Union Church - Hollywood Road (1st location) [1845-????]

The number of our church members is 90 - 63 men, and 27 women ... When we assembled in Union Chapel on the 24th of January (1865)- the New Year's Day of the chinese - the place was too small to hold us all.

On the following Sabbath evening (Nov 1845) I was invited to preach in a chapel recently built, and known as the "Union Chapel," though it is principally under the control of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society. The congregation consisted of English residents, soldiers, Americans, and native Chinese, and numbered about one hundred persons.

Life on the plains of the Pacific

" Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 1842.

"On the third Sunday in June, a chapel of the American Baptists was opened, called the Bazaar chapel. On the I9th of July, the Queen's-road chapel, belonging to the same sect, was also opened. Three missionaries, belonging to the American Board of Missions, are erecting a large dwellinghouse and printing-office. Mr. Brown, of the Morrison Education Society, has commenced building on a hill which was granted by the Government, and will move his school and family over from Macao, in the course of two months. The Medical Missionary Society also have received a hill from Government, but have not yet commenced building. The Roman Catholics have a fine building which is neatly completed." - The Ecclesiastical gazette

The new bazaar chapel is just completed, and is every way a larger, better, and more convenient building than the old one. It is located just in the midst of the new bazaar, is forty three feet square, built of brick, two stories high, and was erected through the liberality of the foreign community. The auditory and vestry are on the upper floor; while the dispensary, book depository, and seven rooms for native preachers, are on the lower floor. It is designed to hold divine service there, entirely in Chinese, three times on the Sabbath, and every evening during the week. The Baptist missionary magazine, Volume 25‎

Through the generous contributions of the foreign residents, two neat and convenient chapels, one called the " Queen's Road Baptist chapel," and the other the " Bazaar Baptist chapel," were speedily erected, and dedicated to the worship of the One Living and True God. In these chapels religious services were held several times every Lord's-day, and almost every evening in the week. - Southern Baptist missionary journal

The General Baptist Repository 1846 https://books.google.com/books?=DDEEAAAAQAAJ&dq=Union%20Chapel%20Hong%20...

There it a chapel here, built for the London Missionary Society, for the twofold purpose of preaching the gospel to the English and to the Chinese. It is called ' Union Chapel,' denoting, I suppose, its admitting all evangelical christians into fellowship, [as yet, Do church has been formed] and admitting all evangelical ministers into the pulpit. There are tiro services in English, and one in Chinese. Mr. Brewin, of America, head master of the Morrison Education Society, and myself, preach alternately in the morning. The congregation is small, but select, consisting a good deal of military officers, merchants, &c. There is no other place of worship in the island where the gospel is preached in the English language, except the English Episcopalian place of worship, where it is preached faithfully by Mr. Stanton, the civil chaplain. There were other places where the gospel was preached both in the English and Chinese language, by the American missionaries; but they have all left, and gone to Canton; and these places of worship are closed. There ought to be one English minister here, if not two, expressly for the foreign population.

It is in contemplation, that a gentleman, who is not a missionary, shall be the minister of 'Union Chapel.'

There much needs a faithful ministry for the English residents. Hong Kong is a very wicked place; Englishmen generally [there are a few bright exceptions, both among the military and civilians] act in a manner very unworthy their names as Englishmen and christians. The Sabbath is desecrated; the only god that is worshipped is Mammon; the only object pursued is accumulation of wealth; every thing is done, almost, that can be done, to counteract the efforts of missionaries to convert the natives; and success is small.

On this account, considerably, I think Hong Kong an unsuitable station for missionary operations. But it ought not to be so: the greater the number of Englishmen, the greater ought to be the influence on the side of truth and religion; but how far is this from being the case! It is an awful thing, that a consistent christian is ashamed of his countrymen here, and that the missionary prefers any locality to that in which many of them are. But Hong Kong ought not to be abandoned; nor will it be. I

Location updated.