Nonverbal Christian Communication (Especially liturgy and icons)

used by Pastors in the Evangelical Church of Hong Kong to Enrich the Christian Faith of the Youth

Lee Gar Yee, Sandy

A Dissertation Submitted

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts in Communication

Supervisor: Dr. John POWERS

School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong August 2000

1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Part of the work presented in this Dissertation was done in collaboration with Dr. John Powers, who is the Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University. All other field research described in this Dissertation was my own original work and was carried out by myself under the supervision of Dr. John Powers, as well. In addition, I would like to give my warmest regards to all participants in the face-to-face interview and the focus group interview. They did give valuable information and guidelines to this research. And of course, thank God for granting me the wisdom and ability to finish everything.

(signature) __________________________

(Student’s name)

M.A. in Communication School of Communication

Hong Kong Baptist University

Date: _________________________

2

ABSTRACT

From the beginning of the 20th century, it has been found that more and more

Christians have given up their faith, especially amongst the age group of 15 to 35. In

order to attract more young people and prevent possible leakage, a new vision is

needed in youth ministry by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong

(ELCHK).

The main objective of this research is to find out how nonverbal communication

techniques are used by pastors to enrich the Christian faith of the youth, who signify

the hope for the future of the Church. Effective symbolic communications are

considered crucial to pastors in carrying out localized pastoral works. By using

Argyle, Furnham, and Graham’s social situational approach (1981), an investigation

into the specific situational requirements and difficulties may provide unique insight

into the processes underlying the situation – youth ministry in the new evangelization

age.

The research shows that the new evangelization relies on inculturation, the

movement which takes local cultures and their values as the basic instrument and a

powerful means for presenting, reformulating and living Christian faith. Within this

process, effective communication between Christianity and local cultures, especially

the youth culture is carried out.

3

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Background: From a global perspective 1.2 General Background: From a local perspective 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Research Question 1.5 Organization of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEWS 2.1 Evangelization 2.2 Inculturation 2.3 Social Situation

2.3.1 Situation as Rule-governed Games 2.4a Liturgy as Art: Symbolic Form and Mystery

2.4a.1 Time and Space 2.4a.2 Sound and Sight 2.4a.3 Human Emotion

2.4b The Visual Language of Icons 2.4b.1 Neo-platonic View of Icon 2.4b.2 Sense of stillness in Icon 2.4b.3 Line of Perspective 2.4b.4 Light and Colour 2.4b.5 Human Form

2.5 Semiological Thought 2.5.1 Morris on Signs, behaviour and interaction 2.5.2 Langer’s Theory of Symbols 2.5.3 Saussure’s Semiology

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Conceptual Definitions

3.1.1 Nonverbal Communication 3.1.2 Pastors 3.1.3 Liturgy 3.1.4 Icons 3.1.5 The Youth

3.2 Data

4

3.2.1 Face To Face Interview – Pastor 3.2.2 Focus Group Interview 3.2.3 Participant Observation

3.3 Method

Chapter 4 ANALYSIS 4.1 Goals and Goal Structure

4.1.1 Environmental Changes 4.1.2 Formation Goal 4.1.3 Communication Goal

4.2 Rules 4.2.1 Rules on using Nonverbal Communication Symbols

4.3 Roles 4.3.1 Servant Role 4.3.2 Prophetic Role

4.4 Repertoire of Elements 4.4.1 The Cross 4.4.2 The Altar 4.4.3 The Architecture of the Church

4.5 Sequences of Behaviour 4.6 Concepts

4.6.1 The Psychological Aspect of the Youth in Recent Decades 4.6.2 A New Evangelization 4.6.3 Inculturation

4.7 Environmental setting & Language and speech 4.7.1 Boundaries 4.7.2 Modifiers

4.8 Difficulties and skills 4.8.1 Inculturation 4.8.2 Nonverbal Communications

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 5.1 Findings and Implications 5.2 Limitations 5.3 Suggestions

PLATES 1-8 REFERENCES, APPENDIXES

5

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Background: From a global perspective

Amongst hundreds of Christian religions, the Evangelical Lutheran Church

should be considered as one of the significant communities in eastern civilization after

Martin Luther called up the Reformation in 1517. It is not uncommon to think of the

Church as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald as well as Servant

(Dulles, S. J. 1974, 1987). Whatever else it may be, it is undoubtedly a community

that has adapted to an amazing array of cultures and historical circumstances:

The Gospel is a seed that is sown in the soil of culture.

There is one Gospel and there are many Christianities (Raj, P. S. 1994)

The East Asia Christian Conference in one of its meetings in 1966 declared:

“The Christian community finds itself set in a particular cultural flux, shaped by and

shaping the life of the larger with all its particular, historical and social complexities”

(Raj, P. S. 1994). It is evident that in the 2000 years history of the Christian Church,

this has been happening all along. Wherever the Church has been, several symbols

and images would be borrowed from its host culture and would form particular format

of liturgy. The gospel has always tried to find an expression. In other words, a

central and obvious fact of the gospel is that we cannot separate it from culture.

Sanneh (1995) pointed out that the pure gospel, stripped of all cultural entanglements,

would evaporate in a vague abstraction. It means that we cannot get at the gospel

pure and simple. The gospel has its own interplay and speaks to us whatever our

cultural or personal situation is.

6

For example, the New Testament records mainly what Jesus Christ has said and

done but very little of what He looked like. However, every historical period and

every nation can now picture Him in its own way, so as to identify with Him. Raj

(1994) reasons that Jesus Christ in resurrection became cosmic and does not belong to

one nation or one time. The mystery of incarnation continues as people from many

cultures respond to God’s message in their rituals and art forms.

All Asian countries struggle with the issue of inculturation. In the Pan-Asian

Consultation on Inculturation and Liturgy organized by OESC, FABC, from April

9-11, 1995, they revealed that liturgical developments in Asia have consisted mainly

in the translation of the typical editions of the Roman liturgical books in the wake of

Vatican II (OESC, FABC 1955). However, it is believed that translation is not the

same as inculturation. The translation of liturgical texts composed in another times

and culture is an extremely difficult task. The transplantation of signs and symbols

is even more difficult. Even supposedly universal signs and symbols, when

transplanted into another culture, often hide or even distort the very mysteries they are

meant to convey. Unless the words of God become flesh in the culture, the soul of

the gospel will remain untouched. Inculturation still remains a crucial issue for the

life and mission of the Church in Asia.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church is also regarded as a religion of “revelation”.

