HK - Sunday Mass (and tiramisu)

St Joseph's Church, Hong Kong

 The highlight of Sundays in Hong Kong is attending the 11.00am Mass at St Joseph’s Church, a large modern building situated on the foothills of Victoria Peak, overlooking Hong Kong Harbour.

There are quite a number of masses at St Joseph’s on a Sunday; there are masses in English at 7.00am, 8.00am, 9.00am, 10.00am, 11.30am and 6.00pm plus masses in Tagalog (the main Filipino language) at 1.00pm, 2.30pm and 4.00pm.

There are around 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, mostly domestic workers (maids), and, Sunday being their day off, they tend to pack the local churches. Apart from the joy of seeing so many people at Mass, there is the added joy of listening to them – Filipinos are renowned as Asia’s best singers and musicians, and they love to sing in the church choirs, often wearing robes specific to the mass that they serve.


The parking lot was quiet and there were only a few people praying the rosary in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary – a sure sign that the church was already packed.

 And so it was, the main body of the church was packed so we made our way up to the balcony - but it was standing room there too. So, backs against the wall, we prepared to stand at the rear of the balcony for the next hour or so.

The balcony (before it got really crowded)

The celebrants were two Maryknoll Fathers (an overseas mission of the Catholic Church in the US, heavily involved in schooling in Hong Kong since the late 1950s). There were plenty of missals and song books in the pews. As we were at the back of the balcony, we couldn’t see the altar so had to rely on the television monitors overhead.

 

That was no problem. The sound system was excellent and the congregation sang their heart out, competing with the white-robed choir and the musicians far below. There was even a projector system that displayed the hymn lyrics on large screens at the front of the church.

The choir with monitor displaying lyrics

The homily, about 15 minutes, was delivered with self-deprecating wit by an elderly priest who clearly knew his congregation, loved them and that affection was reciprocated. The message was that, to get to Heaven it’s not enough to love God, we have to love our neighbour too. Using simple illustrations from his own life, the celebrant presented his theme in a very effective and amusing way. His co-celebrant, described as ‘my small friend’ was a nearly seven feet tall visiting Maryknoll Father from an African mission. 

General view of part of balcony and main body of church

The Mass was familiar, identical in fact as it is worldwide in this small 'c' catholic church. At the Lord’s Prayer people tended to hold their hands up or join hands. The ‘Peace’ greeting also tends to vary by country, in line with local custom, ranging from a bearhug to a folded hands ‘Namaste’ greeting, as in India. In Hong Kong it’s a sedate incline of the head accompanied by a beaming smile.

Front of church

Exiting the church after Mass seemed to take for ever, moving slowly down an endless stairway.

 

When we got to the bottom and thought we’d escaped the crowd – surprise! - we met another crowd waiting patiently to enter for the first Tagalog Mass of the day.

Let us in (please)!

In need of some sustenance after all that standing around, we decided to splash out and went for lunch to Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill restaurant in the stylish shopping centre of Pacific Place. Not that we’re great fans of Mr Ryan’s speciality of huge portions of calorie-laden food – a very occasional visit suffices – but most other places would have long queues. Also, the occasional overdose with American favourites offsets the regular and less gargantuan intake of healthy Chinese cuisines.

And so it was that younger son (after first devouring a cheese-laden nachos starter and then a plate of baby back ribs) struggled with what might well be the largest tiramisu in Hong Kong…