Road to unity is long for Hong Kong Christians

The Prayer Week for Christian Unity on Jan. 18-25 passed in Hong Kong with the issue of a joint statement, prayers and hymns and an ecumenical Sunday breakfast for church leaders.

Jan 31, 2017

HONG KONG: The Prayer Week for Christian Unity on Jan. 18-25 passed in Hong Kong with the issue of a joint statement, prayers and hymns and an ecumenical Sunday breakfast for church leaders.

However, Cynthia Yuen, a Protestant who works in education, was unimpressed. How were the activities "still relevant today after the Umbrella Movement of the 21^st century?" she said, referring to a months-long campaign of civil disobedience effort for democracy in 2014.

"Can we say that unity exists when only church leaders attend? It seems the prayer week has nothing to do with young people as they are not leaders," she said.

Young people in Hong Kong are different from the past. Some are very socially conscious and active in politics. They want to know the views of the church. If the ecumenical movement wants progress, it must move with the times, Yuen said.

Her view that there is a detachment between church leaders and the faithful, especially the youth, is not uncommon.

Lau Yiu-chung, a Catholic in his 20s, said that he knew the prayer week was happening but did not join any of the activities. "I didn't know what the exact activities were and did not feel interested," Lau said.

"I am not very sure about the ecumenical spirit. It seems to have little effect," he said. His only ecumenical experience was bringing fellow Catholic students to visit a Protestant fellowship when he was a member of his university's Catholic Society.

For Yuen, the problem is one of comprehension. The church should have a deeper understanding of what ecumenism means, she said.

The life and environment of local society is "totally irrelevant to the church. The struggle of the people is not the struggle of the church. Ecumenism has become a formality. It is unfortunate," she said.

A politicized society effects ecumenism

One of the reasons is a reluctance to discuss politics. "The church is afraid to discuss politics. Many religious leaders and faithful avoid touching this topic," she said adding that this is unavoidable since Hong Kong has returned to China.

This reluctance turns church statements into something "big and empty" and bureaucratic even if they try and talk about people's livelihoods, another important issue, she said.

Wan Hoi-wing, assistant executive director of the Hong Kong Christian Council, does not totally agree. He pointed out that the Hong Kong Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the Hong Kong Christian Institute and other Protestant organizations have created joint actions on social justice.

Of the organizers, core members and volunteers in the Umbrella Movement, more than half were Christians. Initially, they did not know each other's religious background but started to realize when they began sharing prayers and activities, Wan said.

Wan admitted that the ecumenical movement turned stagnant in the 1980s and 1990s as people had other concerns, particularly the looming hand over of the British colony to China in 1997.

But he said that the atmosphere has changed in recent years with the Orthodox Church's active participation, and the Catholic and Protestant churches enthusiastically preparing for the 500^th anniversary of Reformation.

He said there is now a group to discuss theology attended by members of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations, they released a joint prayer in 2016 and a new Chinese translation of the Nicene Creed in 2017.

Church leaders' friendship brings cooperation

Theresa Kung, secretary of the Catholic Ecumenical Commission, thinks it is alright for the prayer week to be held in an official manner and to invite church leaders to participate.

"The leaders could reject us. Their participation shows their support and willingness to consolidate friendships. It is through this relationship that we opened the door for greater cooperation between the Ecumenical Commission and the Lutheran Church," she said.

The Chinese translation of the joint declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was an important milestone, said Kung, a core member of the Focolare Movement.

The Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Methodist churches in Hong Kong endorsed the Chinese translation of the ecumenical declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 2014.

It is important for parishes, religious societies and denominations to initiate ecumenical activities themselves as well as to disseminate the message, she said, but added that many Catholic priests and nuns do not participate. "Perhaps they do not realize the importance," she said.

"The road to unity is long because there are many aspects to work on and the most basic one is to break the walls between everyone," Kung said. "If we still use a hard-line approach towards each other, people will have no role model to guide them in worldly disputes," she added.--ucanews.com