Morrison Chapel (; zh, t=馬禮遜教堂), also known as Morrison Protestant Chapel, is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

situated in Luís de Camões Square,

Santo António Santo António (Portuguese for Saint Anthony), also known as Santo António do Príncipe, is the main settlement of the island of Príncipe in São Tomé and Príncipe. It lies on the north east coast. It is the capital of the Autonomous Region ...

Macau Peninsula The Macau Peninsula is the historical and most populous part of Macau. It has an area of () and is geographically connected to Guangdong Province at the northeast through an isthmus wide. The peninsula, together with downtown Zhuhai, sits on ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. Originally built in the early 19th century to serve the spiritual needs of the employees of

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, the chapel now serves the worshipers with a variety of denominational backgrounds in the Missionary Area of Macau. The present chapel was built in 1922.

History

Traders of the

were engaged in trade with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

from the late 18th century until 1834. Their

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

includes stipulations that employees of the company should be allowed to attend religious services on a regular basis and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

s should be sent out from

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to take care of the spiritual needs of employees. Before 1821, when the land for a chapel and burial ground (now the Old Protestant Cemetery) was purchased, the chapel was probably simply a room at the offices of the British East India Company. The purchase of the burial ground was prompted by the death of Mary Morrison, wife of Robert Morrison, missionary and translator employed by the East India Company. Prior to this, the Portuguese authorities had only allowed Roman Catholic burials in the colony. Nothing is known about the construction of the first chapel at the site. The first recorded ceremony at the chapel was a marriage in 1833. In 1834, when the East India Company lost its trade monopoly, responsibility for the chapel and cemetery was taken by the British government. In 1870 this responsibility was transferred by Deed of Transfer to Trustees consisting of three high ranking representatives of at least two nations having Protestant members living in Macau. In 1921 the Chapel required complete rebuilding, except for the original foundation. Two conditions were placed on these works; it had to be hidden from the street behind a high wall, and it could have no church bell. The chapel has remained structurally unaltered since the completion of these works in 1922. In 1941 the congregation was swollen in numbers by refugees fleeing the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

. The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and of parts of China had made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau, where there was no resident Anglican priest; Florence Li Tim-Oi, the deaconess in charge of the chapel, was authorised by Bishop

Ronald Hall Ronald Owen Hall ( zh, t=何明華, j=Ho Ming Wah, p=Hé Mínghuá, first=j; 22 July 1895 in Newcastle upon Tyne – 22 April 1975 in Lewknor, Oxfordshire) was an English Anglican missionary bishop in Hong Kong and China in the mid 20th cen ...

and his assistant to give the sacraments to the Anglicans in these extenuating circumstances. On 25 January 1944 she was ordained 'a Priest of God' by Bishop Hall, thus became the first female priest in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

References

External links

Missionary Area of Macau

Morrison Chapel
{{Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui 1922 establishments in Macau Anglican church buildings in China Churches completed in 1922 Chapels in Macau Historic Centre of Macau Macau Peninsula Properties of the East India Company Tourist attractions in Macau

History

See also

References

External links