The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong Island, and mother church to the Province of Hong Kong and Macao. It is the seat of the

Archbishop of Hong Kong The Archbishop of Hong Kong () is the senior bishop, and spiritual and moral leader of the Anglican Province of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and the Primate of Hong Kong (). The archbishop of the province is elected from among the diocesan bisho ...

and the

Bishop of Hong Kong Island The Diocese of Hong Kong Island is one of the three dioceses under the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, a province of the Anglican Communion. Its territory covers Hong Kong Island and the outlying islands. The cathedral of the diocese, St. John's Ca ...

. At Garden Road, Central, the cathedral is located in a prime central position, surrounded by the Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Center, HSBC Main Building,

Court of Final Appeal Building The Court of Final Appeal Building, also known as the Old Supreme Court Building, is the home of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. It housed the former Supreme Court (Hong Kong), Supreme Court from 1912 to 1983 and the Legislative Counc ...

Former Central Government Offices The Former Central Government Offices (also the Government Headquarters), now called Justice Place, is an office building complex that formerly housed most of the major offices of the Hong Kong Government. The complex is located in Cen ...

, and the Former French Mission Building. St John's Cathedral is one of the five cathedrals in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. The others are Holy Trinity Cathedral (Anglican), All Saints’ Cathedral (Anglican), St Luke Orthodox Cathedral (

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

), and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

History

The congregation that would become the cathedral held its first Sunday service on Sunday, 11 March 1849, as "Hongkong Colonial Chapel", the founding church of the Diocese of Victoria. It was consecrated as St John's Cathedral by George Smith, bishop of Victoria, in 1852. On the morning of 8 December 1941, the day after their attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong. On Christmas morning 1941

Alaric Rose Alaric Pearson Rose was Dean of Hong Kong from 1941 until 1952. Rose was born 26 September 1909 in Lye and Stourbridge, England. He was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and ordained in 1933. After a curacy in Gateshead he was Chaplain at S ...

took the morning service in St John's with a congregation of one hundred, while shelling continued on the island. During the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of British Hong Kong, Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after Batt ...

, the cathedral was converted into a club for the Japanese. Many of the original fittings were stripped out, including the original stained glass windows, which had been created by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

' firm. On 9 September 1945, the first service after the arrival of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

was held in the cathedral. In 1981, Peter Kwong became the first Chinese bishop of Hong Kong, who went on to become the first archbishop of Hong Kong when the province was established in 1998. The site of St John's Cathedral is the only freehold land in Hong Kong, granted in

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...

pursuant to s. 6(1) of the Church of England Trust Ordinance (Cap. 1014) of 1930. All other

land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...

in Hong Kong is

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a Lease, lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title (property), title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold right ...

in nature. On 5 June 2012, there was a service of thanksgiving at the cathedral in honour of the

diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for Queen Victo ...

. On 1 June 2025,

Stephen Chow Stephen Chow Sing-chi (; born 22 June 1962) is a Hong Kong filmmaker and former actor, known for his mo lei tau comedy. His career began in television, where he gained recognition through variety shows and TV dramas. Chow's breakthrough came in 1 ...

became the first

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

from

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church. The diocese takes its name from the Episcopal see, see city, the metropolitan area where the bishop resides. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong ...

to preach in the cathedral. Coincidentally, Bishop Matthias Der celebrated the Sung

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

. This marked the first time that there was a Catholic Cardinal and an Anglican Bishop together in the cathedral's 180 years of history.

Architecture

It is the oldest surviving Western ecclesiastical building in Hong Kong, and the oldest Anglican church in the Far East. The cathedral's architectural style is a plain, unadorned adaptation of 13th-century English and decorated Gothic, which was the popular revivalist style for churches at the time. Along the north wall is a memorial tablet to William Thornton Bate, who was killed in the battle on Canton in 1857. A similar tablet is found at St Ann's Church in Portsea,

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, Hampshire. The bell tower of the cathedral is decorated with a large "VR" on the west face, in commemoration of the institution's founding during the

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. The north and south faces of the tower are decorated with the coats-of-arms of two former governors of Hong Kong,

John Francis Davis Sir John Francis Davis, 1st Baronet (16 July 179513 November 1890) was a British diplomat and sinologist who served as second Governor of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1848. Davis was the first President of Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. Backgro ...

and

George Bonham Sir Samuel George Bonham, 1st Baronet (Chinese Translated Name 般咸, 文咸 or 文翰) (7 September 1803 – 8 October 1863) was a British colonial governor, who became the 4th Governor of the Straits Settlements and the 3rd Governor of Hon ...

. There were reports that the main doors of the cathedral are made with wood planks salvaged from , but according to a 2016 article published by the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

'', that is untrue. The first pew on the south side of the interior bears the

royal arms The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III. They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other The Crown, Crown instit ...

, as it was formerly reserved for the governor or any member of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

visiting Hong Kong before the handover in 1997. It was declared a monument of Hong Kong in 1996.

War memorial

Next to the cathedral is a large memorial cross, unveiled by governor

Reginald Edward Stubbs Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs (; 13 October 1876 – 7 December 1947) was a British colonial administrator who served as governor of four British territories during his career, including Hong Kong and Ceylon. Early life and education Reginald ...

in 1921 in memory of the soldiers killed in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. During the Japanese occupation the cross was reduced to a straight granite column. In 1952 it was replaced by a

Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

, with an inscription added to commemorate those who had died in both world wars. The original bronze tablet with the names of the First World War dead is held inside the cathedral, in St Michael's Chapel. Every year ex-British Army members hold a memorial service at the memorial cross. Beside the memorial cross is a tombstone covering the remains of Ronald Douglas Maxwell, who was killed in

Wan Chai Wan Chai (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 灣仔) is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal St ...

three days before the ceasefire. This is the only grave within the cathedral precinct, and is registered by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

Clergy

Gallery

Hong Kong - panoramio (146).jpg, View from Garden Road HK St John's Cathedral Interior.jpg, Interior of St John's Cathedral Grave of Ronald Douglas Maxwell November 2016.jpg, the grave of Ronald Douglas Maxwell

References

External links

St John's Cathedral Official Site

Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui

CWGC: St John's Cathedral Grounds
{{Authority control 1847 establishments in Hong Kong Anglican cathedrals in China Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong Island Cathedrals in Hong Kong Central, Hong Kong Churches completed in 1849 Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Hong Kong Deans of Hong Kong Declared monuments of Hong Kong Government Hill Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui 19th-century churches in Hong Kong Anglican church buildings in Hong Kong 19th-century Anglican church buildings in China Gothic Revival church buildings British colonial architecture in Hong Kong