Avery Dulles, a theologians in the 21st century, indicates that through inspiring the

biblical writers (verbal signs) and creating history (through historical signs) (Cheung,

1994), God self-communicates to human beings. For example, through the birth and

salvation of Jesus Christ in history, God actively reveals His mysteries. The

revelation, through symbolic communications (for instance, the concepts of Jesus

Christ, Church and the Holy Bible are inevitably immersed with symbolism),

stimulate the mind of human beings, which turn out to become unlimited thoughts,

7

memories and feelings, so that deeper and broader insights are cultivated. In short,

God incarnates Himself by the channel of various signs or symbols.

In order to understand God’s revelation, His disciples need to devote themselves

to the Church’s life. Through rituals and liturgy, His disciples may show their faith,

and live the Christ’s life. Liturgy builds community. In liturgy, His disciples come

together and continue to proclaim the marvels that God has affected the lives of

people through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Despite the mysteries

celebrated in liturgy; the expressions of the mysteries and people’s response to them

are necessarily culturally conditioned.

1.2 General Background: From a local perspective

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK) celebrated its 45th

Anniversary on 28 November 1999. Day after day, walking along with the colony’s

evolution as well as the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China, the Church has

already grown up as a luxuriant tree, with its stems shadowing many of the Hong

Kong people.

The Church does not serve the Christian only; it does various services for the

public. According to those statistical data recorded in the article written by Rev.

Chow in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong 45th Anniversary

Commentary, the Church has been providing different community services for 23

years. Nowadays, the Church has altogether 29 service units with 380 staff. It is

regarded as a medium sized religious charitable body in Hong Kong, whose purpose

is to witness the love of Jesus Christ through providing comprehensive services to the

general public.

With its distinctive long history, however, the Church is still somehow perceived

as a “foreigner” in Hong Kong. It always gives people a sacred image of

8

self-correcting and self-living, which scares many secular people away.

From the beginning of the 21st century, it is believed that more and more

Christians have given up their faith; in other words, it shows no growth in the number

of Christians or even worse. Comparing to 1994, number of Christians in 1999 falls

from 381,200 to 345,118, resulting in a 9.5% depreciation rate. Then, how about the

number of Christians who attend worship? The average number of Christians

attending worship falls from 194,500 in 1994 to 175,571 in 1999, resulting in a 9.7%

depreciation rate (Hong Kong Church Survey 1999, the statistics of the survey can be

found in Appendix I). Amongst the Christians, those at age 15 years old to 24 years

old falls from 36 thousands in 1994 to 33 thousands in 1999. Besides, those at age

25 years old to 34 years old falls from 52 thousands in 1994 to 38 thousands in 1999

(Hong Kong Church Survey 1999, Appendix II). The decreasing rate is up to 20.6%

(Christian Times on 14 May 2000, Appendix III).

To cite the Truth Lutheran Church, which I have attended for 12 years, as an

example, the annual average number of brothers and sisters attending Sunday worship

has not been increasing in proportion to the expanding population (the data recorded

in the Truth Lutheran Church’s annual reports from 1996 to 1999 was summarized in

Appendix IV). From observation, a quarter of the audience is youngsters.

Therefore, the new generation somehow represents the hope for the future and who is

also the main energy for the Church. In order to keep the audience as well as to

spread the gospel, the Church has to pay more attention to our youngsters.

Reformation is a good way to meet the needs of the contemporary society and to

change the old-fashioned image, and the most important, to make it appealing again.

Borrowing a concept from the Catholic society (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1987),

the Church should undergo a process of “localization” or “inculturation”, an effort

among many nationals and church leaders to incorporate local customs and practices

9

into the rituals and liturgy of the Church, in order to attract more potential believers,

especially youngsters.

In view of the challenges arising from the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to

China, as well as many other socio-psychological conflicts faced by our youngsters,

the Church though in the urgent needs of “inculturation”, finds great difficulties in

carrying out its “inculturation”.

The Church has long been fond of its sacred symbols and liturgy, so pastors may

make use of certain symbolic expressions to help themselves to do the missionary

activities. As in a Chinese society like Hong Kong, those symbolic expressions

should be “secularized” or “inculturized” to impress the Church audience, lead them

to better understand the Christian faith, and to cultivate a sense of belonging.

1.3 Objectives

A new vision is needed. When traditional cultural values meet with the

challenges of modernity, there will undoubtedly be a painful process of transformation

and integration. If the Church wants to communicate the gospel to the new

generation, it must enter the arena with courage and boldness (Sesana, 1995).

Pastors or References, as communicators of the Church, should act as artists or

frontiers who give new life to symbols, interpret and re-express local experience, and

open the pastoral communication to a new horizons.

Communication is the constant re-making of a culture. To communicate

effectively with the society depends on how the missionaries act and build the local

Church. Pastors in Hong Kong should understand that inculturation is a necessarily

creative process geared to the future, not a repetition of models of the past. It is a

process to approach the local youngsters.

10

Who speaks in the Church? What is said? To whom? In what manner?

Through what channel? With what effect? Only after answering these questions

shall we be in a position to examine specific areas of the service of life that required

pastoral attention and plan accordingly. The main objective of this research is to

explore how the Truth Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong

Kong, can make best use of its nonverbal symbolic techniques, especially those in

liturgy and icons, to communicate the Christian faith to its youngsters. It is hoped

that the research can somehow provide the Church with needed perspective in

carrying out inculturation.

1.4 Research Question

Understanding the power of nonverbal Christian communication in the religious

context is particularly essential to pastors in carrying out “inculturized” pastoral work.

It is observed that the visual-symbolic characteristics of icons and liturgy have more

profound effects on facilitating Church communication than those verbal ones.

Effective nonverbal Christian communication accords with clearly defined context,

purpose and audience. This research will specify the context in youth ministry.

