Editor's Note: The Rev. Robbin Clark is on a three month sabbatical from her work at St. Mark's Berkeley. From time to time, Robbin sends a letter to the congregation concerning her sabbatical work, which we will post in this space. To facilitate reading, we have added topical heading.

Thursday, May 8, 2008, Berkeley CA

Reflecting on Hong Kong

A final word about (though not from) Hong Kong

My in-flight report didn’t happen, so I want to round out my relating of my experiences from here in Berkeley before they are lost in the fog of memory.  I must say how lovely it was to feel cool and dry instead of hot and sticky and to sleep snuggled in a comforter with a cat again.

The last week in Hong Kong went by in a flash and I’m missing my friends there already. It’s possible that two of them (Des and one of the seminarians) may visit Berkeley in August, so I’m hoping to be able to introduce them to you all. I’ve earmarked some of my 2009 vacation time for a return trip there, so I can keep up the contacts.  Besides, I left far too many tourist things undone on this trip in favor of more church-related experiences.

Birthday Dinner, Spring Fair, Pastoral Care Class

The birthday dinner I was heading to at last report was a delicious Indian meal with the bible study group.

The next morning, the CLARES had their ‘Spring Fair’, a sort of bric-a-brac and baked goods sale in the church hall that included a home-cooked curry lunch.  I’ve yet to understand the fixation with curry here, since it doesn’t seem all that ‘local’ as a dish. 

In the afternoon was the last of the pastoral care class meetings. The students have been a delight to work with and I will miss them. The Province is fortunate to be raising up such fine new priests, especially in light of the clergy shortage there. The Chinese-speaking congregations are growing and new ones need to be planted. 

The ex-pat congregations have their work cut out not to fall into a ‘chaplaincy’ mode, but to bring in new members and get them involved.  So many foreigners are in Hong Kong only temporarily, that they don’t think in terms of settling in and joining a church, especially if they don’t find their home denomination represented. It’s not actually that dissimilar to the issues we face at St. Mark’s.

May Day on Ascension Day

May 1 was another public holiday, their ‘labor day’.  As it was also Ascension Day, there was a full choral eucharist at the cathedral at 9am. Just as at home, attendance was not stellar for the special service, mostly because of the absence of the Filipina contingent. 

In the afternoon, I joined the congregation from Stanley on a ‘parish walk’.  We circled a reservoir in Tai Tam park, one of the many green areas on the island.

It’s actually quite amazing how much undeveloped land there is, either because it has been set aside or because it is entirely too steep to build on.  This creates the strange juxtaposition of open space with massive high rises, with very little in between except the real multi-millionaire private complexes on the Peak and dotted around some wealthy coastal communities.

There were nearly thirty of us, including lots of kids.  Many dogs also participated, and not always peacefully.  It was billed as an easy hike of an hour and a half. Ha! Two and a half hours later, with my legs quivering from all the up and down (with the inevitable hundreds of steps and, did I mention it was raining?), I managed to ‘cross the finish line.’

Then came the search for a cab to take me to a dinner rendezvous with Des.  I was getting worried that I’d be stranded on the road (everyone else had left, assuring me that cabs came along every couple of minutes, but it turned out they were all occupied), but eventually I found one to take me to Aberdeen, home of the floating restaurants.

We took the ferry out to the ‘Jumbo’ (very large indeed, but that is not the source of the name.  Turns out that the two Chinese characters that do make up the name transliterate roughly into the word). They initially said they had no tables all evening, but our combination of persistence and looking pathetic (me, at least) landed us a spot on the top deck and a yummy seafood platter to share. The weather had cleared by now and we sat outside, which is why, I think, they decided to take us.

Olympic Torch

Friday was my last day at Ming Hua, for the weekly spiritual reflection with Des and all the students. Following, they took us out for dim sum.

It was the day of the Olympic torch relay and the restaurant was liberally furnished with tv screens, so we kept tabs as we ate. There were not the disruptions that had occurred elsewhere and ‘outsiders’ who had come to protest (notably Mia Farrow), were kept under pretty firm control.  The students were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the media stars who were participating, but Des and I were pretty clueless about that and took it all in on the ‘I love a parade’ level, which brought a catch to the throat anyway.

I spent the afternoon getting supplies for the farewell ‘tea’ I was putting on for the staff on my last day.  I’d decided to do a Mexican theme, with a seven-layer taco salad and nachos, just because it would be different. In the evening, we ventured to the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district for an upscale meal at a great restaurant (‘M’ at the Fringe, for those familiar with the scene) and drinks on the rooftop garden.

Preparing Final Sermons

Saturday morning saw me at work on my sermons for the morrow, so I could go out in the afternoon/evening.  I had to come up with three variations for the three different services.

