Pastors, Priests and Perambulation!
As promised in my last blog, here is a picture of me all robed up from last Sunday at All Saints Cathedral! Again, my thanks go to Revd Dr Peter Chan and the rest of the team for their warm welcome.
I woke on Wednesday to the news that after the overnight Thunder and lightning storm, the city recorded more than 6,100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes! It was indeed an amazing and powerful sight!
The morning remained drizzly, but later in the afternoon, I managed to meet up with pastor Ken from Shine Baptist Church. This was Vidi’s church in Hong Kong, and she had kindly put me in touch with him.
We had such a great time of fellowship together. It was great to hear of his heart for mission and discipleship, and I took away some practical ideas to help our church reflect on how healthy we are as a community. It’s incredible that even though our churches are over 6,000 miles away from each other, we share similar joys and challenges in our churches' lives.
Ken also introduced me to the Hong Kong Pudding ‘Tofu Fa’. It was an acquired texture and taste! We also shared Hong Kong Milk Tea and Hong Kong-style French Toast, which was delicious! It was great to pray for each other, too, and I hope to meet up with him again when he returns from Holland!
In the evening, I headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui harborside to see the fireworks. This week is Labour Day Golden Week when many tourists come from China. The Harbourside was packed, and unfortunately, along with many others), we thought we were standing in the right place to view the fireworks; we didn’t see anything apart from a lot of smoke! :(
I was invited to the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Provincial Meeting for Clergy on Thursday. We met at St John’s Cathedral at 8:30 a.m. for Holy Communion and then headed into the church centre for breakfast. I was introduced and given such a warm welcome by both the Bishops and Clergy. The meeting was focused on The 12th World Anglican Chinese Clergy Fellowship (WACCF), which met in April in Taipei, Taiwan, with feedback from several delegates during their time there. It was incredibly helpful to have been provided with an earpiece where a translator provided an English translation in real-time.
After the meeting, I was kindly invited to have lunch with Revd Peter and several other clergy colleagues for some Dim Sum. On talking to one of the clergy, his first ever theological course he did was a long-distance course from St John’s College Nottingham, the place where I did my Ordination training!
There was lots of laughter, and it was nice to see their strong relationships and support for one another.
Later in the afternoon, I popped into a Christian bookshop to buy a card to send to someone, and I spotted my next Lego Project! 😂😂😂
I had a free day on Friday, so I decided to head off on my first Hike in Hong Kong! I started the climb at Quarry Bay, heading through the Tai Tam Country Park and reservoir before descending to Deep Water Beach for dinner. Then, I took a short walk to Ocean Park to get the MTR Home. The total distance walked was 13.02km! It was all well worth it, though, as the scenery was stunning, and It felt a million miles from the busyness of the city!
Today has been another wet day, and I’m a little achy after my walk yesterday. So it was more time for reading and a short trip to have a mooch around some shops!
Tomorrow (Sunday), weather permitting, I will be heading to Macao, where one of the Anglican Churches has an anniversary I’ve been invited to. I hope to post about that soon.
Sending all my love and prayers:)