The purpose of pastors (communicator), then, is to communicate the Christian faith

(purpose) to youngsters (audience) on behalf of the Church (context). Thus, the

research question is constructed as: How nonverbal Christian communications,

especially liturgy and icons, are used by Pastors in the Evangelical Church of Hong

Kong to enrich the Christian faith of the youth?

1.5 Organization of the study

In order to answer the research question precisely, a review of related literature is

necessary before it comes to the analysis. In Chapter 2 – Literature Review, it will

11

first discuss the concepts of evangelization, inculturation, which give the main

direction in nowadays Evangelical Lutheran Church. Furthermore, concepts and

theories related to the method of analysis in this research will also be introduced.

Following the literature review is Chapter 3 – Methodology. The method of data

collection and analysis will be discussed in details.

Chapter 4 is my analysis of all interviews and participant observation. It is

hoped that through systematic analysis of all information collected, readers can find

easier to follow the research. The final Chapter is the conclusion, where a brief

review of the findings and implications of the research are found. Any limitations or

weaknesses discovered in conducting the research will be disclosed in this Chapter,

with suggestions given further.

12

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEWS

As observed, today’s youth are different from those who came before. They

grow up in a different context. Many of them have not known the struggle against

Communism, against the totalitarian state. They live in freedom, which others have

won for them, and have yielded in large part to the consumer culture. This is, in

broad terms, the status of the present situation.

Pope John Paul II (1994) in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope has written

“Young people have a special place in the heart of the Holy Father, who often repeats

that the whole Church looks to them with particular hope for a new beginning of

evangelization” (P.118). From what he said, it is believed that a new beginning of

evangelization is vital in youth ministry. We may wonder where should we start this

new beginning. It can be expected that it can be based on the process of

inculturation. It is essential to consider the communication techniques used by

pastors to communicate the Christian faith to the youth. To help understand the

particular skills involved, an address to the specific social situation is necessary.

To be follows, the symbolic form and mystery found in liturgy and icons are

concerned in forming Christian faith. Here semiological thought can function to

give us insights.

This chapter will try to discuss the above highlighted concepts and theories, so as

to help readers understand the whole research.

2.1 Evangelization

The Roman Catholic Church has published three important documents on

“Evangelization” since the beginning of Vatican II thirty years ago. The definition

13

of evangelization, as outlined by the Evangelii Nuntiandi (Pope Paul VI, 1995), one of

the documents, comprises two stages: the purpose of evangelization is indicated first:

“For the Church evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of

humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within, and making

it new.” (EN 18) The second stage recalls the richness and the variety of elements

which go to make it up: “Evangelization is a complex process made up of varied

elements: the renewal of humanity, witness, explicit proclamation, inner adherence,

entry into the community, acceptance of signs, apostolic initiative.” (EN 24) In short,

the gospel has to penetrate also social and cultural stratification; otherwise the gospel

cannot reach man’s heart in depth, and consequently cannot bring about any real

renewal in mankind.

In view of the above, the local Churches – which are involved not only with men

but also with their aspiration, their wealth and their poverty, with their manner of

praying and living and their outlook on the world – must make their own the

substance of the evangelical message. Without any sacrifice of the essential truths

they must transpose this message into an idiom which will be understood by the

people they serve and thus proclaim it.

Evangelization will lose much of its power and efficacy, if it does not make use

of peoples’ language, their signs and symbols; i.e. if it does not reach and influence

their way of life. But in the transposition of the message into another language its

content of the universal truth must be kept in tact without corruption or distortion.

For without unity there cannot be universality. The local Church must be conscious

of its universal mission and show itself in practice to be universal and build up unity

in faith.

14

In response to the spirit of Vatican II, Cardinal John B. Wu, the Bishop of Hong

Kong, issued a Pastoral Exhortation called March Into The Bright Decade in 1989,

which talked about the new Evangelization in Hong Kong.

He stated a ten-year pastoral plan, in which, seven major spheres involving

pastoral care and evangelization was committed: 1) formation of the laity, 2) small

faith communities, 3) ongoing formation of priests, brothers and sisters, 4) mass

communications, 5) education, 6) social affairs and 7) relations of the Diocese with

China, and with the Church in China.

After five years had passed, he directed an interim report (with proposals) on the

evaluation of his Pastoral Exhortation March Into The Bright Decade to conclude the

five years of implementation, in order to made a more practical adjustment of

direction and pace for the following five year. For the coming five years the trust of

the Diocese would be: “Proclaim the Gospel of the Lord, spread the Kingdom of

God.” (title of the Interim Report and Proposals)

The report clearly stated the importance of inculturation that the Church should

undertake a more prophetic role when facing the 1997 transition and other crucial

social issues. Some lay people have asked the Church to respond the signs of the

times, to increase its transparency, and to allow the laity greater scope for

participation in the Church.

For the youth ministry, the Church agrees that an increase in services for

adolescents so as to help them face challenges from different sources, including

family, media, peer group and adults, and the challenges of consumerism and

hedonism, and to grow up healthily in the course of facing these challenges.

In short, as Pope John Paul II said, there exists today the clear need for a new

evangelization. There is the need for a proclamation of the Gospel capable of

accompanying man on his pilgrim way, capable of walking alongside the younger

15

generation. Isn’t such a need in itself already a sign of the year 2000? The people

of the God of the Old and New Testaments are alive in the younger generation and, at

the end of the twentieth century, have the same experience as Abraham, who followed

the voice of God who called him to set out upon the pilgrimage of faith. And what

other phrase in the Gospel do we hear more often than this: “Follow me” (Mt 8:22)?

This is a call to the people of today, especially the young, to follow the paths of the

Gospel in the direction of a better world.

2.2 Inculturation

Inculturation is a theological term currently used both by the Magisterium and by

theologians in order to take seriously the identity and internal coherence of the

Christian faith and of other cultures and religions in the evangelizing mission of the

Church. The process of inculturation, realized on the model of the redemptive

incarnation, situates Christianity as an essentially sacramental reality at the heart of

man and his culture. This term has been introduced officially by the Magisterium of

the universal Church only in the late seventies but was present during the discussions

in the 29th “Semaine de Missiologie” of Louvain, in 1959, which dealt with the

problem of “Mission et cultures non chrétiennes”.

