ENG-1965 — Page 266

216

RELIGION AND CUSTOM

Churches Union now represents 81 member churches and offers regular opportunities for discussion and joint action. A new home for the aged at Sha Tin Pass Road, Wong Tai Sin, has continued to grow. The weekly newspaper on Christian news and comment is expanding its circulation. The Hong Kong Christian Council has a membership of 19 major church denominations and Christian organizations (such as the Salvation Army, the YMCA and the YWCA). It exists to bring the member bodies into closer association in Hong Kong and to strengthen links with the worldwide church. It is itself a member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, and a member of the East Asia Christian Conference. There was some development during the year on the Christian Council's two big projects, the Christian Centre and the United Christian Hospital.

The major world denominations are represented in Hong Kong in the Adventists, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Pentecostals, etc, with Congregational and Presbyterian effort con- tributed to the Church of Christ in China. Most of these are engag- ing in educational work to some extent, with the Anglicans taking the lead in numbers with over 45,000 primary students in their schools. Other groups working in Hong Kong include the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), which is con- ducting mission work here. There is also a Christian Science Church on the island. There are a small number of Russian Orthodox believers in the Colony, some of whom have their own church.

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 of the Catholic faith. On 22nd April 1841, Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Hong Kong with Msgr Theodore Joset as the first prefect. Msgr Joset laid the foundations of the future by building a permanent church to replace a mat shed mission, establishing a seminary to train Chinese priests, and bringing in religious sisters- Congregation of St Paul de Chartres being the first-to start schools and welfare institutions.

In 1867 the Prefecture of Hong Kong was entrusted by the Holy See to the Pontificial Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), whose athefrs have worked in the Colony ever since. The first bishop,