ENG-1958 — Page 329

RELIGION

275

Among the other Roman Catholic institutions in Hong Kong are 5 Hospitals with 451 beds, 7 Welfare Centres, 21 Clinics and Dispensaries, in which during the past year 516,299 cases were treated; 3 creches, 5 orphanages, a Home for the Aged, a Home for the Blind, and a home for wayward girls. Most of these institutions are staffed by Sisters. The Welfare work of the Church is done by various religious and lay organizations grouped into the Hong Kong Catholic Social Welfare Conference. One of the aims of the Conference is to foster better understanding and co-operation with the Government and other welfare organizations.

The Church has a Public Relations Office, situated in the Catholic Centre, Grand Building, 15 - 17 Connaught Road Central. It publishes two weekly papers, the Sunday Examiner in English and the Kung Kao Po in Chinese.

Other Diocesan organizations are the Diocesan Council for the Lay Apostolate, in which the various lay organizations are grouped, and the Diocesan Church and School Extension Com- mission. The central organization for the Church's Cultural and Social Activities is the Catholic Centre.

Many of the principal Missions have their Far Eastern adminis- trative headquarters in the Colony.

There is a small Russian Orthodox congregation, divided into adherents who recognize the present Patriarch of Moscow and others who do not. The former have their own Church, founded in 1934. The latter, who have inter-communion with the Anglican Church, hold their services in St. Andrew's Church Hall, Kowloon, and are known as the Orthodox Church.

There are comparatively small groups of Chinese Muslims and non-Chinese Muslims, mostly Pakistanis and Indians. The first mosque was built in 1850 on the present mosque site in Shelley Street; the existing construction dates from 1915. A second mosque was built in 1896 in Nathan Road, Kowloon, but in 1902 was transferred to the care of the military authorities for use by Indian troops.

The Parsees were among the foreign communities which arrived with the British in 1841. In 1829 they had established a prayer- house and cemetery in Macau, and in 1852 they established their first cemetery in Hong Kong, in Happy Valley. In 1874 they