Salvation from above : the Christian missions of the To tsai ui tong, the independent church of Hong Kong, 1843-1926 = Tian dao xia ji : Xianggang Hua ren zi li hui Dao ji hui tang zhuan jiao shi ye yan jiu (1843-1926)

Abstract

The Protestant opened its way to China after the Treaty of Nanking was signed. Missionaries of different missions moved themselves and the ecclesiastical establishments founded in Southeast Asia since early Nineteenth century to Hong Kong, newly acquired colony of the British Empire. In fact, the missionaries saw Hong Kong a stepping stone ushering missionaries to the mainland China where millions of heathens inhabited. When most of the missions headed their way to China, the London Missionary Society founded its native church for the Hong Kong Chinese in 1843. About a half century later, the church named To Tsai Ui Tong(道濟會堂) evolved into one of the earliest independent church in China.

This study aims to examine the development of the church with focus on its tracks to propagating the Gospel within and beyond the boundary of the Hong Kong Colony and difficulties encountered and what strategies that the church employed for thriving. And the most important of all, how the church construct its identity in the course of development.

The first chapter of the thesis offers background, methodology, literature review and the research propositions of the study. The change of the church locations and its internal pastoral ministry which form the basic narration of the thesis are detailed in Chapter Two. Chapter Three accounted for the evangelization activities organized by the To Tsai Ui Tong with the cooperation of the London Missionary Society in the neighbouring areas of South China as Poklo(博羅), Fatshan (佛山) and Macao(澳門). Elaboration will be given to explain how these out-stations survived under conflicts with the local elites and clans. The Fourth chapter reveals how the churches extended its influence to the New Territories in 1898 when the Qing Government agreed to lease the area to the British Government. The first chapel was built near the market place of Yuen Long and mission stations were established in the following years in Tai Po, Sheung Shui and Tsuen Wan along the main roads and the railway. The Fifth Chapter examines the social involvement of the church in the society of Hong Kong. Cooperated with the London Missionary Society, disciples of the congregation provided religious and counseling services to prisoners and patients of the Alice Memorial Hospital. The church also rebuilt the Ying Wa College (formerly called “Anglo-Chinese College”) in 1914 to sustain the education ministry advocated by Robert Morrison (1782-1834) in 1818. Through the above-mentioned endeavors, the social witness of the church has been successfully established.

By writing this thesis, the author is committed to sketch an accurate and comprehensive historical account of the evolvement of the first Chinese self-supporting Congregation in the Nineteenth Century Hong Kong.