It was worth the push to be able to go out on a motorized ‘junk’ for the afternoon with some folks from the cathedral. It was my first experience of concentrated American company since coming to Hong Kong, and it felt a bit strange after being away over a month.  We anchored in Repulse Bay, with a view of the beach and the Tin Hau Temple (Tin Hau is another name for A-Ma, the goddess of the sea, so such temples are frequent features of waterfront communities) and the upscale club and houses there.

The weather was about as good as I had experienced my whole visit. I even got some sun.  I tried the idea of a swim, but found the water not up to my bath-like standards, so contented myself with having dipped a foot in the South China Sea.

At sunset, we motored (I do wish I could say ‘sailed’) to the neighboring Lamma Island, home of fishing villages and restaurants.  We ate at the ‘Genuine Hilton Fishing Village Restaurant’- no resemblance or relation to any Hilton you have known. 

Since our host was the director of the World Wildlife Federation in Hong Kong, we had only sustainable fish and some seemingly good-natured banter with the proprietor, who was the head of the local fishermen’s union. 

Later, we walked along the ‘strip’ and had pointed out for us which fish were illegally caught and put in the tanks for sale.  I had a feeling that those proprietors would be getting a letter in the morning.

Sunday Services

Sunday was busy, with three services to do and preaching at each. 

I got through the 8am, which I had never even attended, with the help of the lay server. There were well over 200 there and we needed to be in and out in 45 minutes, so we lost no time, either in sermon or distributing communion.

The 9am is a full choral service, such as we know at St. Mark’s, but with about 400 communicants.  We have to be done in an hour and a quarter, so there is no dilly-dallying at that one either.

The English-speaking folks have a breather during the Mandarin service at 10:30, so we have a coffee hour.  I used the time after that to polish up the third version of my sermon and get a bite of lunch.

Then I had my last service with the Filipino congregation at 2.  I was very touched by their joy at seeing me again, after we had thought that two weeks ago was the final time we’d be together. I told them how much it had meant to me to be with them and strongly encouraged them to raise up someone for ordination from among their group.  I think it would mean the world to them to have one of their own as a priest.  We’ll see how that develops.

I took the rest of the afternoon to start packing before joining Des for a last meal out, since we’d be dining at the Dean’s the next evening. 

Farewells to Cathedral Staff

Monday was extremely busy, with wrap-up reflection meetings with Dean Andrew and Des and Archbishop Paul, not to mention doing the staff ‘Mexican tea’ preparations, a quick run into Central with Matt to see if we could get a deal by buying two digital cameras together (we didn’t, but we bought them anyway- I know, why on the last day and not on the first day? - but that’s just the way it went) and finishing packing. 

In addition, there were the obligatory eating events- a potluck with the Friday bible study group at Des’s, the farewell tea and the dinner at the Dean’s. 

I felt quite honored to be invited into his home because it is far more common in the Chinese community to entertain in a restaurant.  It was a lovely meal with the family, with an exchange of farewell gifts. Afterwards, Des and I shared reminiscences of the visit over a glass of wine and wondered how we’d manage to return to ‘life as usual’.

Tuesday Flight to California

It was off to the airport at 8:30 Tuesday morning, with Dean Andrew kindly giving me a ride to the downtown terminal. After a twelve-hour (blessedly not 14+ because we were going with the trade winds) plane trip, I found myself touching down at SFO at 8:30 Tuesday morning! Talk about the elasticity of time!

Camino De Santiago Next

Now it is time to turn my attention to the Camino de Santiago and do all the bits and pieces one must to keep the home fires burning. I’ll be in touch again as I’m able along the Camino and will look forward to seeing you all in July.  Thank you all again for the opportunity to take this wonderful and much-needed sabbatical time.  I hope to return refreshed and eager to reconnect with our common life and ministry.

Love,  Robbin

© Copyright 2008 by Rev. Robbin Clark

Tuesday, April 29, 2008, Hong Kong

More greetings from the East!

Apologies -- Falling off the Internet in Macau

First I must apologize for not posting a letter in time for the weekend.  I was in Macau for five days without e-mail access. It’s not that it wasn’t around, but my hostess didn’t have wi-fi and our rather packed program did not include stops at internet cafes. Got back to Hong Kong yesterday and will try to catch you up on all I’ve been doing.

Preaching to Ex-Patriots on Sunday Number 3

To pick up where I left off, my third Sunday here brought a new variation.  I preached at one of the cathedral’s ‘daughter churches.’ These are congregations in other locations that are served by clergy from the cathedral who, although they may be assigned as the vicar of one particular church, also have cathedral responsibilities and cover for each other as needed.

