Sunday morning in Kowloon
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
22
137
Trip End
Sep 20, 2006
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Sunday, November 13, 2005
St Andrew's Church, Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Denomination:
Anglican (Episcopal), Diocese of Western Kowloon
The building:
It's 100 years old next year, nothing particularly special, a fairly standard Victorian parish church... It has got a new Christian Centre next door though.
The church:
The congregation was a real mixed bag of Chinese, Western (I'm sure they weren't all British), and a few other nationalities - probably quite representative of it's location
1 - Alpha Anne in Hong Kong!
!We were expecting there to be a lot of families, but the congregation was pretty much all adult and predominantly in the 20-40 age range.
The neighbourhood:
Nathan Road is a huge 'Oxford Street' kind of road that runs north to south through Kowloon. It's jam-packed with shops, malls, restaurants and LOTS of flashing neon signage! St Andrew's is set back from the road and on a small hill so it's kind of detatched from the hustle and bustle going on even on a Sunday morning.
The cast:
Leader: Rev Wing-On Pang
Preacher: Rev John Menear (Aussie Vicar who just started 5 weeks before)
They had a Graham on guitar! (St Stephen's in-joke that one!)
What was the name of the service?
11am Morning Service
How full was the building?
To capacity
2 - St Andrew's, Kowloon
! We think that there were about 250 people there, very few empty seats.Did anyone welcome you personally?
There were greaters at the entrance who gave us the St Andrew's news bulletin, and Rev Wing welcomed all who were visiting Hong Kong & the church.
Was your pew comfortable?
Chairs. They were ok.
How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere?
The worship group were rehersing and there was a steady hum of quiet chatter going on as people arrived.
What were the exact opening words of the service?
"Good morning, it's nice to see you here to worship with us."
Rev Wing-On went on to especially welcome those who were new to the church or who were just passing-through Hong Kong, we think this church must pick up a lot of passers-through like us!
What books did the congregation use during the service?
They had their own 'Services at St Andrew's' booklet that had the standard liturgy. The words for the songs appeared on the big screen at the front (and there were tv monitors for those people stuck behind pillars!).
What musical instruments were played?
Grand piano (very well), organ, later on a guitar made an appearance.... along with a tamborine!
Did anything distract you?
Not really, it was quite a slick & well-led service and everyone was very well-behaved.
Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
Half-way between. The instuments meant that it wasn't tub-thumping music, but the chosen songs were mostly Kingsway, Mission Praise - although they were all 70's classics!
Exactly how long was the sermon?
40 minutes.
On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher?
7/10 - He was pretty good. We found out later he's only been vicar at St Andrew's for 5 weeks but he got stuck in with this. He kept closely to the subject, made lots of references to the Bible passage (1 Corinthians 15:1-34), and made quite a complex and thorny topic relevant and understandable.
In a nutshell, what was the sermon about?
The resurrection is the central 'plank' in the Christian faith: if the resurrection is not true then Jesus was lying and none of what he says is true. The apostles preached the death and ressurection of Jesus as the first importance of the gospel, historical truth (the death & ressurection of Jesus was attested to by over '500 men'), physical truth (Jesus was dead and buried, his physical body was raised), biblical truth (from prophesies in the Old Testament to the New Testament Gospels) and theological truth (God tells us that Jesus' death is important, substitutional attonement).
Which part of the service was like being in heaven?
Singing some familiar songs was good as we haven't done it in a while! (even if they were hairy old 70's classics!)
And which part was like being in... er... the other place?
None of it really.
What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost?
We spoke to the vicar briefly on the way out, but no one talked to us when we were standing aound with our coffee looking at the Homegroups board etc. We perused the bookstall and left...
How would you describe the after-service coffee?
Jono though it was ok (only half a cupful though & it took a while to find the milk - imported from Australia bizarrely!), Anne had lemon squash.
How would you feel about making this church your regular (where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)?
6 - it's a big, popular and very very active church. They seem to have lots of mission projects & outreach programmmes (they are starting a Christmas mission, they run Alpha etc). Being so large it would be hard getting to know people, you'd have to join a homegroup or something.
Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian?
On the whole, yes. We enjoyed the service, although it was nice to follow such a familiar format & style we could have been at home, there wasn't a lot of 'Hong Kong' in evidence!
What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time?
Hard to say, no one thing was particularly memorable in that respect... but it was a nice church and a good service, and it was in Hong Kong after all!
Comments
All the best...
...churches have a 'Graham on guitar'!!
I've been enjoying reading your travelog - and missing you both!!
Hope all is well...