Hong Kong’s protest pastors: as violence escalates, churches struggle to find a place between religion and politics
- Church workers at front lines try to keep the peace between protesters and police
- Tension rises as Christians debate churches’ role in sheltering protesters
For Reverend Yeung Kwan, Sunday usually means wearing his clerical collar, preaching at services, teaching Sunday school, and, sometimes, seeing those who need marriage counselling.
For the past five months, the senior pastor of the Hong Kong Reformed Presbyterian Hon Wah Covenant Church in Tsuen Wan has done all that. And considerably more.
On Sunday afternoons, Yeung, 50, swaps his collar for a frontline photographer’s vest, packs his camera, goggles and breathing mask and sets off for flashpoints where intense clashes are taking place between police and protesters.
He has been at the protests almost every weekend, capturing images for media outlets and a Facebook page he set up recently with other Christian photographers.
“Keeping a record is so important,” says Yeung, one of the few photographers who took pictures of a woman hit in the eye by a projectile on August 11, an incident which sparked a furore over alleged police brutality.
There were about 884,000 Protestants and Catholics in Hong Kong in 2016, according to government estimates. They are about 12 per cent of Hong Kong’s total population of 7.5 million.