History
Background
Baptist work in Hong Kong traces its roots from the first missionaries sent by the Triennial Convention to work with the Chinese. Due to the hostility to foreigners in China at that time,missionaries were forced to work in areas with significant Chinese population in territories outside of Chinese control. In 1835,Dr. and Mrs. William Dean begun work with the Chaozhou speaking Chinese in Bangkok,Thailand whereas the Revd. Jehu Lewis Shuck and his wife,Henrietta Shuck,started work among the Cantonese speaking Chinese in Portuguese ruled Macau. [1] [2] [3]
Initial mission work
With the cession of Hong Kong to the United Kingdom in 1842,the Shucks relocated to the colony in March of the same year and were joined later in the year by the Deans. [1] The first chapel was established in 1842 in Queen's Road known as the Queen's Road Baptist Church. [4] The Shucks also established a school for Chinese children where Henrietta served as director until her death in 1844. [5] They were also joined by Issachar Jacox Roberts who preached extensively in the villages of Hong Kong,particularly in the village of Chek Chue (known today as Stanley). In the same year,Roberts relocated to Canton becoming the first European to reside outside the protected foreign factory as European compounds were known then. [6]
Consolidation
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Mission work among the Cantonese was temporarily halted in 1845 when Shuck returned to the United States although Chaozhou language work continued among transient emigrant coolies with the Deans who were later joined by John W. Johnson and William Ashmore in 1860. With the help of one of the first baptised convert, Chen Dui, a second Chaozhou congregation was established in Cheung Chau Island among the permanent residents.
With the transfer of the Chaozhou mission to Shantou in 1861, the older congregation in Queen's Road closed down but the Cheung Chau congregation remained open, led by local Chinese leaders. [7] Work was resumed among Cantonese speakers with the return of Johnson to Hong Kong in 1880 and by 1901, the Self-Governing Hong Kong Baptist Church (香港浸信自理會) was established. [1]
BCHK established
On 27 March 1938, the Caine Road Baptist Church (香港浸信教會), Cheung Chau Baptist Church (長洲浸信會), Aberdeen Baptist Church (香港仔浸信會), together with the outreach points at Yau Ma Tei (油麻地佈道所), Hung Hom (紅鋤佈道所) and Kowloon City (九龍城佈道所), together established the BCHK. [8]
With the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, many refugees entered Hong Kong, including Christians from the Baptist churches in China. This helped in the expansion of the work of the BCHK. This included Chaozhou speaking Baptists affiliated with the mission established by William Dean who set up the Hong Kong Swatow Baptist Church in 1948. In 1954, Chaozhou speaking missionaries were sent by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society at the request of local workers to help in the work and the Chaozhou speaking churches, collectively known as the Swatow Baptist Churches (later Shantou Baptist Churches) joined the BCHK. [2] According to a census published by the association in 2023, it claimed 164 churches and 114,016 members. [9]