At the moment, all three daughter church vicars are from England. The places they serve are generally fairly small (we might term them ‘missions’) and made up primarily of ex-pats (foreigners living here) who are comfortable worshiping in English. As such, they attract folks from a variety of countries and denominational backgrounds and are quite transient. As you would imagine, this creates predictable problems in church life (keeping up Anglican/Episcopal identity, cultural differences, establishment of long term lay leadership, etc.). 

I went to Stanley, on the south side of the island, by bus (much better Sunday bus service than we enjoy) and found the church, a college chapel during the week, with the help of the security guard at the entrance. It is a vibrant congregation with lots of kids (Stanley counts as the ‘burbs here). Worship was informal and followed by a coffee hour more like our own. The similarity extended beyond the food to the fact that the parishioners all clumped to converse with each other instead of seeking out the newcomer, of which I was not the only one. 

Preaching the Hong Kong Filipino Service Once Again

So I made my way back to the city to preach and celebrate for the afternoon Filipino service, my third time with that congregation. 

I am beginning to feel quite bonded with them and was happy that the rota for next month puts me with them for one more time. I pushed to have the service as much the same as usual as my language limitations would allow.

Fr. Dwight put together a leaflet that will serve for whenever he is gone and the celebrant cannot speak Tagalog. Formerly, the celebrant just used the regular English service — so I may have made one small ongoing difference here. All went well, and I even managed to utter a few words in Tagalog to introduce prayers said by all.

In my previous report, I mentioned the banquet Sunday evening that follows the service. It was quite the ‘do.’ It went on for nearly five hours and wasn’t over when we left. There were the customary eight or nine courses (think tasting menu in an upscale restaurant), a variety of entertainments of varying quality and duration (a geezer soft rock band of low karaoke quality went on interminably) and also a live and silent auction. I came away with a Chinese scroll.

Visits to Social Welfare Service Providers

Monday and Tuesday featured visits to four social welfare service providers, two at the cathedral and two in the hinterlands. All were very impressive. 

The cathedral is a major player in both HIV/AIDS ministry and ministry with the thousands of migrant domestic helpers who work here. The latter system is far too complex to detail here, but I’ll be happy to share more about it when I’m home.

My Tuesday visits were to facilities under the supervision of Dorothy Lau’s organization, the Welfare Council of the Province. She heads, on behalf of the church, the largest provider of social services in the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region - Hong Kong’s designation within China for fifty years following the handover from Britain which allows them to keep their civic structures/systems from the colonial era during this transitional time to total Chinese control). 

One was an integrated service center that operates on the principle that most social problems have many interconnected aspects which will be best handled by a coordinated team approach (imagine!). Thus, if a child is acting out in school, it might be found that a parent is unemployed and drinking and abusive, so services are put in place to address all of these through the same agency. And, since they serve a particular community, they can intervene in common situations as well. For example, they provide job training for aviation related work since they are right next to the airport. 

The other was a senior citizen residence where it would be a delight to live, much more so than many in our area.

Dinner with Theological Students

My involvement with the theological students continued with a dinner at Des’s for them. It was great to see the students relax and open up more than Des had ever seen them before.  The two of us continue to co-teach the pastoral care class and we got into some pretty lively discussion this week.

It is culturally difficult for the students here to "come back at" an instructor, and one of the hopes for the course is for them to learn to deal with the ambiguity of many pastoral situations (no single ‘right’ way to handle them) and to hone their pastoral reasoning skills and be able to say why they would do a particular thing, even if it is different from what someone else would do. I’m sad that tomorrow will be my last session with that class.

Speaking to the Cathedral Women's Group

Another activity from last week was to speak at the CLARES (the cathedral women's group that runs the thrift shop) meeting and preside at their eucharist. I was caught a little short at Eucharist, finding myself at the altar with no set of intercessions to use and needing to make them up on the spot. 

For my talk, I spoke on Pilgrimage. The group is not as forthcoming as those in Berkeley, so it was a bit of a slog to get conversation started, but we managed in the end.

Scott Sullivan and Wayne Ritchie from St. Mark's Arrive

On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of introducing Des to St. Markans Wayne and Scott, who were in town on a trip. We were joined for dinner by Dorothy Lau, who had not been able to show me her projects personally the day before due to meetings.

We took the Peak Tram (Hong Kong’s answer to the cable cars in terms both of steep hill transport and tourism value) to eat while enjoying a breathtaking panoramic view of the city and harbor.

On to Macau

After the clergy breakfast/bible study and cathedral staff meeting, I was off to Macau with Judy, the priest of the English-speaking congregation there.  We had arranged to rendezvous with Wayne and Scott for dinner there and found we were all on the same ferry.  We had a copious Macanese (fusion of Chinese and Portuguese cuisine) meal and got some pictures before bidding farewell.  It was lovely to have a visit from parish family members and be able to share some of my experiences.

