HK NGOs launch network for foreign workers

HONG KONG – Hong Kong Christian groups, including Methodists, have set up an ecumenical network to look after the basic labour rights of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.

The network was launched on July 19, 2009 on the grounds under the headquarters of Hong Kong Bank, an area where thousands of migrant workers spend their days off.

At the urging of non-governmental organisations, including Christian groups, the Hong Kong Government has agreed to implement minimum wage legislation within two years. But it intends to exclude at least 200,000 migrant workers, many of whom are domestic workers from the Philippines, from coverage. -- United Methodist News Service.

Protestants in Japan mark 150 years

YOKOHAMA – Thousands of Japanese Christians have marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Protestant missionary work in Japan at a two-day assembly here.

Participants from the traditional, evangelical and Pentecostal Protestant churches in Japan declared their determination, in a July 9, 2009 statement, “to be united and to cooperate to tell the Gospel of the Cross and the resurrection on the occasion of the 150th anniversary”.

The 600,000 Protestant Christians constitute a religious minority of about 0.48 per cent of the total population of Japan. At the gathering, the Rev Nobuhisa Yamakita, one of the key organisers and Moderator of the United Church of Christ in Japan – the nation’s largest Protestant denomination – called on participants to “go cheerfully with joy to tell the Gospel” in order to rekindle church growth. – United Methodist News Service.