wfn.org | Hong Kong Anglicans Look Ahead

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

TITLE:Hong Kong Anglicans Look Ahead
July 11, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon James Rosenthal,Director of Communications, 
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

ACC 1284

(From today's Church Times) Hong Kong Anglicans Look Ahead

More than 700 Anglicans gathered in St John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, last
Saturday afternoon to give thanks to God for the peaceful reunification
of the former Crown colony of China.  They offered prayers for strength
and courage to follow Christ into the uncharted waters of the future.
    The Bishop of Hong Kong & Macao, the Rt Revd Peter Kwong Kong-Kit,
spoke of a "calm feeling in the community" in Hong Kong, which remained
the home of " an inter-national family".  Hong Kong under the British
had became a great metropolis, he said.  It had been benefited for
excellent economic and political structures, and had served  as a refuge
for "our mainland brothers and sisters" during the Second World War and
the liberation of China.
    "We thank God for the continuity in our lifestyle; but throughout
that period, the right of citizenship was denied to Hong Kong people."
    He stressed the need for continuing international involvement in
Hong Kong: "Our brothers and sisters from the rest of the world will
share with us in developing our work here."
  And he spoke of influencing the rest of China.  The "one-country-
two-systems" formula will be in force for only 50 years.  "What we learn
and retain in our freedom, we must be willing to carry with us to
benefit China as a whole.  We must carry God's cross.... so that God's
truth can be brought to China.