Macau holds a special fascination for me because of my years in Santa Fe.  The two places received Iberian colonization at similar times and much of the religious art I saw in the churches reminded me of New Mexico. 

Morrison Chapel, where I was to preach and celebrate on Sunday, presides over the historic Protestant Cemetery and actually belongs to the government’s department of antiquities. For me, it is most significant as the place where Florence Li Tim Oi ministered.  She was the first ever woman ordained in the Anglican Communion, back during World War II.  It was a thrill to stand and preside at ‘her’ altar. 

But before that, I had two days to meet with leaders of the Chinese congregations there and to do some sightseeing.  Odette Pun is the vicar of another St. Mark’s. She and I spoke of the possibility of doing some kind of exchange trips between our parishes and I presented her with one of our ‘little churches’ as a token of our shared name and in hopes of future relationship. 

Joining Judy for English Class and Dinner

I went with Judy to help with one of her classes in spoken English, which she has been teaching to support herself until she could go full time with the church. It was a tough sell to these students who were very shy and uncertain of their English skills (plus they were teenagers at the last class on a Friday afternoon!). 

Then we had dinner at an old colonial outpost and wandered around a bit.  On Saturday we visited an amazing Buddhist temple to A-Ma, the protectress of fishermen, sailors and anyone traveling by sea. 

While we were there, a group of women invited us to eat with them.  I’m still not clear whether they were part of a large group that had ordered lunch, or whether the temple just feeds people, but we had soup and rice and such communication as smiles and gestures and a bit of English on their part (regrettably no Chinese on ours) could provide.  It was a lovely experience. 

From the hilltop shrine, we walked some 5K down a trail to the beach and then took a cab home. 

That night we went to dinner in one of the casino restaurants.  Macau is the Asian Las Vegas, with many of the same hotels.  The Venetian here dwarfs the one back home.  Most of the gamblers come from the Chinese mainland and take their gaming very seriously.  No raucous, booze-fueled betting here.  But the casinos are booming.  I’m told The Sands paid off the building within eight months from the profits.

After the Sunday service, pretty hang loose what with the organist not ever showing up and the ceiling fan blowing my sermon notes off the lectern, we went to a great beach restaurant, Fernando's, for lunch.  Fernando’s is an institution and the home of excellent Portuguese cuisine. There’s always a line and I can see why. 

Afterwards, we strolled the beach to find the Burmese Water Festival celebrations and watched dancing and people in general before going home and collapsing.  I was really exhausted, probably a cumulative result of so much newness and processing of impressions, not to mention non-stop activity.

From Macau Back to Hong Kong

Monday, after a visit to the Wine Museum (very good but clearly a promotion for the Portuguese wine trade) and lunch with Judy between her classes, it was back to Hong Kong, which is feeling a lot like home by now, and a pre-birthday dinner for Des.

Today Matthew, one of the cathedral daughter church vicars, and I went out to a retreat and interfaith center in the New Territories (the area between Kowloon and the border with Mainland China). 

We had noonday prayers (after the manner of Taize), lunch, and  some stimulating conversation with two of the directors there, an American Lutheran who has lived here over thirty years and a Chinese pastor, who specializes in spirituality at the interface of Buddhism and Christianity.  There is also a Lutheran seminary adjacent, but I did not figure out exactly how they are related. 

Matt and I also had some great conversations on the way there and back.  It is amazing how many of those occur when we are not weighed down by the daily cares of work and life and when we encounter new people in new and different contexts.  This is of the essence of what this sabbatical is about for me.

I’m afraid I’ve missed a bible study in trying to get this report up to date, but I will join the bible study group momentarily for yet another installment of Des’ birthday festivities (there was a ‘teatime’ party with the cathedral staff this afternoon and more to come at the seminary later in the week).

Goodbye for Now

I hope to get one more report off to you before I leave here.  I haven’t yet figured out if it will be feasible to report from the Camino, but I’ll see what I can figure out.

Love,  Robbin

© Copyright 2008 by Rev. Robbin Clark.

Saturday, April 19, 2008, Hong Kong

Greetings friends,

First Typhoon of Season

It’s been another eventful week, punctuated by my first typhoon.  That was yesterday, and it was pretty exciting, not to mention wet!  It seems that typhoon is basically a Pacific name for hurricane.

Like other storms, typhoons are graded for severity, in this case from 1-10. They speak of ‘hoisting’ a signal (which terminology dates from the time actual flags were hoisted on all the flag poles in the colony to warn everybody).  It is highly unusual to get a typhoon before May and this was the earliest and strongest one since 1949 (just call me luck).  It started as a 1, which nobody bothers much about. By midmorning it had gotten to a 3, which means “get prepared.” 

Then they seem to skip to 8, which means that all hell will break loose in about 2-3 hours.  Schools close and employers must send their workers home, as all public transportation is about to be shut down. 

