RELIGION AND CUSTOM
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there are nearly 500 churches and chapels, grouped together in some 60 denominations and sect groups. The number of Christians in Hong Kong is estimated at about 440,000-slightly more than 10 per cent of the total population. Of these, more than half are Catholic, and slightly less than half, Protestant. There is an annual increase in church membership of about four per cent. Churches and chapels are being established in new housing estates and satellite towns.
The majority of congregations in Hong Kong are Chinese speaking, mostly Cantonese and a few Mandarin, but about 16 churches hold services in English, German and Japanese. Major world denominations are represented in the Adventists, Anglicans, Alliance, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics, while churches of Presbyterian and congregational types are joined in the Church of Christ in China. In addition, there are a number of non-denominational churches.
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Protestant churches are responsible for more than 250 primary schools and 130 middle schools and colleges throughout the territory, and the number is increasing every year. They also sponsor a variety of service programmes, including hospitals, clinics, orphanages, homes for the aged, family service centres, vocational training centres, aid for the handicapped and many others. In the past, a large percentage of these projects was financed almost entirely from overseas sources, but this has decreased considerably and most service programmes are now locally supported.
Churches affiliated to the World Council of Churches come together with other Christian organisations (such as the YMCA, the YWCA and the Bible Society) in the Hong Kong Christian Council. Established in 1954, the council's headquarters, known as the Christian Centre, houses the offices of the Hong Kong Christian Service, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, Chinese Christian Literature Council and the Audio Visual Evangelism Committee. Facilities include an ecumenical library, recording studio and a conference room. The Hong Kong Christian Council's 23 members represent the majority of Protestant Church membership in Hong Kong.
In the same building is the long-established Hong Kong Chinese Christian Churches Union, in which churches are linked on a congregational basis. The union now has 165 member-congregations.
Before the establishment of Hong Kong the Roman Catholic Church's work in the area was part of its general missionary programme for South China. On April 22, 1841, Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Hong Kong with Monsignor Theodore Joset as its first Prefect. He built a matshed church at what is now the intersection of Wellington and Pottinger Streets, established a seminary for training Chinese priests, and persuaded religious sisters to come to Hong Kong and start schools, hospitals, creches and other welfare work.
In 1867 the Pontifical Institute of the Foreign Missions of Milan took charge of the Prefecture with the Right Reverend T. Raimondi as Prefect Apostolic (later Bishop) of Hong Kong. This institute remained in control of the Church until the first Chinese Bishop of the 131-year-old Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong, the Most Reverend Francis Chen-ping Hsu was formally installed on October 26,