My Favourite Church in Hong Kong

St Joseph's Church is probably not the largest or the prettiest church in Hong Kong but it has one tremendous asset, the congregation, which is overwhelmingly Filipino. When I think of 'heavenly choirs' I think of the massed choirs of St Joseph's.

St Joseph

Records say the church was originally built in 1872, making it one of the oldest churches in Hong Kong – but it only lasted a couple of years before being destroyed by a typhoon. It was rebuilt in 1876 and survived until 1967 when it was demolished and replaced by the present building.

Situated in Garden Road in the 'foothills' of the Mid-Levels, opposite the American Consulate and close to the Peak Tram Terminus, the striking church with its teal blue colour is hard to miss.

As usual this Sunday morning queues of taxis were dropping off worshippers at the side of the church while hundreds of others surged up from nearby Central. Around the church, groups of Filipino domestics were already having early lunch snacks, practising songs and dance moves, studying hymn music, holding meetings or rummaging in a 'bring & buy' sale in the car park below the church.

The story of the Filipinos in Hong Kong is interesting. There have always been Filipinos here, working as musicians, architects, nurses and a variety of occupations. However, the numbers grew dramatically after 1974 when Philippines President Marcos enacted labour laws that encouraged the export of workers (who would then remit their foreign currency earnings home, solving some of the country's finance problems). The boom of the 1970s and 1980s in Hong Kong led to a vast increase in the movement of labour.

Today foreign domestic workers number 320,000 (2013 figure), about 3% of the Territory's population. Of that number, Filipinos account for about half, 160,000. Interestingly, over the last 10-15 years the number of Filipino maids has fallen and they have been replaced by workers from Indonesia who today number around 150,000. There are several explanations for this change, one is that the Indonesians are allegedly better trained, receiving 3-6 months of household work training plus a basic course in Cantonese before arriving in Hong Kong. On arrival the maids can hope to earn about £4,300 (US$ 6,400) a year with board and lodgings provided by the employer.

But, for this blog, the important fact is that the great majority of Filipino workers are Christian - Catholic mainly – and the 120,000 Catholic Filipinos in Hong Kong amount to one-third of all the Catholics in Hong Kong.

It seemed that they all wanted to come to the 11.30am Mass at St Joseph's this morning. You have to arrive early to get a seat. By 11.00am most of the seats in the body of the church were taken.

(When we arrived the assistant Parish Priest, Fr Jim McAuley, was christening a baby before Mass began, the parents, godparents, relatives and friends all standing at the front of the church).

By 20 past 11 the balcony seats were gone.

 

 

Five minutes later the choir were assembling, smart in their white and blue robes, with keyboard and guitars.

By the time Mass began promptly at 11.30am, there were dozens of people standing in both the main part of the church and the balcony – over 1,000 worshippers.

Wonderful! And this was only one of five Sunday Masses in English (at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.30am and 6pm) and three Sunday Masses in the main Filipino dialect, Tagalog (at 1, 2.30 and 4pm). (...Not to mention three daily Masses).

I noticed two major differences from Mass back home in Hove; the sea of heads of the congregation in front of me was uniformly black not grey, and the volume (and tunefulness) of responses and singing was clearly superior. (While the Filipinos are – justly – renowned throughout Asia for their musical ability and cheerfulness, the two projection screens that displayed the words of the Mass probably helped with the fluency of the participation! Note to Fr Kevin!).

Mass at St Joseph's is devout, engaging and highly participative. At the end, many of the faithful thronged the altar, touching the crucifix ( - and one or two, it had to be said, took selfies!) As we left, the response to the bidding prayers 'Lord of glory, hear our prayers' was still ringing in my ears. 

Could there be a better start to a Sunday?

As a postscript - and as a corrective since I've focused particularly on Filipino Catholics, I picked up a copy of the local diocese newspaper 'The Sunday Examiner.' Occasionally there are articles referring to the priests and religious who have been assaulted or murdered or have gone missing in the mainland or the Philippines which makes one grateful for the peace and stability of life at home.

The article that touched me today was by a local Chinese Catholic, one of a group of 24 who went on a pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey, following the footsteps of St Paul and St John. Among the 24 pilgrims were eight from mainland China 'who have sustained their faith for four generations despite political changes throughout the decades.'  She continues 'In an Islamic country, celebrating Mass or praying publicly always attracts curious spectators. It may be risky, but it can also be an opportunity to courageously witness to our faith. What impressed me most was the applause from the audience for our impromptu singing of Salve Regina and the Pater  Noster in a theatre in Ephesus, where according to Acts 19:23-29, a riot was raised against St Paul.'