At lunchtime, everyone was abuzz with the threat of an 8 being hoisted, not least the two brides who had weddings at the cathedral that afternoon. Frantic phone calls were exchanged and reassurances given.  We would proceed as planned unless it went all the way to 10.  As it turned out, we didn’t get beyond 3, but there was plenty of wind. 

Very Wet

In addition, they ‘hoisted’ the amber heavy rain alert, and were they ever right about that!  I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced such a downpour for so long (at least four hours of it coming down in buckets).

The steep hill by the cathedral was running over an inch deep, to the point that I had to take off my shoes and walk home barefoot.  Even with a raincoat and umbrella, I was soaked up to above my knees just walking a few blocks. Bits of branches were blowing down everywhere. 

Those wedding parties got fairly wet, but it all worked out in the end.  By 10 p.m. the rain had stopped.  I was glad, because I was set to preach at a church on the south side of the island and I didn’t fancy those winding roads over the mountain in a double-decker bus in a high wind.

Our Story So Far

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  There’s a whole week to tell you about. “When we left our story…” (as they say on the soaps), I was about to have a Saturday off.  I ended up sitting in on the marriage blessing being done by Sharon and the beginning of a Chinese wedding being done by the Dean, spending time in conversation with the English engineer/priest and dealing with my sermon for the next day.

On Sunday, I was the Celebrant at the main English service and it all went well except for being blind-sided by the choir launching into a Kyrie (nowhere indicated in the bulletin) just as I was starting to give the absolution.  I just waited and smiled and did it when they finished.

Filipino Services

I was a bit nervous about preaching at the Filipino service in the afternoon because of the language barrier, but it was fine and they were very attentive and gracious. 

Afterwards Fr. Dwight and I met with a different Filipina Fellowship group who come from another tribal/linguistic area and who were, they were eager to tell me, evangelized by the Episcopal Church as opposed to the Philippine Independent Church.  They go to the morning service and needed some real encouragement to go to a social gathering of the afternoon group with us. Cultural variations and tensions are very real here, as you might expect with such an international population and such recent colonial history. 

Soon it was time to prepare for the evening service, this time a Public Service of Healing similar to the one we do each year.  They do this one about quarterly, but there is no provision for a weekly healing station.  We discussed ways they might help that to happen. 

Dinner with Rev. Des and Arrival of Old Friends

By this time dear Des was back from his conference in Africa, so we went for dinner to catch up.  We were joined by a priest from London so had a great Anglican Communion confab.  The church really is like a global village.

Monday I took a day off to be with my college roommate who was accompanying her husband on a business trip.  They had lived here some thirty years ago, so we visited her old haunts and had a great time. 

After the plethora of new relationships, it was interesting to note the different kind of energy that characterizes longstanding friendships – how much one can take for granted or infer from brief but mutually well understood references.  I also had dinner with them at a club where they had kept up membership all these years.  It was magical, overlooking the harbor as all the lights went on. 

A Week of Cathedral Life in Hong Kong

After having breakfast with them the next morning, I went back to my cathedral life and visited another local congregation.  Lysta, the priest there, also serves as the diocesan General Secretary (a sort of chief administrator) and is about to deal with a total redevelopment of the church property, which includes a school and settlement house (social welfare program space) as well as a sanctuary and parish offices and classrooms. Needless to say, we had a lot to talk about.  In the evening I led a bible study, this time on the 23rd Psalm as a follow-up to Good Shepherd Sunday.

On Wednesday morning, I met with the CLARES (an acronym for something I can’t recall), the cathedral women’s group that runs a thrift shop and meets weekly for worship, fellowship and a program.  They are having the same sort of issues as so many churches in the US about no more women with time to volunteer during the week.  I’ll be doing their Eucharist and program next week, so it seemed wise to get a sense of the group. 

In the afternoon I helped Des teach a pastoral care seminar at Ming Hua Theological College, the local preparation program for clergy.  Des was delighted with how receptive the students were to my presence and how much they opened up to a stranger.

We stayed for the college Eucharist and got individual whispered (low tech) simultaneous translations of the sermon, which was in Cantonese.  I am so impressed by the linguistic abilities of the folks here.  Most of then speak two or three languages, and actually have to function in them.  I feel like a real deadbeat being monolingual.

Thursday brought the usual clergy gathering and cathedral staff meeting.  At the latter, they were trying to figure out how to work with their Council (Vestry equivalent) to help them see their work as one of ministry and spiritual leadership and not just another charity board. 

They were interested in how we handle the same issue and I hope to share some St, Mark’s resources and ideas with them.  It feels good to be able to give back after I’ve received so much from them.  I got to attend their Council meeting that very evening and it was “deja vu all over again” because it was so like our own Vestry meetings.  I guess the issues of the church are pretty universal.

