Page 6 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HONG KONG CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
____________________ 1962 - 1963____________________

I. INTRODUCTION The Hongkong Christian Council aims at the furtherance of the
Gospel by strengthening the local churches in a united effort
to witness to Christ; to promote the ecumenical movement among a ll Christians;
and to express our common concern over the needs of society by concerted action
against social ev il.

The Council had a very dramatic beginning. Owing to Hongkong's over-
crowding, housing became a problem not only for the living but also for the
dead; and thus a search for cemetaries began. Towards the end of 1953,
representatives of the Christian Churches gathered together to discuss the
p ossib ility of setting up a Christian Council, one of its aims being negotia­
tion with the government for a site for a Christian cemetary. How wonderful
are the ways of Godl after 9 years of continuing e ffort, the Council has not
yet secured any piece of land for a Christian cemetary: but God has moulded
and established the Council to serve the livin g . During these 9 years, the
main interest of the Ccuncil has shifted to the var ious ways of meet ing the
p r oblems and answering the needs of present-day Hongkong.

e
There is , of course, the Chinese Church s Union which has been established
in Hongkong for over 40 years. It has a membership of some 60 individual
churches and represents about 100,000 members. But the Union lim its its e lf
to co-operative programmes among the loca l churches, and membership is opened
to Chinese-speaking churches only.
The Hongkong Christian Council is not a super-structure as it is sometimes
accused o f being. It cannot legislate for its member churches, nor act for
them unless requested to do so. The purpose of the Council is , therefore,
to be an association of denominations.

It is a fu ll menber of the former International Missionaiy Council and
is a member of the East Asia Christian Conference.

During the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches which took
place at Nev; Delhi, India, November - December, 1961, the.very fir s t item of
business that came up for action was the integration of the World Council of
Churches and the International Missionary Council. The la tter Council was
a direct outgrowth of the Edinburgh M is s ionary Conference in 1910 from
which stemmed the modern ecumenical movement. Negotiations between these
two world bodies had gone on fo r many years, and by the time of the Third
Assembly of the World Council o f Churches, i ntegration had become a forer -
gone conclusion.

After integration, the functions of the International Missionary Council
are to be taken over by a newly-created body within the framework of the
World Council, known as the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. To
this Commission is also .assigned the task of evangelism formerly under the
World Council o f Churches. The Commission, according tp the constitution,
meets once every five years. However, the actual operation of the work of
the Commission rests with a new division of the World Council of Churches
known as the Division on World Mission and Evangelism, which maintains a
sta ff at Geneva, London, and New York. Under this arrangement, the Hongkong
Christian Council is now a member of the Division on World Mission and
Evangelism of the World Council of Churches.

II. expansion of THE COUNCIL In order to meet the ever-growing needs of the
community, during the year three new committees
of the Council have been set up as follow s:-

a) Committee for Co-operation in Church Development & Planning
b) Committee on United Protestant Hospital
c) Youth Committee

5