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 Interestingly, over the last 10-15 years the number of Filipino maids has fallen and they have been replaced by workers from Indonesia who today number around 150,000.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.' 

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…