Arms of the Province |
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| Primate | Paul Kwong |
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| Headquarters | 1 Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong |
| Territory | Hong Kong and Macau |
| Website | http://www.hkskh.org |
| Anglicanism Portal | |
| Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 香港聖公會 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 香港圣公会 | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (abbreviated SKH), also known as the Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal), is the Anglican Church in Hong Kong and Macau. It is the 38th Province of the Anglican Communion. It is also one of the major denominations in Hong Kong.
The Most Reverend Paul Kwong is the current Archbishop and Primate of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong Island with his seat at the St. John's Cathedral. The Rt Reverend Dr. Thomas Soo is Bishop of the Diocese of Western Kowloon, and also the chairman of Hong Kong Christian Council and the Board of the Hong Kong Bible Society.
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The Anglican Church[1] is a global family and a fellowship of churches which trace their roots to the Church of England, with a province being a basic autonomous unit. There are presently 38 independent and self-governing provinces spanning over 160 countries. With over seventy seven million members, the Anglican Communion is the third largest communion in the world, after the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.[2]
In the Anglican Communion, there is no central governing authority. Churches uphold and proclaim the Catholic and Apostolic faith. The front-line unit of Church is the "parish". Parishes of similar vicinity are then grouped together to form a "diocese". Dioceses sharing similar cultural and national background would unite and form a "province", participating in the Anglican Communion under the leadership and jurisdiction of an archbishop.
The Four Instruments of Unity for the Anglican Communion:[1]
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The Anglican Faith is based on the belief that the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments, "contain[s] all things necessary to salvation". Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui further maintains the ministry of the Church which it has received through the Episcopacy in the three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.[1][3]
Sheng Kung Hui started in Hong Kong in 1843. The first Chinese church, St. Stephen's Church, was founded in 1865. From then onwards, in the course of development of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong and Macau, churches continued to grow and witnessed the establishment of the Diocese of Victoria (Chinese: 維多利亞教區) in 1849 under the See of Canterbury; the establishment of the Kong Yuet Diocese (Chinese: 港粵教區) under the Province of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Chinese: 中華聖公會) in 1913; and the birth of the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macau (Chinese: 港澳教區) in 1951, which was subsequently completely separated from the national Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui.
In the 40th Synod of the Diocese held in December 1991, it was resolved that steps were to be taken to expand the Diocese into a province and eventually in 1998, the Province of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui was established.[3]
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui consists of three dioceses and one missionary area. There is a bishop in each diocese. The dioceses are:
(The Diocese of Eastern Kowloon and the Diocese of Western Kowloon are divided by the geographical constituencies of the Legislative Council.)
The missionary area is:
A complete list is also available in Chinese Wikipedia
The Provincial General Synod is composed[3] of the House of Bishop, the House of Clegy and the House of Laity. Members come from the Diocese of Hong Kong Island, the Diocese of Eastern Kowloon, the Diocese of Western Kowloon and the Missionary Area of Macau. Under the General Synod, there are different Commissions responsible for different areas of ministry.
The Church is a community with no boundaries in age, social or ethnic status. Members include Chinese, Asian and Westerners from all over the world. The worship in Churches features Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Filipino languages.
Social service of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui started in mid 18th Century. At present, many social service organizations and social service models in Hong Kong were those initiated and promoted by the Church. Services provided by the Church are multi-faceted, including services for family and child-care, children and youth, the elderly, rehabilitation service, community development service and other supportive services. There are more than 230 units providing social service run by Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui at present.[1]
In January 2010, the Inland Revenue Department began to pursue the SKH for unpaid taxes in the amount of HK$180 million, relating to a parcel of land in Tai Po which originally housed an orphanage. In 1993, after the closure of the orphanage, the SKH let Cheung Kong Holdings develop luxury apartments on the site, and were estimated to have made profits of HK$450 million in cash, in addition to receiving 120 apartments for free.[4]
There are altogether 33 secondary schools sponsored by Sheng Kung Hui in the territory,[5] amongst which namely:
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, with its sponsored primary and secondary schools, were embroiled in the School-Based Management Policy controversy with the government in 2002, five years after the handover.
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui runs its own theological college: Ming Hua Theological College, named after Bishop Ronald Owen Hall.
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