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Protestant Community
RELIGION AND CUSTOM
The presence of the Protestant community in Hong Kong dates back to 1841. The earliest established church groups were the Congregationalists, the Lutherans, the Baptists, the Anglicans and the Methodists.
In the 146 years since the first Protestant church came into being in Hong Kong, the Protestant community has grown to 210 000 in 620 congregations among the 50 de- nominations and sectarian groups. The largest denominational group in Hong Kong is the Baptist, followed by the Lutheran, which is divided into five groups. Other major denominations are the Adventist, the Anglican, the Christian Alliance, the Church of Christ in China, the Methodist and the Pentecostal. Since the seventies, the number of independent congregations has increased rapidly due to the strong evangelical zeal of the lay Christians.
The Protestant church runs three post-secondary colleges, 115 secondary schools, 156 primary schools, 159 kindergartens, seven hospitals, 24 clinics, 159 social service centres, 27 homes for the elderly and hostels, three schools for the deaf and 10 training centres for the mentally handicapped, 17 theological seminaries and bible institutes. There are also four international hotel-type guest houses operated by the YMCA and the YWCA.
There are 36 para church agencies and 54 Christian publishing houses and bookshops catering to the needs of the Protestant community. Due to the growing affluence in Hong Kong, the church has also been sending out Chinese missionaries to various parts of the world to set up mission stations. In recent years, the church has also been involved in overseas aid, supporting emergency relief and development projects in third world countries. The 'Five Loaves and Two Fish Campaign' sponsored by the Hong Kong Christian Council was the first overseas aid project in Hong Kong.
There are two ecumenical bodies which facilitate the co-operative work among the Protestant churches. The oldest of these two, dating back to 1915, is the Hong Kong Chinese Christian Churches Union. About 200 congregations make up the membership of the Churches Union. The Church Union publishes the newspaper Christian Weekly, which serves all the Protestant congregations. The second co-operative body is the Hong Kong Christian Council, formed in 1954. The council bases its membership on the major mainline denominations and the ecumenical services bodies. The Christian Council is committed to serve the wider community in Hong Kong by involving its member churches and organisations as well as through its agencies like the Christian Industrial Committee, Hong Kong Christian Service, United Christian Medical Service, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and Christian Family Service Centre.
A city-wide evangelistic crusade was the highlight of the year among the Protestant community, with some 20 000 Christians being mobilised for the seven-day gathering that drew 200 000 participants. Another important project of the Protestant community is the billion dollar extension of the United Christian Hospital which will enlarge the existing 640-bed capacity to 1 400.
Muslim Community
There are about 50 000 Muslims in Hong Kong. More than half of them are Chinese with the rest being either locally born non-Chinese or believers from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Middle Eastern and African countries. Three principal mosques are used daily for prayers. The oldest is the Jamia Mosque in Shelley Street on Hong Kong Island which was built before the turn of the century and rebuilt in 1915. It can accommodate a congregation of 400.