Precisely, inculturation is different from enculturation and acculturation. Rather,

it seems to be the intermixture of the two. For enculturation, it refers only to the

process by which culture is transmitted from one generation to another, while

acculturation is a person’s culture being modified through direct exposure to another

culture. On the other hand, inculturation asserts the right of all peoples to enjoy and

develop their own culture, the right to be different and to live as authentic Christians

while remaining truly themselves at the same time. In other words, it makes

Christianity feel truly at home in the culture of each person.

16

More, the term “incarnation” and “insertion” together with the term “liberation”

of a particular culture from errors and perfecting it, suggest clearly the idea of

inculturation.

The First Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences

held at Taipei issued the following Statement on 27 April 1974: “The local Church is a

Church incarnate in a people, a Church indigenous and inculturated. And this means

concretely a Church in continuous, humble and loving dialogue with the living

traditions, the cultures, the religions – in brief, with all the life-realities of the people

in whose midst it has sunk its roots deeply and whose history and life it gladly makes

its own” (P.14). The Second Plenary Assembly of FABC, held at Barrackpore,

Calcutta, put out a Statement on 25 November 1978 in which “inculturation” occurs

as the title of a whole section. Here it is the question of the prayer-life of the local

Churches, which should take over the riches of the nations, which have been given to

Christ as inheritance (Dhavamony, S. J. 1997).

For we have discussed the importance of the new evangelization in today’s

Churches in the above section; however, the absence of inculturation is one of the

main obstacles to evangelization. Inculturation, therefore, attempts to make Christ

and His literature message better understood by people of every culture, locality and

time.

2.3 Social Situation

Social situations are vital in all aspects of life, especially behaviour. Milgram

(1974) and Zimbardo (1973) in 1970’s had already demonstrated the extraordinary

extent to which behaviour is affected by situation. If we want to explain and

understand social behaviour, we must count on the way situations influence it.

17

There appear a number of different methods available for analyzing social

situations. The following is the anatomy of the two basic approaches:

Approaches to study social situations

General approach Psychological Sociological

Definition of the situation Objective Subjective

Stimulus presentation Potential Actual

Specific General

Data collection Behaviour Accounts

Questionnaire Reports

Analysis Dimensional Categorical

Each comes from a different theoretical tradition, addresses itself to different

questions, and has different strengths and weaknesses. In the following part, studies

by Argyle, Furnham, and Graham on situation analysis in 1981 will be introduced.

They suggest a functional explanation, which takes the benefits from both sides of the

approaches mentioned in the above table.

2.3.1 Situation as Rule-governed Games

Argyle, Furnham, and Graham (1981) thought that situation was “a type of social

encounter with which members of a culture or subculture were familiar”. It could be

depicted as the sum of all features of the behavioural system, within the duration of a

social encounter. They treated the communication situation as a rule-governed game

in which a set of behavioural rules both defined the nature of the game itself and the

general natural of any required, permissible, or prohibited behaviours that were

possible happened in the game (Powers, 1993).

For the analysis of social situations, nine main features are selected in describing

the game-like features of any social situation. They are 1) goals and goal structure,

18

2) rules, 3) roles, 4) repertoire of elements, 5) sequences of behaviour, 6) concepts,

7) environmental setting, 8) language and speech, and 9) difficulties and skills.

Situational Goals are related to individual forms of motivation. For example,

pastors concentrate on preaching in the Church. Situations provide the individual

with a fairly clear model for interaction, and generate role-systems for attaining goals.

Rules specify what behaviour is permitted, required and prohibited. Harre and ad

Secord (1972) pointed out that rules generate actions through the actor’s use of them

in monitoring and controlling his performance, while Roles encompassed the duties,

obligations or rights of the social position. Pastors act as the communicators of the

Church.

In accordance with the rule, each situation has its own unique Repertoire of

Elements, which counts toward accomplishing the goal. Elements of Behaviour in

specific situation may come in a particular sequence. Liturgies in religious

encounter have a particular ordered sequence of events, for example. In order to

deal with the situational roles and make sense of the sequence of behaviour, the

participants need to develop and share common characterized Concepts. These

concepts are critical to the game and should be categorized to meet the details of

participating in it.

Within the Environmental Setting, a number of variables are important. The

physical aspect of the environment forms modifiers. In addition, the time and space

between participants and the environmental setting should be investigated.

Boundaries enclosures within which social interaction takes place. All boundaries

contain props which infer particular social function, with special social meaning and

symbolic significant. For instance, icons carry significant symbolic meanings.

19

Every situation has linguistic features associated with it. But in this part, we

focus on the nonverbal communication and argue that it should be intentionally

employed in liturgy.

This approach is emphasizing on the objective situation: roles, repertoire of

elements, sequences of behaviour, environmental setting & language and speech.

On the other hand, goals, rules, concepts and difficulties are subjective elements.

However, they can be revealed with the consensus shared among participants.

2.4a Liturgy as Art: Symbolic Form and Mystery

Robert Bash (1987) has conducted research on the Christians of the American

Evangelical Lutheran Church, to investigate their reasons of leaving the Church.

The result showed that 55% of the leaving Christians thought that the Church

emphasized too much on money, 50% thought that the liturgy was meaningless and

47% thought that their pastors were not good. Except the first reason, the remaining

two should have something to do with the content and context of liturgy.

Not long ago, a well-known magazine carried an article on what happens to

Christians who participate in the Eucharist on a regular basis. Its fruits, according to

the article, are joy, peace, love and a sense of union. The editors were surprised to

receive letters from many Christians in response to the article reporting that such

feelings and participation are often not evoked by the liturgy (Webber, 1994). The

liturgical movement since Vatican II has done much to remedy this situation, yet the

problem continues. Today’s Christians try their very best to attend worship, but the

experience often leads them to frustration, anger and apathy.

In short, Christian communities remain sinful and culturally bound. This means

that whatever significant form is realized in liturgical celebration conveying the

self-giving of God. Hence, this part of the review will focus on the aesthetic

20

dimensions of Christian worship and will address the rich and varied ways that these

aesthetic dimensions are realized, including the liturgical expressions of time and

space, sound and sight.

