ENG-1976 — Page 251

RELIGION AND CUSTOM

179

Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal and Salvation Army-while the Pres- byterians and Congregationalists are represented in the Church of Christ in China.

Protestant churches are responsible for more than 250 primary schools and some 130 middle schools and colleges. The Christian concern for post-secondary education is demonstrated by the existence of the Hong Kong Baptist College and Chung Chi College the church-sponsored college at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chung Chi celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1976, having begun life in 1951 with the local and overseas support of the major Christian denominations. The training of ministers and leaders for the churches is carried out by five seminaries and bible schools.

The Christian churches also sponsor a variety of service programmes including hospitals, clinics, orphanages, homes for the aged, family service centres, vocational training centres, and aid for the handicapped.

The mainline denominations-together with active Christian organisations like the YMCA, YWCA, the Bible Society, and the Chinese Christian Literature Council -have associated themselves for co-operative work in the Hong Kong Christian Council. It represents the majority of the Protestant Church membership in Hong Kong. The council promotes ecumenical projects and concerns in Christian service, industrial mission, Christian education and communication. The council's Christian Centre in Kowloon has a range of facilities which include a conference room, film libraries, a communications production centre and a reference library.

In the same building is the Hong Kong Chinese Christian Churches Union, which is an association of 195 Protestant congregations. It publishes the Christian Weekly and runs a home for the aged, and its activities during the year included sponsorship of the first Hong Kong Sacred Music Festival.

There is a good spirit of ecumenism in Hong Kong and nearly every major committee of the Christian Council has official voting representatives from the Roman Catholic Diocese. Similarly, members of the council are invited in turn to serve as voting members of the Roman Catholic diocesan committees. Throughout the year the Protestants and Roman Catholics jointly plan and produce religious broadcasts which are put out by Radio Television Hong Kong.

Roman Catholic Church

It was in April 1841 that Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Hong Kong. The first Prefect, Monsignor Theodore Joset, built a matshed church at what is now the intersection of Wellington and Pottinger Streets. He established a seminary for the training of Chinese priests and persuaded religious sisters to come to Hong Kong to start schools, hospitals, creches and other welfare work.

In 1867 the Pontifical Institute of the Foreign Missions of Milan took charge of the Prefecture, with Monsignor T. Raimondi as Prefect-later becoming Bishop. This institute remained responsible for the Church in Hong Kong for 102 years. In 1969 responsibility was transferred to the diocesan clergy, with Bishop Francis Chen-ping Hsu as the first Chinese Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.