Holdings Overview

The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui maintains a small archives devoted to the history and records of our church, from the 1840s to the present. We also have historical materials on the Anglican and Episcopal Christianity in Greater China and related related areas.

The Archives has almost 140,000 pages of documentary records, including registers, constitutions and canons, legal documents, land deeds, financial records, minute books, letters, reports, writings, statements, maps, and other materials. We have complete or nearly complete sets of HKSKH publications in Chinese and English, dating from 1922. The Archives has more than 6,000 digitized photographs, and a large number of original photographs from the late 19th century onwards. We have a limited number of historical artifacts and souvenirs presented to our bishops. The Archives maintains a small working library of books, which at present has 350 books, with special attention to writings by HKSKH authors.

We have a complete photocopied set of the The Chinese Churchman (in Chinese), the official publication of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, from 1908-1951, as well as other documentary CHSKH materials. The Archives has acquired copies of other materials from the Public Records Office in Hong Kong, the Shanghai Municipal Archives, the Lambeth Palace Library, the Archives of the Anglican Church in Canada, the Archives of the Episcopal Church in the USA and the Church Missionary Society Archives in Birmingham. Most of our publications have been digitized, and we are selectively digitizing important records that are part of our collection.

Within the archival holdings, we maintain a special collection of rare books, documents and photographs. These include:

• Robert Morrison’s Chinese Dictionary, 4 volumes (1815-1823)
• The Royal Letters Patent (1849)
• Books and pamphlets by Bishop George Smith, the Rev’d Vincent Stanton and other early missionaries and churchmen
• The Letter of Warrant from Queen Victoria (1872), revoking the Royal Letters Patent of 1849 and 1867
• A collection of early editions of the Book of Common Prayer (in Chinese), including the first prayer book published in Hong Kong (1854) and the first part of the first full edition of the Chinese Prayer Book (1872)
• Memorandum of the articles of Association of the Church Missionary Society Trust in Hong Kong (1885), and related materials
• The 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer (on long term loan together with four other early English prayer books)
• A facsimile edition of 165 books, tracts and writings of Christian materials in Chinese, from the nineteenth century, one of only two in Hong Kong

The HKSKH Archives is open to church members and qualified researchers during regular office hours, upon appointment.