2.4a.1 Time and Space

From the beginning, Christian liturgical celebrations involved the use of cultural

modes of communication, language itself being a primary instance. The words and

texts employed in the liturgy operate within a complex of nonverbal phenomena.

The sense and force of the words employed in worship depend radically for their

range and depth upon the nonverbal features of the rites and how they are enacted.

The meaning of a sung text, for example, has a greater aesthetic range than the same

text recited. The same text or gesture – or their combination – has a different

connotative range in different seasons or feasts during the church year.

Among the primary nonverbal languages that constitute the poetics of liturgical

celebration is time. Because liturgical rites are temporal, unfolding the juxtaposition

of text, symbols, and ritual acts overtime, participation is itself a temporal art.

Within the duration of a single liturgical rite, for example, an Eucharistic celebration,

the meaning of the texts and the symbols are cumulative and dramatic rather than

self-contained. Each text or gesture or liturgical subunit may possess its own

determinate sense, but the significance and the broader radiation of meaning can only

be discerned in light of the whole pattern.

The language of time also works in the accumulative associative power of

specific elements within a rite. Thus, the aesthetic range of significance of eating

and drinking together takes time. The language of time also involves discipline in

cycles of the week, the day, and the year. The aesthetic depth of liturgical

participation is related to the experience of feasts and seasons. The liturgical year is

21

a treasury of the church’s memories of who God is and what God has done. The

temporal cycles of day, week, and year intersect with the sanctoral cycle of holy men

and women to form a powerful hermeneutical pattern.

A second nonverbal language is that of space. Because the liturgical assembly

occupies a place and arranges the furnishings in that space, a pattern of acoustic,

visual, and kinetic perception is set up. The places form environments that house the

action of the liturgy. Each space and its interior arrangement may be said to possess

specific aesthetic properties, encouraging specific kinds of actions and discouraging

others. Some spaces invite a static and sedentary approach to God – in fixed

auditoria, for example. Others invite freedom of encounter and movement, or

uncluttered contemplation. The visual focus of the room has a profound effect upon

the poetics of textual images and the function of vestments, vessels, gestures, and the

uses of light within the liturgy.

There is also the history of the use of the building and the interior spaces which

influences the tone and style of the liturgical celebration. At the same time, how we

arrange furnishings – altar, ambo, font, musical instruments, presider’s chair the

paschal candle – bears strongly upon what can potentially be brought to expression

within the assembly.

2.4a.2 Sound and Sight

Within the temporal-spatial setting, the acoustic and visual domains come into

play. The art forms of music, whether congregational, choral, or instrumental,

depend in larger measure on the properties of the building and the arrangement of the

space. The relationship of sound and silence is crucial to music; but it is also part of

the intrinsic music of the rites themselves. So all liturgical utterance has pitch,

rhythm, intensity, and pacing. The silences between words spoken and sung are as

22

important as the sounds themselves, for together they create the primary acoustical

images of praise and prayer. Analogously, the pace, intensity, rhythm, and tone of

ritual actions are part of the hidden music of the rites enacted.

The aesthetics of sound and sight are not ornamental to liturgy, but are intrinsic

to the very nature of liturgical celebration. Thus music is not to be conceived

primarily as something “inserted” into the rites. Rather, explicit music should seek

to bring to expression the implicit music of the rites. The implicit music is at one

and the same time related to the juxtaposition of texts, ritual acts, and symbols, and to

the specific rites in their context. The actual acoustical experience of prayer or of

preaching may carry more force than the semantic context of the actual words.

The acoustic, visual, and kinetic dimensions of liturgical celebration are integral

to one another. The confluence of these arts in liturgy enables the assembly to

discern the presence of God in the whole of the symbolic actions. The materials and

the form are to reflect the beauty and dignity of the rites they intend to serve.

2.4a.3 Human Emotion

The relation between liturgy and human emotion is complex, but it is evident that

Christian worship forms and expresses particular patterns of emotional dispositions in

human beings. Music, poetry, symbolic actions – all these have to do with the

affective capacities in human life. Liturgy may be regarded as a time and place

where the language, sign-action, and symbols concerning the divine shape and

express deep human emotions as gratitude to God, hope, repentance, grief,

compassion, aversion to injustice, and delight in the created order. The Christian life

itself is characterized by the having of such emotions and their having become

wellsprings of attitude and action in life. The language of Scripture, prayer, and the

sacraments has to do with elemental features of human existence: emotions linked to

23

birth and death, suffering, sin, and oppression as well as with desire, joy, hope, and

happiness. These deep emotions are not simply named or described in the language

of liturgy; they are evoked, portrayed, sustained, and refined in the rites.

Holy fear, repentance, and amendment of life depend upon sharing deeply in the

mystery of prayer and ritual action as in the shared meal of the Holy Communion

(Eucharist). The language of the liturgy is descriptive, ascriptive, and performative

force shapes us in particular affectional ways of being by addressing God and being

open to God. So Eucharistic participation points toward a life of gratitude and

self-giving. The very fourfold action of taking the bread and cup, blessing God over

them, breaking the bread, and giving the gifts presents the pattern which the

eucharistic community is to live out in daily life.

To learn gratitude to God or awe or love of God and neighbor one must learn to

pray with the Church. The graciousness, the holiness, and the love of God create the

possibility of authentic worship. But the experiential power and range of liturgy is

required in turn for the deepening of such dispositions. The integrity of the art of

common prayer and ritual action requires that such gratitude, awe, and love is not

confined to the liturgical event itself. That is, these religious affections are not

simply aesthetically held states of feeling. Yet without the aesthetic dimensions of

participation in and through the forms, no sacramental self-understanding in life can

emerge.

Christian liturgy that seeks emotional and symbolic authenticity and depth must

always pay attention to the materials and the forms employed. Language that is only

clear or cognitively precise with no overplus of poetic meaning will diminish the

power of the symbols to hold together multiple levels of meaning. If the ritual

actions are perfunctory or merely efficient, the texts and symbols will be diminished.

