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Hong KongSociety

Bishop who spoke out on Hong Kong protests elected as city’s next leader of the Anglican Church

  • Right Reverend Andrew Chan will take over from Most Reverend Paul Kwong as the city’s archbishop in early 2021
  • Chan emerges as victor from an election held on Sunday to pick the leader of the 30,000-strong church community

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Right Reverend Andrew Chan will head the city’s Anglian Church, known in Hong Kong as the Sheng Kung Hui, early next year. Photo: Handout
Danny Mok

A Hong Kong bishop who challenged the conduct of both officials and protesters during last year’s social unrest has been elected as the next leader of the 30,000-strong Anglican congregation.

Right Reverend Andrew Chan Au-ming, 58, will succeed the retiring Most Reverend Paul Kwong as archbishop early next year.

Chan, the incumbent Diocesan Bishop of Western Kowloon, won the election at a special meeting of the Eighth General Synod at S.K.H. Tang Shiu Kin Secondary School in Wan Chai, with the proceedings also followed at St Paul’s Church in Macau via videoconferencing.

He was voted into the role ahead of Diocesan Bishop of Eastern Kowloon Right Reverend Timothy Kwok Chi-pei, and Bishop Coadjutor of Hong Kong Island Diocese Right Reverend Matthias Der.

In June last year, Chan, Kwong and Kwok co-wrote a pastoral letter to the Anglican community at the start of Hong Kong’s anti-government protests, accusing the city administration of stubbornness in refusing to listen to public views on the extradition bill, the spark for the social unrest and later withdrawn.

“The whole incident was caused by the government ignoring the real worries and fears of citizens,” they said. “It did not pick up the voice of the citizens on time because it focused solely on amendments to the legislation.”

Such a narrow focus resulted in “stubbornness, partiality and bias” on the government’s part, the trio added.

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