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4. Social Ministry Project
In the past year, we promoted a ministry with a social justice perspective through theology courses, a practicum for seminarians and a joint project with local churches. We believe this series of programmes can offer a good resource for Christian ministry and a connection to political and social development.
4.1 Theology Courses
We held the first Exploring Social Ministry Course at Lutheran Theological Seminary in the autumn term of 2001. We introduced several models that link experience and theory and reflected on them critically with nine students in the programme. The examples were drawn from a variety of social sectors and issues—labour, women, prisoner’s ministry and right-of-abode seekers. The course required participants to visit in groups and report on their experiences and, based on this, to develop their own reflections through essays.
4.2 Practicum during the Summer Holiday
In order to put theological students in the centre of Hong Kong society and to enable churches to reflect on social ministry, we designed a practicum session from June to August which was different from other practicums. The participants attended more than six in-house seminars for in-depth reflections upon the day-to-day operation of HKCI. There was one student from Lutheran Theological Seminary and three from Chung Chi Theological Division who attended the programme. Responses to the two courses above were both very positive.
4.3 Christianity and Social Development Course
The 10-year-old Christianity and Social Development Course was accredited by six local theological seminaries. The theme of last year’s programme was “Globalisation and the Hong Kong Context.” The participants indicated that this course deepened their understanding significantly about the issue of globalisation.
4.4 Social Ministry Partnership Project
In this programme, HKCI fostered the participation of pastors in social ministry. Beginning in February, we began to explore the project in Shek Kip Mei District with pastors of the SKH St. Thomas Church, St. Francis Catholic Church and the CCC’s Sum Oi Church. We organised a meeting with several members of the churches with local groups using the theme “Churches and an Alternative Economy.” The results of the meeting indicated that the topic was too broad and needed too many human resources to launch. We are waiting for another opportunity to make this idea a reality.
4.5 Conclusion of This Section
Both theological seminaries and seminarians showed a positive response to our courses. In fact, our efforts to fill in the gaps of the social dimension of theological education were appreciated. In the autumn term of 2002, we will launch a new course, Public Policies and Christian Values. In addition to the course entitled Introducing Social Ministry in Hong Kong (former Exploring Social Ministry) and practicum, these courses form a programmatic trilogy that will make our social ministry theology education more complete.
We are looking forward to the development of different forms of social ministry in local churches to form a strong force to promote social justice and the witness of an alternative living praxis.
Frankie Ng
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