Modern Church History
Professor: Dr Dieter Mitternacht
Student: Wendy Cheung
Date: 27.4.2010
Topic: The Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Hong Kong
The Lutheran Church of
Hong Kong
 the
Chinese Rhenish Church
 the Tsung Tsin Mission
 the Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod
 the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran
Church
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong
Kong
The First Lutheran Missionary to
China
 Karl
F. Gutzlaff (1803-1851)

joined the Dutch Missionary Society to Asia.
A secretary for Chinese Affairs in H.K.
Government.

Contributions:

1. stressed the principle of self-propagation.
2. translation of Christian literature.
3. Promotion of China Missions
The Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK)
The Beginnings
based on the 16th century Martin Luther’s
Reformation.
 Lutheran missionaries from Germany, Northern
Europe and the United States to China.
 In 1920, the Chinese Lutheran Church was
formed, along with a seminary and the Lutheran
Publishing House.


The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Shekow,
moved to Hong Kong in 1948. (Tao Fong Shan)
 In 1955, the LTS moved to Pak Tin Village,
Shatin.
 students graduated, the work of spreading the
Gospel expanded throughout Hong Kong,
Kowloon and the New Territories.
 In 1954, at Tao Fong Shan to formally establish
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong
(ELCHK).

The first church was Tong Lo Wan Lutheran
Church (predecessor of Living Spirit Lutheran
Church) in Shatin, which began worship on 20
October 1949.

The first church in Kowloon was the
Mandarin Union Lutheran Church
(predecessor of Truth Lutheran Church).

The first church on Hong Kong Island was
Saukiwan Lutheran Church (predecessor of
Faith Hope Lutheran Church).

Ma On Shan Lutheran Church was the first
church to have a specifically built building
(predecessor of Yan Kwong Lutheran Church) in
the New Territories in 1952.

The ELCHK established the first primary school
in Shatin in 1950, the predecessor of today’s
Shatin Wo Che Lutheran School.
The Development
A. Church Structure
i. Head of the ELCHK
 Peng Fu, Wu Ming-Chieh, Jiang ZhongYuan, Charles Guo, Paul Hu, Xie YueHan (John Tse) and Gai Yin-Kui (Koy
Ying-Kwei).
 President change to Bishop from 2005.
 Dr. Tai Ho-Fai is the first Bishop.
Peng Fu
Wu Ming-Chieh
ii. Organization
 Annual Assembly
 Representative Assembly
 Church Council
 Administration
iii. Others
 ‘Ten-Year Self-Support Scheme’
 In 1989, Ms. Chan Sik-Moi was ordained
to a pastor, the first pastor of Chinese
woman of the Lutheran churches in Hong
Kong.
 In
1996, elected Ms. Josephine Tso as a
president, the first woman to head the
ELCHK, the first woman to become top
leader of all mainline churches in Hong
Kong.
 Evangelism
Outreach
 the ELCHK has 52 congregations with a
membership of over 15,000 and almost
100 evangelists and pastors as co-workers,
including about 10 missionaries.






Overseas Mission
In 1999, we had sent Rev. Ip Ching-Wah and his
family serving in Thailand.
In 1998, ELCHK sent Rev. Ian Cheung and
family to serve the Chinese community in
Germany.
In 2003, we sent Rev. Tsang Kwok-fai and family
to Fiji Island to serve the Chinese community
there.
In 2007, we sent two lay missionaries, Ms. Lam
Wing-man and Au-Yeung Suet-ling to serve in
Thailand.
In 2008, we also commenced our mission in
Phnom Penh, Kampuchea.
B. Education
 5 secondary schools
 7 primary schools
 7 kindergartens

In the 2008/2009 school year, we have a total
of 8,300 students and 532 teachers.
C. Social Services
 early 1950s, the ELCHK has actively taken
part in the refugee relief programme of
Lutheran World Service in Hong Kong.
 in August
1976, with the establishment of
a youth centre in Shatin.
 Other
community services: school social
work, hostels for the elderly, child care
centres, children and youth centres,
outreach teams, homehelp teams, and
services for the mentally handicapped.
D. Theological Education
 The Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS) was
first established in Shekow, Hupei Province in
1913.
 in 1948, LTS was moved to Hong Kong.
 1953, the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) opened
in Tai Po to meet an urgent need for more
evangelists.
 In 1968, when the Rev. Wu Ming-Chieh was the
president, the LBI and the LTS merged.
 In 1971, Dr. Andrew Hsiao was the first Chinese
LTS president.

LTS moved to its new campus on Tao Fong
Shan in 1992.
E. Literature Work
 Taosheng Hong Kong began operating
independently.
 Taosheng is one of the oldest Chinese
Christian publishing agencies outside mainland
China.
 Taosheng Publishing House is the publishing
arm of the ELCHK.
 Taosheng specializes in books for theological
education, personal and spiritual guidance and
Lutheran theology.
F. Church Co-operation
 ELCHK was a member of the Hong Kong
Christian Council and the LCC-HKA in
1954.
 a member of the LWF in 1957－the first
Chinese Lutheran church to join that world
organization beside the LCC.
 keeps close relations with other mainline
churches and also takes part in activities
of conservative evangelical churches.
Mission partners
 The
Lutheran World Federation
 The Hong Kong Lutheran Federation
 Hong Kong Christian Council
 Hong Kong Chinese Christian
Churches Union
 Belief

The foundation of the Lutheran Church: Holy
Bible, Creeds and Confessions.

Holy Bible: Holy Bible is the highest norm of the
church.

The Three Ecumenical Creeds: The Apostles
Creed, Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed.

Lutheran Confessions (Book of Concord): The
Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the
Augsburg Confession, the Large and Small
Catechism, the Schmalkald Articles and the
Formula of Concord.
The End
Thank you!
Good-bye!