Page 11 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

Since Hong Kong is a growing city, we Christians as well as
all our organizations must grow with it and be flexible, ready to
change in meeting new needs and make possitive response to new
challenges. For this reason, the Churches in Hong Kong need to have
a searching look at our present programme so as to discover our
new roles in Mission.

In order to give a thorough re-examination of the life and
work of the Church in Hong Kong, the Council called a city-wide
Consultation on the Mission of the Church in Hong Kong. T h i s was
held January 19th - 20th 1970 at the Morrison House. There were
120 representatives from the Constituent Churches and Organizations
of HKCC plus 12 observers from the Roman Catholic Church and other
churches participated in the sessions.

The purpose of this Consultation was to provide a forum in
which Christians from many different traditions could come together
to:

(1) look at the present situation of the church in Hong Kong;

(2) confront the needs and challenges of Hong Kong society; and

(3) suggest guidelines for the mission of the Church in the
seventies.

The method of approach was through three major presentations
and five workshop issue groups. The results of the workshop issue
group discussions constitute the major part of the report of the
Consultation, and the other presentation and background material
are presented for reference.

The language used at the Consultation was Chinese, with
simultaneous translation provided.

The Consultation was faced with both an immediate task and a
new long-range one. How can we ensure that our church programmes
have a clear orientation fully relevant to our present situation?
How can we mobilise the expertise called for by new demands? How
do we educate public opinion concerning those pressing social
issues? How can we find leadership with enough imagination to
undertake developmental tasks in our complex situation? How can
we promote self-support programmes working toward truely indigani-
zation? These are all imprtant questions in our search for a
useful strategy. During the workshop period, discussions showed
our churches have a variety of good projects under way but it also
revealed that there were also large sectors which have long been
neglected and now called for attention and action. It was
recognized that the main responsibility for dealing with these
tasks must not only lie with our full time church workers but
should have the full support from all our church members. There
is still, large room for lay people to help meet the educational,
social and healing ministries which are closely related to the
Mission of the Church in Hong Kong.

Attention was also given to practical trends in the Council's
current programmes and to possible methods of closer cooperation
and coodination among all the Christian churches in our community.
This was felt to be essential. Time was also given during discussion
period to the exchange of views on the issues that are confronting
the churches before the drawing up of quidelines for the churches
moving into the 70's. Thus the decision as to strategy does not
emerge with precision in the report of the Consultation but our
commitment to be part of the ongoing problem solving and solution
finding process is undoubtedly firm. Moreover, some practical steps
were recommended by the Consultation regarding the churches' involve-
ment in community services both within and outside of our church
structures. However, any decisions on effective actions w i l l have
staffing and financial implications. In this stage of struggle
and searching for a developed world we need the fresh impulse derived