ENG-1962 — Page 357

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Religion

THE growth of Hong Kong in the past 12 years has produced many impressive statistics and this is as true in the sphere of Christian development as in any other. In 1950 there were about 80,000 Christians, including children. Today the Christian com- munity numbers approximately 380,000 and is growing at the rate of about 30,000 a year. Growth is fastest in Kowloon and the New Territories, with a yearly expansion rate of roughly 12 per cent as against seven per cent on Hong Kong Island.

The Anglican Church has played a notable part in the religious history of the Colony and now has a score of parish churches and half a dozen mission chapels in the Diocese of Hong Kong, which includes Macau. In three of these including St John's Cathedral, which was founded in 1842 and established as a cathedral by Letters Patent from Queen Victoria in 1850, worship is in English. Services in English are also conducted in the Union Church, the Methodist and Baptish Churches in Hong Kong, and in the Union, Baptist, Emmanuel and Alliance Churches in Kowloon. Other old- established churches are those of the London Missionary Society and the Methodists, while many Protestant churches are of very recent origin. There are a small number of Russian Orthodox believers who are divided between those who recognize the present Patriarch of Moscow and those who do not. The former have their own church founded in 1934, while the latter have inter- communion with the Anglicans and meet at St Andrew's Anglican Church, Kowloon.

The Chinese-speaking churches, which constitute over 95 per cent of the total Protestant strength, continue to add both to their membership and their church buildings. Most belong to major world-wide groups such as the Lutherans, Baptists or Anglicans, but there are also over 60 locally organized undenominational churches. Many of these individual congregations maintain con- tact with the main body of the Church in Hong Kong through membership of the Chinese Churches' Union, which exists to