Provisional Council approves Missionary Area of Macau to expand evangelical ministries

Publish Date: 21-Jul-2021

The Missionary Area of Macau held its Eleventh Provisional Council on 10 July. Because of pandemic restrictions on travelling, the meeting was held simultaneously at St Paul’s Church in Macau and at the Provincial Office in Hong Kong via video conferencing to ensure that members could fully participate in real-time discussions.

The council passed two motions. In the first motion, the council requested the House of Bishops to consider developing evangelical ministries conducted in Chinese at the Macau Anglican College. In the second motion, the council requested that the House of Bishops consider developing evangelical ministries at Seac Pai Van district in Macau.

In his report to the council, Revd Simon Fan, General Secretary of the Missionary Area of Macau explained that the need for the Missionary Area to be elevated to a Missionary Diocese because of Macau’s changes in population structure, social policies and economic developments. Since Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui became a province in 1998, Macau has experienced great changes. The population increased from 430,500 in 1988 to 683,100 in 2020. In February 2019, the central government of China published the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It plans to develop infrastructure works to connect the nine cities located in the Pearl River Delta with Macau and Hong Kong and deepen the cooperation between Guandong Province, Hong Kong and Macau so as to develop the bay area into a residential cum business and leisure centre of international standard. To keep abreast with the developments of the Greater Bay Area, the Missionary Area of Macau should be elevated to a Missionary Diocese to prepare its faithful for its future participation in providing more social services, education, evangelical and pastoral care to the Greater Bay and in glorifying God.