If the music is always immediately accessible and without surprise or tension or

24

durability, the texts wedded to such music suffer reduction in imaginative power and

metaphoric range. The quality of texts, gestures, movements and the form of the

symbols are critical to levels of participation. Attention to each element and to their

interrelation in the whole pattern of the liturgy is necessary to the power of liturgy to

draw us, as church, into the gospel proclaimed and the saving mystery enacted.

In short, liturgy is a spiritual experience that comes to us largely through the

nonverbal languages of solemn ritual, music, color, poetry, and story. The liturgy

calls us to experience a deeply intuitive and personal response to the revelation of

God whose word is Jesus Christ. Vestments, banners, and stained glass, the affective

and physical poetry of the Psalms and dance, the parables and stories of salvation

history require a response from whole persons. A one-sided emphasis on logical

analytical thought styles can make it difficult for us to feel this involvement.

Didactic or doctrinaire styles of preaching and teaching will not help us.

Unless Christians can grow in artistic, intuitive, imaginative, and symbolic styles

of thought, participation in the liturgy will fall off and we will once more find

ourselves sitting in the back pews watching experts perform the liturgy.

2.4b The Visual Language of Icons

Icons play an essential role in the Church communication. They are not just for

decorating the Church building, nor simply illustrations of biblical themes or stories;

rather, they are an embodiment of a long tradition of meditation on these themes and

incidents, and their significance for man’s soul (Baggley, 1987).

In approaching icons we are entering a world where a different languages is used:

the nonverbal language of visual semantics, the symbolic language of form and colour.

To people accustomed to naturalistic art the learning of this different language of

silence can be a hard task; it is a task where we must look and listen, a task in which

25

silence, stillness and attentiveness are our greatest assets. The comments made in

this section are intended to unlock these doors of perception.

It is perhaps surprising that many people still comment on the “oddness” of

many features within an icon. The face, the gestures, the proportions of the body, or

the general surroundings of a scene may cause people to describe icons as being

primitive art. Such a reaction normally means that the first lesson has yet to be

learnt: icons are not intended to be looked at as naturalistic works of art. Only when

we discover the stillness in icons, we can receive something that speaks in silence to

the very centre of our being.

2.4b.1 Neo-platonic View of Icon

The neo-platonic view of the world with different levels of being, ranging from

evil at the lowest level, up through matter and human life to the world of the spirit and

angelic beings, and then above the whole hierarchy, the deity itself. Without

necessarily accepting all the scale of being needs to be recognized as a “hidden

agenda” behind many icons. They speak of the movement to the “higher life”;

progress to the “angelic state”; the progress of the soul from the realm of the passions

to a full union with God in dispassion, stillness and deification.

In some icons the dark lower levels, or a cave in one corner, may be taken to

represent the lowest levels of existence (see plate 1), while at the top a circle or

segment of a circle or a hand will represent the Divine Presence (see plate 2). In

some icons there may be a ladder forming part of the scene, as in some icons of the

Crucifixion; the significance of the ladder may well be linked to the purpose of the

spiritual life, to that ladder of divine ascent which can only be climbed by a way of

self-negation after the example of Christ who gave himself upon the Cross. In other

icons there may be a very strong sense of tension or balance between the higher and

26

lower levels represented in the icon (see plate 3); the representation of saints on

horseback is frequently a presentation of those who are in control of the passions and

in harmony with the God-given energies of the human soul. Again there may be a

strong diagonal movement which hints at the scale of being, portraying the spiritual

journey or else the incarnational movement of Divine grace from the heavenly realm

to the earthy level.

2.4b.2 Sense of stillness in Icon

Icons convey a sense of stillness and inner recollection (see plate 4). This is

partly achieved through the use of certain techniques in design which create a sense of

poise, harmony and order. In icons of Christ in Glory the figure of Christ is enclosed

within a red diamond shape, within the dark oval mandorla, within a red rectangle, in

whose four corners are the symbols of the evangelists receiving rays of light from the

Lord in the centre; the red diamond and rectangle make up an octagonal star, and the

whole composition is so “centred” that one cannot help being drawn into the harmony

and balance of the icon of him in whom “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17,

see plate 5). Another technique which is often used in icons of individual saints is

axial symmetry; here a very strong central line forms the organizational centre around

which the icon is built up (see plate 6); it is often used in icons which include border

scenes from the life of a saint; the standing figure of the saint has a stability and inner

balance that provide the focus around which the various details of the saint’s life are

assembled.

2.4b.3 Line of Perspective

The lines of perspective lead into the distance to converge at some point in

infinity, the size of people represented decreasing the further back they are in the

27

picture. In many icons things are quite different, through the use of an inverse

perspective; when this technique is used, the lines of perspective are reversed, to

converge not at some distant point in the scene, but in front of the icon in the eyes of

the beholder; one is left feeling that the beholder is essential to the completion of the

icon. The essence of the exercise has been to establish a communion between the

event or persons represented in the icon and those who stand before it, to “make

present” to another person what is presented in the icon (see plate 7). This technique

helps to fix attention on the icon by preventing the eyes wandering beyond the figures

represented. Other deliberate distortions of normal perspective are also used, often

in conjunction with inverse and normal perspective; this can lead to the recognition

that our normal everyday world is also the scene where events of an inner or higher or

spiritual world are taking place, a world where our normal values and assumptions are

turned upside down. To enter this world, our minds must be converted, and we must

pass through the narrow gate that leads to life (Mt 7:13-14). Our own perspectives

have to be changed as we enter into the realms that the icons open up for us;

communication takes place in the stillness, and the leaving behind of the normal

external world leads to the cosmos transfigured in the light of Christ.

2.4b.4 Light and Colour

The technique involved in the use of light and colour create a sense that we are

looking into a world illuminated not by an external light that casts shadows, but by

the light of divine grace that transforms buildings and landscapes (see plate 2), and is

particularly manifested in the inner illumination of the saints. In icons of the

Transfiguration, the light of the Transformed Christ illuminates the whole scene (see

plate 3). In much Christian and neo-platonist philosophy there has been great stress

on the role of light as a mediator between the world of matter and spirit; in the work

28

of the great iconographers we can see the qualities of light and colour being used to

mediate the world of the Spirit to us, and to take us to the point where man can share

in the glory of the transfigured creation.

