Page 19 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

of unity and to offer intercessions for the re­ ments of the church in China. English quarterly “News and Views”served as an

conciliation of mankind and for church renewal. important link with our overseas friends and
Tao Fung Shan Ecumenical Centre, one of the church agencies.
The theme for this year’Week of Prayer for related organizations of the Council, continued
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Christian Unity was “May all find their Home in to make significant contributions to the study of In recent years, we have tended to concentrate
Y o u ，’. As in previous years an ecumenical com­ Chinese culture and religions, including recent on working with Chinese speaking Christians in
munion service and fellowship breakfast for developments in China. Recently we gathered Hong Kong. We have come to realize the needs of
church workers was held at St. John's Cathedral. more than 50 church leaders and workers to re­ expatriate Christians too. After the summer
An ecumenical service in English also took place. flect on the draft of the New Constitution in holidays, an executive secretary will be assigned
Many local churches, as always, observed China, particularly clauses relevant to religious to relate to non Chinese-speaking congregations,
Christian Unity Sunday. The theme for the 95th activities. The results of such an important dis­ to interpret to them some of the ecumenical con­
World Day of Prayer was “Gather for Worship, cussion have been sent to the Secretariat of the cerns and thinking, and to build bridges between
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Scatter for Service” Services were held at St. People’ Congress via the New China News them and the Chinese churches in Hong Kong.

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John’ Cathedral，Kowloon Methodist Church Agency in Hong Kong.
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and China Congregational Church. DIALOGUE
Many churches also celebrated the 10 Special SHARING In engaging in dialogue with other religions, Tao
Sundays the Council promoted. Special concerns The Five Loaves and Two Fish Movement, which Fung Shan Ecumenical Centre played an
were lifted up during each of these Sundays. extremely important role and was also well
is our annual fund raising campaign for those in
need, either because they live in poverty- supported by all our church leaders. Last year,
stricken areas of the world or because of natural the major common concern for leaders of the six
CONCERNS disasters, represents a concrete manifestation of major religions in Hong Kong was "Moral Educa­
the basic Christian spirit of sharing amongst tion in Schools".
The Council continued to treasure the relation­ Christians in Hong Kong, regardless of denomina­
ship with Christians in the People's Republic of tion or church background. This year's campaign DISTRICTS
China. In September, at the invitation of the (the 8th) was for Bangladesh, reportedly one of
Three Self Movement and the China Christian the poorest nations in the world. Last summer, Last year, we promoted unity though our work
Council, the Council organized an 18-member we also raised close to HK$250,000 for the flood in districts. Often church leaders talked about
delegation to visit Shanghai, Nanking, Peking and victims in Szechuan. This May, out of our unity, but seldom did we find it a serious con­
Canton. We were received most warmly by the emergency funds, we sent HK$50,000 to the cern for grassroots Christians. In recent years we
church leaders there. flood victims in Tsing Yuen, North Kwangtung. have tried to help organize prayer services and
fellowship gatherings at the district level. Last
We tried to serve the purpose of building bridges year, monthly meetings for ministers and clergy­
between the Church in China and the churches LINKS men were started in Shumshuipo, Wongtaisin and
outside China. In order to help keep the Busy as we were, we did not forget the impor­ Kwun Tong Districts. The Shumshuipo Meeting
Christian leadership in China regularly informed tance of the world-wide ecumenical fellowship. picked “Concern for the Elderly”as their focus

about the outside world, we sent a total of more We tried our best to supply basic information for of witness to Christ's love, while Wongtaisin
than two thousand publications to Nanking, overseas Christians who visited Hong Kong chose “Gospel for the Poor” Other similar

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Shanghai and Peking. When asked, we also tried throughout the year and arranged to have them fellowships will begin this winter. We earnestly
to give our interpretation of the recent develop­ visit some of the church work in Hong Kong. Our hope that the spirit of unity and co-operation
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