of the Church was extended to the New Territories and in South China proper as far as Waichow. He built St Joseph's
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