Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 19th September 2004, the church's 80th Anniversary, by Harold Naylor SJ

Christ, the one foundation of the Church!

Christ is the foundation of the building of the Church in which we are incorporated. We are diverse, yet we are to be united in charity and faith.

How come then there are so many “churches”? Well, we do not all live in the same place, so we need church “meeting points” in different geographical locations. And what is more, we are called by many names (denominations). And so, eighty years ago, Kowloon Union Church began, here in Jordan Road.

Many years of association with your church have given me some wonderful memories.

I had experience as a substitute British army chaplain, 1968-1991, having responsibility for the British military hospital and army Sunday mass for about seven weeks a year when the Catholic chaplain was away. The army considered about 12% of servicemen were Roman Catholics: some Irish, others second and third generation Irish in the UK, together with some from Glasgow and the west Highlands. Then there were the Nonconformists – Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists etc who accounted for about 30%. The rest were C of E, which often meant that they belonged to no church so they were considered part of the established Anglican Church.

Here in Kowloon, there was Rosary Church next to the Gun Club for Catholics since 1901, and for the Anglicans there was St Andrew’s (1917?) on Nathan Road and Christ Church (1949?) on Waterloo Road. What then of the Nonconformists? Kowloon Union Church in 1924 welcomed all Christians.

It was 1968 when I first came into contact with your church. Joining the clergy group for English-speaking pastors I got to know KUC’s minister, Jim Muir, who was the treasurer. There was a tradition that the group’s chairman, treasurer and secretary usually rotated between Methodists in Wanchai, Anglicans from St John’s Cathedral, and Kowloon Union. I became a close friend of Jim Muir, for more than two decades. I also came to know – among others at KUC – the Daleys. Anne Daley was in charge of the play group and active in KUC and her husband Philip was on the board of deacons. He was the government ecologist and I was active in the environmental movement, so we had many interests in common. Moreover, the Daleys lived in a flat in King’s Park, just above the school where I lived. I was invited to their monthly home prayer group, which was charismatic.

I admired KUC because of the variety of meetings of Christians, mostly on social and educational issues, together with interesting ecumenical theological study groups. KUC was in a strategic location even before the MTR arrived in 1979, because of the large number of bus lines that plied its intersection.

I first knew KUC with Australians and New Zealanders and UK people, together with many from Canada and the USA. Some were with government or on missionary work, others in business. There were a few overseas Chinese and some from local Christian schools. And there were always tourists and visitors from many cities of the world. By the 1990s, there were more Asians in the congregation.

The outreach of KUC to severely handicapped children – Wai Ji – beginning in the 1970s, was something I heard of but never was engaged in. Later there was hospitality to Korean Christians. Then the manse, which I knew so well over the years, saw a great change when Bethune House took over the upper floor to help domestic helpers in trouble. Later, about 1986, the minister moved into a flat, and the manse was divided up to take in many service groups like Amnesty International, Green Power and other NGOs.

I have made many good friends in KUC. It has a drawing power far and wide. May it always be a place of fellowship and Christian sharing. Praise the Lord for all that has been! Amen to all that is today! And Alleluia for all that will be!

I would like to end with two prayers:

Heavenly Father, of power and mercy, may the love you pour into our hearts make our efforts, in the name of your Son, bring all humanity into peace and unity.

As we contemplate the saints in their ecumenism of holiness, may we progress to greater unity, not by absorption or fusion but in the encounter of truth and love. AMEN