Friday found me at another class at Ming Hua and another bible study.  This one got pretty frisky.  In the evening I had a lovely relaxed dinner with Archbishop Paul, who is both every inch the "great figure" and also the unassuming fellow student of nearly thirty years ago.

Farewell Until Next Week

I’ve told you some about Saturday already and will save the rest (including my computer tale of woe) for next time, as I need to get ready to go to a charity banquet for the Amity Foundation in mainland China.  The cathedral sponsored a table and I get to attend as part of their group.

Love to you all,

Robbin

© Copyright 2008 by Rev. Robbin Clark.

Friday, April 11, 2008, Hong Kong

Hello again from Hong Kong.

Another week seems to have flown by, filled with wonderful experiences and the ongoing battle with the humidity. I'll give you a day-by-day so I can remember to mention everything.

Last Saturday was fairly low key and included a three-hour “wander” around the Central district with the trusty Fr. Des, first through the very upscale shopping floors of the major skyscrapers, which are all connected by elevated walkways. What a rabbit warren! I could be lost for days in there. We naturally gravitated to the luxury food and wine shops. You can find many familiar products, but the displays are quite elegant (not quite Harrod's Food Halls, but more like Dean and De Lucca or Mollie Stone's. We saved most of our purchasing, however, for the market stalls, where you can get produce for about 1/5 the price. The Ferry Building Farmers' Market they're not, but the price is right. We nabbed some fresh fish (I wasn't ready to go with the live ones in the market­­ – there is a real place for cellophane in my omnivore world) and some wine back at the fancy store. Later, we cooked a lovely meal together. All the time, we were conversing about the church here and at home and about the difference and similarities of ministry in each place, so I'm constantly learning and reflecting.

Sunday was pretty non-stop. The cathedral was initiating a new schedule of services and the staff was on tenterhooks to see how it would all go.  As we know so well, changes in liturgy are never a small matter. They had done a lot of preparation and publicity, but there were still folks showing up at the old times (kind of like when we start daylight savings time). Their first service is at 8, but I wasn't assigned until the main English service at 9. The place was packed to the gills with a truly international crowd. I vested and distributed communion. As we cleared out, the Mandarin service began and continued through the coffee hour (nowhere near our customary spread, but they are dealing with about 500 at that service alone).

Then it was back into action for a new service at 11:45 which will rotate character through the month (1st Sunday – family Eucharist; 2nd – choral matins with 1928 communion 3rd – Eucharist according to the Povincial Service Book (which is evidently not used much); 4th – modern language morning prayer with Eucharist and, when applicable; 5th – alternative style Eucharist). Again, I vested and helped with communion (almost everyone here instincts – dips the wafer in the wine – so communion goes quite quickly). Things got a bit confused and the sermon ended up preceding the gospel, but it was a delight to hear the children's choir and people didn't seem to phased by it all.

After a quick bite of lunch, it was on to the Filipino service (all in Tagalog, so I just sat there in front of everyone, trying to look like I had a clue) and more distributing communion – another thing about the physical set up is that the level of the kneelers is about a foot lower than the platform on which I was standing, so people had to really reach up and I had to bend down to give them the bread. I, used to the all-on-one-level arrangement at home, found this somewhat theologically disconcerting as well as physically awkward. That service was also packed. In fact, the ongoing congregation is almost 2/3 Filipino (actually, FilipinA, since there was hardly a man to be seen. It's pretty much all women migrant domestic helpers).
There was a bit of a breather before the 6pm evening prayer, another rotating offering, with this one featuring a junior college choir whose members are trying to improve their English by singing Anglican evensong. I didn't get the impression that most of them had a clue about Christianity in general, but they did a creditable job under the circumstances.

Afterwards, there was meant to be a social time with simple supper, but the caterer didn't understand that the service was now a half hour earlier, so no food arrived for quite a while. The congregants had given up, but the choir kids fell on it ravenously (somewhat like at our evensong receptions) and it ran out.

As the poor beleaguered Dean was trying to deal with that, I accepted the invitation of the preacher, a retired English engineer now serving full time at the cathedral, to have dinner with him at his “club.” It was fairly upscale and hushed until we got to the informal eating area where formula one racing was blaring on the TV. We sequestered ourselves from that as best we could and had a very nice meal. I only felt the teeniest bit guilty for leaving the Dean to cope with the choir. Meanwhile, my faithful leader, Des, was heading for the airport to go to Tanzania to speak at an AIDS conference. He's been gone all week and I've felt a bit bereft without him to turn to.

Monday saw me on the ferry to Discovery Bay, the site of my Friday hike. It is a strange place in that it is totally owned by a developer who thought he was putting in a sort of resort/weekend getaway for folks from Hong Kong, but ended up with an artificial suburb catering to ex-pats. Everything is under the control of “the company” – what stores there are and who can use space where for what.

