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RELIGION AND CUSTOM
The Protestant churches are responsible for more than 218 primary schools, and 100 middle schools and colleges in the Colony and the number is increasing each year. They also sponsor a variety of service programmes including hospitals, clinics, orphanages, family case work centres, vocational training centres, aid for the handicapped and many others. Whereas in the past a large percentage of funds for these projects came from overseas, increasingly this is decreasing and local support must take over.
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Churches which are in relationship with the World Council of Churches come together with other Christian organisations such as the YMCA, the YWCA, the Bible Society in the Hong Kong Christian Council. The council's new headquarters, the Christian Centre, houses the offices of Hong Kong Christian Service, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, Chinese Christian Literature Council and the Audio Visual Evangelism Committee and the facil- ities include an Ecumenical Library and a Conference Room.
A near neighbour in the same building is the old-established Chinese Churches Union, in which churches are linked on a con- gregational basis. The union now numbers 135 congregations in its membership.
The Hong Kong Christian Council was established in 1954. Its membership is by denomination, or association. It now has a mem- bership of 22 major church bodies and Christian organisations. Hong Kong Christian Council members represent 77 per cent of the total Protestant Church membership in Hong Kong.
The Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong dates back to the beginning of the Colony and British Army chaplains were among the first to arrive here. On April 23, 1841, Pope Gregory XVI estab- lished the Apostolic Prefecture of Hong Kong with Msgr Theodore Joset as the first prefect. Msgr Joset built a matshed church at what is now the intersection of Wellington and Pottinger Streets, estab- lished a seminary for the training of Chinese priests, and persuaded religious sisters to voyage out here to start schools, hospitals, creches and other welfare work. The seeds of the present diocese had been
sown.
The Most Rev Francis Chen-ping Hsu, who had been consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong on October 7, 1967, was formally
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