Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service
Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service was established in 1977. Based on God’s love for the world, it serves the needs of the society. Its basic belief is substantive service actions.
Even before 1977, the Hong Kong Lutheran Church (formerly known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded in 1949) had already aimed to serve the society. In 1968, with the cooperation of the Social Welfare Committee, Youth Ministry Committee and Special Ministry Committee and local churches, three social service units began to serve the society: the Blind People in Wong Tai Sin Centre, Wong Tai Sin Youth Center and Senior Citizens Centre. At that time, the three centers were operating under severe conditions of small space, shortage of manpower, and insufficient church subsidies.
In 1977, the Lutheran Church Hong Kong Synod combined the Social Welfare Committee, Youth Ministry Committee and Special Ministry Committee and the center of individual church management to establish a community service department to coordinate the work of the three service units. The Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service was also established at that time. It began to identify locations for establishing offices and centers and planned the construction of the Martha Boss Lutheran Community Center. With government subsidies, the current services could be expanded and future plan could be launched. At that time, the headquarters of the Lutheran Social Service was located in a corner of the Concordia Theological Seminary on Begonia Road, Yau Yat Chuen. The office maintained close contact and cooperation with the Hong Kong government and other funding agencies, and its service units had also grown to 14 .
In 1985, with the completion of the Ho Man Tin Martha Boss Lutheran Community Center, the office also made major adjustments and focused on promoting and expanding Christian services. In February 1986, the headquarter moved into the Martha Boss Lutheran Community Center. All units of the center started working immediately, and began to receive government subsidies in July of the same year. Today, Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service has a total of forty-seven service units.