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Hong Kong

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hong Kong (ELCHK)

Who is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hong Kong and what are its ministries?

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK), a member of the Lutheran World Federation, has 15,819 baptized members in 52 congregations. It has 56 pastors, of whom 23 are women, and 51 non-ordained evangelistic workers.

Educational programs include eight kindergartens, eight primary schools, four secondary schools, and student centers. Forty social service centers offer community services for all ages as well as programs for job training, emergency relief, developmentally challenged adults, and drug addicts. Family service centers are being developed to deal with the growing social pressures on families. Ministry is carried out almost entirely in Hong Kong's primary language, Cantonese.

The ELCHK also operates the Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS), which has grown during its 50 years from a student body of 38 in 1949 to almost 400. LTS serves as a primary center of theological education for the Chinese Christian world, and approximately 10% of the student body comes from other parts of Asia, including Myanmar, Nepal, China, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. An additional 150 students are enrolled each year in an evening certificate course with a three-year curriculum, known as the "Lay Leadership Training Extension Program."

The ELCHK's literature program, known as Taosheng ("Voice of the Word") Publishing House, publishes Bible commentaries, theological and devotional books, and hymnals for use within Chinese-speaking churches of Hong Kong and around the world. There is a special book distribution program to seminaries and church workers in China.

How do the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hong Kong and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America accompany one another in ministry?

Through the churchwide ELCA Global Mission unit, the ELCA relates to and is in bilateral relationship with over 80 companion churches and institutions. The ELCA Global Mission unit stewards a church-to-church relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hong Kong.

This relationship is deepened and extended by the ELCHK's relationship, through the ELCA companion Synods program, with the ELCA Southwest California Synod.

Churchwide funding through the ELCA Global Mission unit supports key priorities identified by the ELCHK, including programmatic support to several ELCHK ministries, such as ministry among foreign domestic workers and publishing. Primary support is provided through mission personnel serving as professors and teachers at Lutheran Theological Seminary. As the seminary is a regional center for theological education, it has become a platform for mission and ministry within the whole region, including China. A new feature at the seminary is its Regional English Institute, which utilizes the English language as a basis for teaching Bible and theology. The ELCA also walks with the ELHCK in its outreach in China. The ELCA has nine mission personnel in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong and China: the context where the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong serves

Following 160 years of British control (except for four years under Japan during WWII) China regained control of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997 and rules Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region within China. Under Chinese rule, new restrictions are being felt, little by little. Examples of restrictions include: an anti-subversion law; the firing of a newspaper bureau chief after criticizing restrictions on freedom of the press; and pressure on Hong Kong to clamp down on the Falun Gong religious movement.

Hong Kong is home to more than 6.8 million people. Cantonese is the primary language of Hong Kong although English is an official language as well. Hong Kong's religious practices are largely a majority of assorted local religions (90%) and Christianity (10%).

Hong Kong is one of the central financial and trading centers of the world. It exports billions of dollars worth of products in the world each year. It is home to the world’s eighth largest stock market, the fifth largest banking sector and its economy is the sixth richest in the world. Balancing the needs of the environment with rapid urbanization is of concern.