All gospel opportunities offered in Hong Kong
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HONG KONG
With Hong Kong having a decade of close alignment with the People's Republic of China under its belt, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has another opportunity to strengthen its ongoing ties of trust with the Chinese government.
In Hong Kong, that opportunity is through the example of operating with a full complement of gospel opportunities — including a temple, missionaries, stakes, wards and meetinghouses — in an area not under direct Chinese rule, but under a watchful eye.
For almost 12 years, Hong Kong has been a part of China, returned by Great Britain to China and operating as a Special Administrative Region (SAR). The same SAR designation is also used by neighboring Macau.
With the People's Republic of China operating under its pronounced "one country, two systems" police, a Special Administrative Region is a highly autonomous administrative division. A SAR is mostly self-governing, with China allowed to dictate major national matters such as foreign policy and military action.
This autonomy afforded Hong Kong is committed through 2047, or 50 years from the July 1, 1997, transfer date from Great Britain. Before that, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the surrounding areas that comprise Hong Kong spent more than a century and a half as a British dependent territory.
In the months prior to the 1997 transfer, Church leaders — including President James E. Faust and Elder Russell M. Nelson — met with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region executives, who assured them that Hong Kong members would continue to enjoy limited religious freedoms within certain guidelines. Over the years, local Church members have reported no change since 1997 in their religious activities and their lifestyles in general.
While its missionaries and converts in Hong Kong date back to 1950, the Church has maintained a full, ongoing presence in the area for more than a half century, since 1955.
"The past 50 years has been a great time for the Church to establish itself in the non-Judeo-Christian world," said Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and president of the Church's Asia Area presidency, which is based in Hong Kong.
Mainland China and Hong Kong are part of the Church's Asia Area, bordered by Indonesia on the south, Taiwan on the east, Mongolia on the north and Pakistan and India on the west.
In all, that's 25 different countries and territories, with a Church presence in 18 of the 25.
Living within the Asia Area are 3.4 billion people — more than half of the world's population, with the area featuring a diversity of financial conditions, from extreme poverty to the wealth of Hong Kong.
There's also a diversity of religious beliefs and spiritual practices among the population, starting off with 1 billion Hindu and 700 million Muslims — more Muslims than in all of the Middle East, noted Elder Hallstrom — as well as Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and other native spiritual beliefs and practices.
To help establish its presence in parts of Asia, the Church benefited from Hong Kong being under British rule.
The Church had been introduced and was functioning throughout Great Britain by the mid-1800s, so it was not a new religion to British officials in Hong Kong. Also, the limited British influence in the culture and conditions helped Hong Kong be an effective transitioning point for the Church there as well as throughout Asia.
Comprising four stakes and one district, Church membership in Hong Kong is approaching 24,000.
The city of 7 million people is also home to the Hong Kong Temple, dedicated in May 1996. With its basic design outlined by then-President Gordon B. Hinckley, the tall, multi-level building not only houses floors used for temple worship and ordinances but also the China Hong Kong Mission offices and a chapel and meeting rooms for a local member ward.
At temple ground-breaking ceremonies in 1995, Elder John K. Carmack, then area president, addressed the concerns of what might happen to the Church and its local members when Hong Kong would revert to China in 1997.
"Part of the answer is that we are building a temple that will serve China for a long time," he said, "and that is a statement of our faith and confidence in the future."
Speaking from the area presidency's offices on the 10th floor of the Church Administrative Building on Hong Kong Island, Elder Hallstrom said the temple and area office building — dedicated in 2005 and also including chapels and classrooms for member use — underscore the Church's continued faith in the future.