In some icons a ray of light from the top of the icon indicates a movement from

the heavenly realm to the earth where particular events are taking place. Not only do

these rays of light help focus our attention at a particular point in the icon; they stress

the divine origin and purpose behind the incident represented there.

2.4b.5 Human Form

The essence of what is being communicated in icons of the saints for example is

their participation in the divine life; their faces are turned towards the beholder, to

enter into communion with them (faces turned sideways often indicates the absence of

enlightenment and sanctification, as in the representation of Judas Iscariot); the face

and head may be disproportionately large is relation to the rest of the body; eyes and

ears are enlarged, while the mouth may be very small and the lips tightly closed, thus

conveying a sense of inner watchfulness and attention; eyes often seem to be

inward-looking, turned away from the external world of the senses (see plates 2, 4).

Details of posture are also often used to indicate the character of the person

represented in the icon; frequently a figure bowed low will indicate profound

reverence and humility, and also the glory and dignity of the One before whom the

saints bow down in adoration. And the artistic language that is used to represent

such figures is also used in depicting the person of Christ. Dionysius of Fourna, for

example, comments on the character of the Incarnate Son of God that has to be

conveyed through iconography: “The body of God in human form is three cubits tall;

his head is slightly inclined, and his gentleness is particularly apparent…His character

29

is simple, like that of a child, to which he was similar when alive, and which is that of

perfect man”.

The gesture of the hands in an icon can be very eloquent. Sometimes a very

simple gesture of pointing can move our attention to the person or mystery that is at

the heart of an icon. Thus, in icons of the Mother of God Hodegitria, one arm of the

Virgin forms a throne for the Son while the other arm and hand direct our attention to

that Incarnate Son who is the Way, the Truth and the Life; Mary quite simply points

the way to Christ (see plate 8). The hand raised in blessing is often placed close to

the heart of the Saviour or the saint represented, and is often turned inward towards

the heart rather than outward to the external world (see plate 5). Here again by a

symbol and gesture we are led into the spirituality of the hesychast tradition where the

Name of Jesus Christ is closely linked with the prayer of the heart, particularly in the

form of the Jesus Prayer. In such icons other stylistic techniques draw attention to

the interior work of prayer and attentiveness that form the route to the transfigured

life.

The above mentioned subtle details which may often pass un-noticed are part of

the silent language of icons used by people whose prime task was to engage in the

“silence of sciences and art of arts”. In icons such as these one is immediately

drawn into the riches of spirituality, an externalization of profound spiritual

experience, and a means whereby our own experience may be deepened.

2.5 Semiological Thought

It is estimated that most of us receive more than 80% of our information through

our eyes (Berger, 1989). We communicate through images. Visual communication

is a central aspect of our lives and it is also true in liturgy. Much of this

communication is done indirectly, through symbolic means: by words and signs and

30

symbols of all kinds. It is not the images or symbol itself that is responsible but

rather the ability of the image to call forth responses in people that are connected to

their beliefs and values.

To be more specific, signs are the basis of all communication (Littlejohn, 1996).

A sign designates something other than itself, and meaning is the link between an

object or idea and a sign. Anything can be signs, or be made to stand for something

else. Language symbols are signs because they point beyond themselves to concepts

and ultimate designate object. For example, the word cat is associated in your mind

with a certain animal, but it is different from “a carnivorous mammal long

domesticated and kept by the human as a pet or for catching mice”. Language

symbols are not the only kinds of important signs. Sounds can be important signs

and the same applies to smells, tastes, and the textures. Even though “no sign” can

also be a sign. For instance, Sandy’s absence for work may communicate to her

colleagues that she may be sick. As we are all the time exposing to the external

world, we could not escape from the ever existence of signs.

Signs mean something. Berger (1984) in his book Signs in Contemporary

Culture: An Introduction to Semiotics said that “Nothing means anything in itself and

everything means something because of some kind of a relationship in which it is

embedded. This relationship can be obvious or it can be implied, but one way or

another it must be there”.

Furthermore, there are implicit and explicit meanings, which can be inferred

from sign. In semiological thought, denotation and connotation represent the two

levels of meaning. The denoted message is the referential meaning directing get

from a sign, or more precisely, a description of a signifier. It will be more objective

and descriptive than connotative messages do in express meaning. Thus connotation

means the feeling or emotional aspect of meaning, which is evaluative based.

31

Ultimately, connotative messages give projection of myths from signs. The each of

the analysis of sign, then, is to how denotation and connotation reach together to make

signs intelligible to people. Here, we will discuss three of the best known – Charles

Morris, Susanne Langer, and Ferdinand de Saussure.

2.5.1 Morris on Signs, behaviour and interaction

Charles Morris (1946) is a well-known philosopher who wrote for many years

about signs and values. For Morris, a sign is a stimulus that elicits a readiness to

respond. In a Latin-influenced vocabulary, he defines the interpreter as the organism

that takes a stimulus as a sign, the interpretant as a disposition to respond in a certain

way because of the sign, the denotatum as anything designated by the sign that

enables the organism to respond appropriately, and the significatum as the conditions

making the response possible.

Morris’s most enduring contribution is his designation of three fields of sign

theory. The first field is semantics, or the study of how signs relate to things. Here

we are interested in what a sign is taken to designate, the relationship between the

world of signs and the world of things. The second is syntactics, or the study of how

signs relate to other signs. The field examines grammar and system structure and

points to the ways signs are organized into larger sign systems. Finally, the field of

pragmatics is interested in the actual use of codes in everyday life, including the

effects of signs on human behaviour and the ways people mold signs and meanings in

their actual interaction.

Donald Ellis has done an especially fine job of showing the importance of each

of these areas, and he has developed syntactics and pragmatics in some detail. Ellis

points out that human beings operate with a syntactic code and a pragmatic one. The

table below lists the various features of these two aspects of coding.

