The Diocesan Fund-raising Commission for Church Building and Development and the Diocesan Audio-Visual Centre co-organised this month’s Thy Kingdom Come online exhibition and charity bidding event. It is intended to promote art, faith and spirituality via art while raising funds for church building and development.
According to the fund-raising commission, major projects currently planned include an extension to St. Joseph’s Church, Fanling, a new church for Tung Chung parish and the renovation of cemetery facilities.
The diocese normally establishes churches in the districts with population growth. The late Jesuit Father Thomas F. Ryan, in the Catholic Guide to Hong Kong published in the 1960s, described the relationship between the churches and their situations, and what religious activities were organised to serve the community. Using the Holy Family Church in Choi Hung Estate as an example, Father Ryan wrote that, at that time, the area was inhabited by many refugees coming from mainland China and churches were built as early as the 1950s.
More recent cases include St. Andrew’s Church in Tseung Kwan O, and St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Tsing Yi, both located in densely populated communities. The diocese has also set up schools and provides social services to look after the needs of residents in the community.
A church is of utmost importance to the Christian community as a venue for worship and gatherings. But they are more than religious structures and sacred liturgical spaces; they are a concrete sign of the union of the divine and humanity, since community expresses love and communion through liturgies and charitable acts.
Therefore, the diocese hopes that people can make a heartfelt contribution in terms of resources and prayer. By making a small contribution, we can build a better future for Hong Kong.
When speaking of church building and development, we remember the theme of parish renewal, put forward in an instruction, The pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the Church, from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in July 2020, and also the pastoral theme of the Diocese of Hong Kong for this year.
The old concept of the parish needs to be widened. If necessary, we should go beyond the geographical division of parishes in their charitable and missionary work. The instruction also said that a parish should become a more inclusive community that is conducive to dialogue, solidarity and open to others.
In the midst of Covid-19 restrictions, many parishes have been livestreaming Masses and conducting formation and evangelisation activities online. These are good examples.
We should also be a part of the renewal process in our own parishes, remembering that we are the Body of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit, and must continue our own renewal in our faith journey towards Christ. SE