The church is not allowed to build a building, so they meet in a local diocesan school music room and use a small apartment (which really can't accommodate many more than a dozen) as a ministry center. The community is truly international, with an emphasis on those working for airlines, as it is quite close to the new airport. No cars are allowed, only golf carts, which adds an additional air of unreality.

The church there is a daughter congregation of the cathedral and is served by a vivacious, no-nonsense English woman named Sharon. I liked her immensely and think we might stay in contact after this brief sojourn. Our day together included a morning bible study, a meeting about ecumenical youth work projects, lunch and a trip (with the cathedral dean) to look at a large apartment to serve as both a vicarage and a ministry center. I must say that it seemed so much better than what they have now that I hope it moves forward.

I got the ferry back in time to share doing baptism instruction with Fr. Dwight, the Filipino priest. It was quite interesting to learn how they organize things. Two of the four expected sets of parents failed to show, so I'm now wondering what will happen on the baptismal day. I'll let you know.

On Tuesday, I took the Peak Tram up to the amazing hilltop lookout over Hong Kong and took a two hour hike around up there. The air quality is much better as most of the traffic stays on the flats.

I got back in time to shower and attend a “Christians in Central” luncheon and lecture by a visiting Englishman (somewhat diffuse in my estimation). The afternoon was spent again wandering around Central and the evening in another bible study and figuring out the laundry facilities at the club.

On Wednesday, I visited the shelter operated as an offshoot of the cathedral's migrant ministry to house domestic helpers who have been abused or suffered other crises while employed here. While many arrangements work out well, there is a huge potential for abuse. The situation is both similar and radically different from our own issues with immigrant (in our context, the undocumented) workers. After a lunch cooked by the shelter residents, I did some errands and had a quiet evening.

Thursday brought the weekly clergy gathering for Eucharist, breakfast, bible study and presentation (this time about Chinese ministry in the Boston area) and the cathedral staff meeting. I had my first opportunity to “fly solo”' by doing the lunchtime Eucharist at the cathedral (for which I was nearly late due to talking with Sharon about the issues in her parish). I paid a visit to the migration ministries office which helps the workers resolve disputes with employers and does advocacy work with the systems here and in the Philippines. In the evening, I sat in on a wedding rehearsal Sharon was doing and had dinner with her and her husband.

On Friday, I visited two parishes on the Kowloon side (one in each of the two dioceses there), both run by energetic and up and coming Chinese priests who trained in England and the US respectively. I was much impressed by their evangelism programs. Most churches here also involve a local school and a social service ministry. There is a far greater consciousness of serving the whole community than is generally found in US churches, perhaps due to the English heritage.

I then did the third bible study of the week on the road to Emmaus passage (by now I'm really ready to be done with that passage for a bit, though it was striking to notice how completely differently each group handled it). While dining alone at the residence club, I broke through the wall of silence by greeting and being joined by one of my fellow residents, so perhaps I was just looking for things to happen too quickly. And I've decided that it's pretty OK not to have breakfast be a chatty time. 

Now that I've caught you up to the moment, I'll turn my attention to contemplating my sermon for Sunday and nursing my flea bites, a gift of the golden retriever I met at the shelter.

A blessed continuing Easter season to you all (Don't forget to keep feasting!).

With my prayers and gratitude,

Robbin

© Copyright 2008 by Rev. Robbin Clark

Saturday, April 5, 2008, Hong Kong

Greetings from Hong Kong!

It is Saturday morning (still Friday where you are) and another cloudy, muggy day. I think the climate may turn out to be my biggest challenge here. 

I arrived Tuesday evening after a 14-and-a-half hour flight and was met by my host priest, Fr. Des. He is Australian and has been working here in Hong Kong for seven years now, both in a parish and now at the cathedral. He's lots of fun and has lined up a varied programme for me, including visits with all of the cathedral's social outreach/service ministries (particularly their work combatting AIDS and their care and advocacy for migrant domestic workers. I'll write more about them as I make my visits to them) and with Dorothy Lau, to see her extensive network of social services on the diocesan and provincial level.

It was only recently that Hong Kong became an independent Province of the Anglican Communion rather than a 'special region' under the Church of England. It comprises three dioceses, and my seminary friend Paul Kwong is both the Bishop of Hong Kong Island and the Archbishop of the Province, whose other two dioceses are on the Kowloon side of the territory. There is also Macau, the former Portuguese colony, which is still in an ambiguous status but, it is hoped, may soon become a fourth diocese in the Hong Kong Province. I will be spending a few days there, including taking services one Sunday.

