Theology of the pain of God in the era of COVID-19: the reflections on sufferings by three Hong Kong churches through online services

ABSTRACT

Suffering is probably a suitable word to describe the experiences of Hong Kong Christians in 2020, whoendure the continuous impact of anti-extradition law protests, the imposition of the national security law,¹ and the COVID-19 outbreak. Employing digital ethnography, this article examines the church’s response to the pandemic between 26 January, the first Sunday Service after Wuhan announced lockdown, and 31 May, before most churches reopened. The case studies of three churches complement each other, in light of their different denominational backgrounds and geographical positions, and demonstrate their diverse responsesto the pandemic. Despite social distancing, these churches collectively and creatively connect online with the suffering ones. Due to the lack of theological discourse regarding the pain experienced during this pandemic, this article engages with Kazoh Kitamori’s (1916–1998) theology of the pain of God to further develop a theology raised in online worship, which may assist Christians globally in reflecting on this topic.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital ethnography
• digital theology
• theology of the pain of God
• world Christianity
• Hong Kong
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For details, see BBC News 2020.

2 See also Campbell and Altenhofen 2015.

3 There are issues concerning research ethics if research is to be conducted online; for example, how consent is achieved between the researcher and the online participants. For details, see Eysenbach and Till 2001.

4 Being a participant in these online services, I have not revealed myself as a researcher during worship, apart from greeting others online. It is noteworthy that most worshippers, as I observed, have not discussed personal issues in worship.

5 According to the World Health Organization, the fatality rate of SARS in 2003 in Hong Kong was between 11 and 17 per cents, while that of the COVID-19 outbreak, as reported by Bloomberg in October 2020, is currently 2 per cents. See World Health Organization 2003; Bloomberg Quicktake 2020.

6 The term ‘novel virus’ was used from December 2019 until February 11 2020, when the virus and the disease were officially named as SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. See Lee 2020; World Health Organization 2020.

7 This is calculated based on statistics from 7.5 million citizens provided by the Hong Kong government. See Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 2020.

8 The translation here is from a Hong Kong Catholic laypersons’ website called ‘What Would Jesus Like’ (2020).

9 Note that The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong (BCHK) is one of the largest denominations in the city, with 12 schools, a hospital, and 93 churches operating under the BCHK. For details, see Baptist Convention of Hong Kong 2018.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Calida Chu

Calida Chu is completing her PhD in world Christianity at the University of Edinburgh and is a MDiv graduate from Fuller Theological Seminary, California. While her PhD thesis concerns public theology in post-1997 Hong Kong, she is also interested in digital theology, Chinese Christianity, and world Christianity.