ENG-1966 — Page 296

222

RELIGION AND CUSTOM

schools and colleges in the Colony, a number which may be expected to increase with the growing population. They also sponsor hos- pitals, clinics, orphanages, and social service centres where pro- grammes of various kinds are carried through. While some funds for social service are locally raised, generous contributions are received from outside the Colony, many of them channelled through the Hong Kong Welfare and Relief Council.

Churches which are in relationship with the World Council of Churches come together with missionary societies, YMCA, YWCA, and other groups in the Hong Kong Christian Council. The Council's new headquarters, the Christian Centre, is expected to open early in 1967. Here will be housed, in addition to the Council offices, offices of the Welfare and Relief Council, the Audio Visual Evangelism Committee, Church World Service and the Chinese Christian Literature Council. An Ecumenical Library and other services will be provided. A near neighbour in the same building will be the old-established Chinese Churches Union, in which churches are linked on a congregational basis. The two main Protestant groups in the Colony will thus be in a closer relationship than before.

During the year Hong Kong was the scene of a number of important church conferences and gatherings involving delegates from South-East Asia and further afield. The most important of these was the Asian Consultation on Faith and Order arranged by the East Asia Christian Conference. This brought together, at the end of October, over 100 representatives from churches in Asia and elsewhere.

[L

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. The Colony's first trade school,