History
On the morning of 8 December 1941, the day after their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong. On Christmas morning 1941 the Reverend Alaric P. Rose took the morning service in St John's with a congregation of one hundred, whilst shelling continued on the island.
During the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, the cathedral was converted into a club for the Japanese. Many of the original fittings were stripped out, including the original stained glass windows.
On the 9th September 1945, the first service after the arrival of the Royal Navy was held in the Cathedral.
In 1981, Peter Kwong Kong Kit became the first Chinese Bishop of Hong Kong.
The site of St. John's Cathedral is the only freehold land in Hong Kong, granted in fee simple pursuant to s.6(1) of the Church of England Trust Ordinance (Cap.1014). All other land tenure in Hong Kong is leasehold in nature.
On 5 June 2012, there was a service of thanksgiving at the cathedral in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Read more about this topic: St. John's Cathedral (Hong Kong)
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“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)