St. John's Cathedral — Attraction in Hong Kong

With a heavy heart and without any ill intentions I write this review and I hope the Cathedral’s management will take this in consideration.

St. John’s Cathedral is an undeniably beautiful historical site in Hong Kong, and holds a special place in my heart and memory as it is my beloved late grandmother’s church. It has been customary for me to visit the cathedral when I’m in Hong Kong (I live overseas) as homage to her and the community of St. John’s Cathedral as she would take me with her on Sundays and during communal events/gatherings as a little child.

A few days ago I visited the cathedral on a weekday with intentions to light up a candle to honour my late grandparents. Unfortunately within less than 2 minutes of entering the premises, I was rudely kicked out by a caregiver of the church. I understand there was a language barrier because he spoke to me in Cantonese and pointed at my drink and then pointed at me and the door to get out. For context, I had visited The Nest cafe located within St. John’s Cathedral and had with me a drink that was covered and I was not drinking it inside. I had to hand held it as I did not have a bag that I can put it in, nor was there an area to put my drink aside. I did not think this would have gotten me kicked out as I did not plan to drink it inside the church anyway and my intention is to just light up the candle and pray for maybe around two minutes and be on my way. The reaction from the caregiver was very unnecessary and could have been addressed nicely. Not to mention this was in front of other people inside of the church, not wanting to make a scene of course I complied and escorted myself out, but there was no way either for me to explain myself and my intentions. As soon as he scolded me I couldn’t help but to hold my tears. This was a very bitter experience as this place holds a very sentimental meaning for me, and that I was kicked out in an unnecessary matter when my intentions were just to reminisce the time spent here with my beloved grandmother and to remember her as she was part of the community in St. John’s Cathedral.

If I may give input to the management, first of all I understand it is valid that regulations are enforced and must be complied. But let me ask you, had that drink been inside a bag would I have experienced the same aggression from the caregiver? I believe not. I truly think everyone has a right to pray for whatever reasons, and as long as the person in question is NOT ACTIVELY drinking or eating inside the church premises that should not be an issue.

Second, there is no need for such humiliation. The caregiver could have explained or reminded in a much softer manner if I did need to leave the premises because of this specific reason, without causing a fuss in front of other people.

Third, maybe you could provide an area or a table where drinks or anything else that is prohibited to be brought inside, to be put aside first prior to entering and could be retrieved after.

As someone who do not handle aggression well, it did cause me quite a bit of anxiety and above all I was terribly upset as the image of the Cathedral that I once held closely has been ruined by this one unfortunate experience. With that to say, of course the behaviour or reaction of the caregiver does not represent the whole of St. John’s Cathedral and those who work there, but I hesitate to step foot inside again in fear that I may be reminded of the caregiver’s aggression and the overall encounter from that day.

I truly hope the management will review and take what I have expressed above in consideration as I only wish the best for the cathedral moving forward.

Thank you...

I am sharing my recent incident details here and hope to help those who uphold highly and trust anyone being a Christian or Council Member or Honorary Secretary working in the Parish Church or church-related Institutes for a long time with records of his religious appointments as character reference.

This is a reflection of my biggest mistake to believe and trust someone like that, who was actually my lawyer I hired last year.

My lawyer, who was having the said religious background and claimed to be specialized in handling the medical negligence case, turned out to be a fraudster using different dirty means to make up a mega bill, finish off my retainer deposit and ask for more retainer money in the process, messing up my hubby's case in the end.

As a matter of facts, this lawyer had no real relevant professional work experience on representing patient's family (the deceased) in the medical negligence case and just lied about his work experience taking advantage of my (client’s) vulnerability and my trust in him due to his religious background. In the process, his real colour started to show whilst he had difficulties to source medical experts, did not know how to draft the relevant important paperworks and made so many mistakes in his paperworks and basically did not know what he was doing. Furthermore, he intentionally provided false misleading advice to press me to institute a legal action without knowing the essence of the case details at the beginning of the process and later attempted with his another false misleading legal advice to convince me to drop off my hubby's case. He is totally insensible, erratic,.... my many nightmares, a disaster causing me lots of stresses, damage and loss. His greed prevails over his morals ethics and religious beliefs, everything in his life. He considered me as a well-off kind-hearted stupid person would put up with his acts of fraud/deception and other wrongdoings whereby I finally decided to report him accordingly after his arbitrary termination of my retainer forfeiting my retainer deposit of $170,000 totally disrupted and ruined my hubby's case causing me and those involved experts lots of immediate damage and loss etc.

If I did not have trusted this lawyer so much in the first place because of his religious background, my damage and loss could be curtailed or he would not be hired in the case. I wasted more than 6 months with him getting nothing done in my hubby's case and a loss of retainer deposit of $170,000 whereby I spent my full time hard work on monitoring and scrutinizing his paperworks, and even drafting the important paper myself etc for him in the urgent situation.

This lawyer made use of his appointments with the Church and Church related Institutes to act as his character reference to deceive me and buy my trust. His conduct is so sleazy and despicable, should be condemned whilst I hope no one would fall prey to such tricks in future.

Hope everyone can have a clear mind before making any big decision, and not blindly believe in anyone with a brilliant Character Reference from his/her Church or any religious institutes etc whereby deeds of malice can be sitting behind the door.

May PEACE be with you all in the...

St. John’s Cathedral is a church in Mid Level Hong Kong near the financial center Central.

I discovered St. John’s Cathedral by chance a few years back on thanksgiving day. I usually go and seek out churches wherever I go in the world. It is a hobby of mine. I walked into the church that thanksgiving day and mass was able to start.

I said to my mother, I like to stay for mass. So my mother and I had Mass that thanksgiving day half way around the world, and the mass was conducted in Chinese. Which was a bonus for my mother. It is always uplifting for me to attend mass in any country in any language, so I was extremely happy and upbeat.

After the mass my mother and I was invited into the garden for a light luncheon of sorts, It was not a luncheon at all, but rather a feast.

It was a luncheon in the garden that was catered by the Conrad Hong Kong. The coffee was superb, the tea (I’m sure was good), the bottled water was free flowing as well as the freshly squeezed orange juice. That alone would have been a treat after the Mass.

However, the treat was yet to come in the form of hot dim sum, sandwiches of all sorts and other delights. After that, there were desserts after deserts. Cakes, egg custard, cheesecake, chocolate cakes and other Chinese deserts. As the parishioners ate, they mingled with one and other. Locals with far away folks like my mother and I talking about this and that. Time just flew.

If I remembered correctly, the luncheon was able 2 hours. Needless to say, my mother and I was full, and we had a most pleasant and delightful morning / afternoon.

I tried to go back to St. John’s Cathedral every time I come back Hong Kong. It was brings me back very fond memories.

Do make the trek to St. John’s Cathedral, you will be...