The Hong Kong cathedral has several "daughter churches"' as well as several linguistically distinct component congregations (Mandarin and Filipino). I will be visiting them and preaching in some of them. Other activities will include leading some bible studies and addressing the cathedral's women's group, which does extensive charitable work.  

I am being housed at The Helena May, a nearly century-old women's residential club, founded by an ex-patriot English lady to provide a safe place for women who were here on their own in the developing colony. It is a bit of a throw-back to college days. My room is on the third floor (no elevator) and fairly spare – a single bed, a desk and straight chair, a bureau and closet and bedside table (the big amenities are wi-fi access and a mini-fridge). The commual bathroom is down the hall.

When Fr. Des tried to help me carry my bags up (I was traveling uncharacteristically heavily), he was told that no men were allowed above the ground floor, another relic of my college days. But, as they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location! I'm a three block walk from the cathedral and right by the Peak Tram terminus, the Hong Kong Park, the American Consulate and not a stone's throw from all the delights of the downtown Central district.

We went out for a meal at his 'local' (a restaurant that is a sort of home away from home for him), where I was warmly welcomed. I thought I'd collapse into a long and deep sleep, but it was not to be. Too much jet-lag, a new and unfamiliar bed, city noise and an inability to get the room and myself the right temperature made it at best an extended doze.  

The next morning, after unpacking and settling in, I met with the Dean and Fr. Des for an orientation. I spent the afternoon wandering around Central, as it's called, exploring the street markets and gazing upward at all the sky-scrapers. I was trying to combat the jet-lag. Hong Kong is 15 hours ahead of San Francisco during our daylight savings time, and that makes it like being 9 hours behind. The the net effect is the same as having flown home from Europe – you wake up absurdly early and are hardly able to keep your eyes open over dinner.

I have been training for my Camino walk next month. I have worn my new hiking boots and am very pleased with how comfortable they are.  I've decided that Hong Kong is my "'stairmaster," since everything seems to involve considerable up and down. In the evening, the Dean treated me and Fr. Des to dinner at my"'club" (which allows the public in its lovely and excellent dining room). 

Thursdays are a weekly diocesan clergy Eucharist, followed by breakfast and bible study and an educational presentation or discussion with the bishop.  Once a month, all of the clergy of the province attend. It was delightful to see my friend Paul again and to meet some of the clergy with whom I will be working. There is a very strong spirit of teamwork here.  We heard a lecture by an historian about the first bishop of the diocese, which sent me scurrying to read up on the early history of the colony.

Afterwards, it was straight on to the cathedral staff meeting. As it was the first week of the month, all of the heads of the various outreach ministries were there to report. Then they left and the clergy continued the meeting with concerns of the cathedral and the daughter congregations. Much of the conversation centered around the same concerns as at St. Mark's, a mix of pastoral and liturgical and logistical matters. 

I took the opportunity, when I was introduced, to give greetings from the parish and especially from George, who had such a successful and well-remembered visit here last summer, and to present to the Dean one of our 'little churches' replicas of St. Mark's. It was much admired and particularly so by the priest of the Filipino congregation, who said it reminded him of so many churches in his homeland. The meeting concluded with a yummy dim sum lunch (I'll need a lot of those "stairmaster" afternoons if this eating keeps up!). 

Yesterday was a public holiday in celebration of Ching Ming, the Chinese spring grave sweeping festival. It is not unlike the Mexican Dia de los Muertos or All Souls' day, being a time to remember and pay respect to those who have gone before. Families gather at cemeteries to clean the grave sites of their ancestors and to share memories and burn incense and paper 'money' in their honor. I spent the morning hiking with some new acquaintances.  I took the ferry to Discovery Bay, a primarily ex-pat 'suburb' on Lantau Island. We hiked from there over the mountain, past a Trappist monastery, to the beach village of Mui Wo, where we had lunch in a Turkish restaurant (go figure).  It was more of the "'stairmaster" treatment (about 1500 of them on the way up and down, and that's not counting the steep path itself!). I was just glad to survive it and sank gratefully into my seat on the return ferry. After a (well-earned, I felt) nap, I went to Fr. Des' for a dinner party which included some of the cathedral clergy.

That brings me to today and the curious "code of silence"' in the residents' breakfast room at THM (The Helena May).  No one exchanges a word. I'm trying to figure out how to actually meet some of these people I pad by on my way to take a shower or crunch toast next to as we individually pore over the South China Morning Post papers that are put out for our perusal. Stay tuned for updates.  

I'm excited for my first Sunday at the cathedral tomorrow. It will be a full one, with about five services (and I won't even be at all of them).  You will be in my prayers and I ask you to keep me in yours. I do hope all is well with you and continue to feel grateful for this sabbatical oportunity, which is already proving to be so rich.

Love,  Robbin

© Copyright 2008 by Rev. Robbin Clark