32

Summary of Syntactic and Pragmatic Codes

Feature Pragmatic Code Syntactic Code

Meaning In person, assumed In text

Comprehension Coherence: Link language

to experience

Cohesion: Internal lexical

ties

Reasoning Subjective, organic Logic

Structure Implicit Explicit

Context High context Low context

Fragmentation-Integratio

n

Fragmented Integrated

Involved-Detached Involved Detached

Level of Planning Unplanned Planned

Oral-Literate Oral-like Literate-like

2.5.2 Langer’s Theory of Symbols

A prominent and useful theory of language is that of Susanne Langer (1942),

whose Philosophy in a New Key has received considerable attention by students of

symbolism. Langer considers symbolism to be the central concern of philosophy, a

topic that underlies all human knowing and understanding. According to Langer, all

animal life is dominated by feeling, but human feeling includes the additional

dimension of conception and symbols, especially language.

Langer makes a distinction between signs and symbols. She uses the term sign

in a more restricted sense than Morris to mean a stimulus that signals the presence of

something else. A sign corresponds closely to the actual signified object. In this

sense clouds may be a sign of rain, laughter a sign of happiness, and a red light a sign

of cross traffic. A symbol is more complex: “Symbols are not proxy of their objects,

but are vehicles for the conception of objects”. Symbols allow a person to think

33

about something apart from its immediate presence. Langer calls the symbol “an

instrument of thought”.

Langer’s vocabulary includes three additional terms: signification, denotation,

and connotation. Signification is the meaning of a sign, or, as defined earlier, a

simple stimulus announcing the presence of some object. Signification is a simple

one-to-one relationship between sign and object, as between a stop sign and cross

traffic.

Denotation is the relation of the symbol to its object. For example, the

denotation of the symbol dog may be your image of a little brown puppy at your feet.

This relationship between the word and the puppy occurs only in your mind through

your idea of the animal. Even when the puppy is not present, you can think of it

because of the relationship between the symbol and idea.

The connotation of a symbol is the direct relationship between the symbol and

the conception itself. Connotation includes all of one’s personal feelings and

associations attached to a symbol. Here you are less concerned about the object (a

puppy) associated with the symbol than about your own private orientation to that

object – your baptism, for example.

2.5.3 Saussure’s Semiology

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is considered one of the founding

fathers of sign analysis. He points out that the systematic study of the life of signs

within society is conceivable, and which is later called Semiology. To him,

Semiology aims at showing what constitutes a sign, and what laws govern them.

From the Saussurean perspective, signs are regarded as the coming together of

signifier and signified, where there are operational schemes that account for the

production and apprehension of meaning and for the generation of sign as end nodes

34

(Thomas, 1995). Saussure explains that signs are composed of two elements: a

sound-image (signifier) and a concept for which the sound-image sounds (signified).

The relationship between signifier and signified in a sign

SIGN

Signifier Signified

Sound-image Concept

For example:

RABBIT

(a written word or a verbal sound)

Signifier Signified

/ræbit/ or RABBIT

Saussure reminds that the relationship between the signifier and signified should

be arbitrary. It is a matter of chance and convention, and is not natural or

“motivated”. In short, one has to learn what words mean and what signs mean. For

word symbols, a dictionary serves as a good source of conventional meanings. For

icons, we generally have to be taught by communicating with the experts or through

reference books.

God communicates with human beings by means of symbolic communications

and pastors use the same approach to enrich the Christian faith of secular followers.

35

The reason that symbolic communications are significant in the Church can be

examined by Tillich’s writing. Tillich asserted that only one non-symbolic statement

could be made about God and that was God is Being-itself. That means, we, by no

means, can fully understand God, nor His works or miracles. We simply can know

Him by the symbols He left in this world. The symbols expand the vision of

transcendent reality (Dillistone, 1986).

It is important to remember that religious symbols are socially rooted and

socially supported, with figurative and perceptive in nature. Inculturation is implied

in new evangelization, which attempts to make Christ and His Gospel better

understood by people of every culture, locality and time. Because of these qualities,

we may understand the symbolic communications in the rule-governed situation by

the help of semiological thought.

36

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This research aim at investigating how nonverbal Christian communication,

especially liturgy and icons, are used by pastors in the Evangelical Church of Hong

Kong to enrich the Christian Faith of the youth. In order to examine carefully the

nonverbal means used in icons and liturgy, the Truth Lutheran Church of the

Evangelical Church of Hong Kong is chosen as the study sample. Various ways will

be used to collect the information, and several approaches will be applied to analyze

the data collected.

In this Chapter, several conceptual terms will be explained. Then, it is followed

by discussing how the data of information collected and the methods applied to

manipulate the data in analysis section.

3.1 Conceptual Definitions

Conceptual terms used in the research will be defined in this part. It is hoped

that the ambiguity found in these terms is clarified and reduced to the minimal.

3.1.1 Nonverbal Communication

To begin with the definition of nonverbal communication, nonverbal code

systems used in the communication process will be discussed. Burgoon (1970s)

characterized nonverbal code systems as possessing several structural properties.

First, nonverbal codes tend to be analogic rather than digital. Analogic signals are

continuous, forming a spectrum or range, like sound volume and the brightness of

light.

37

A second feature found in some, but not all, nonverbal codes is iconicity, or

resemblance. Iconic codes resemble the thing being symbolized. Third, certain

nonverbal codes seem to elicit universal meaning. Fourth, nonverbal codes enable

the simultaneous transmission of several messages. With the face, body, voice, and

other signals, several different messages can be sent at once. Fifth, nonverbal

signals often evoke an automatic response without thinking. An example would be

audiences are stand up for the Entrance Hymn in worship. Sixth, nonverbal signals

are often emitted quite spontaneously, as when you let off nervous energy.

We can use Morris’s three dimensions of semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics,

defined earlier in the literature review, to characterize nonverbal forms. Semantics

refers to the meaning of a sign. For example, upholding the offering is a way of

sacrifice. Syntactics refers to the ways signs are organized into systems with other

signs. The liturgist, for example, uphold the offering and say “Lord God, everything

comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand, Amen.” (1

Chr 29:1-4) Here a gesture, a vocal sign (prayer), facial expressions, and response

from the congregation combine to create an overall meaning. Pragmatics refers to

the effects or behaviours elicited by a sign or group of signs.

The meanings attached to both verbal and nonverbal forms are context-bound, or

determined in part by the situation in which they are produced. Both language and

nonverbal forms allows communicators to combine relatively few signs into an almost

limitless variety of complex expressions of meaning.

Nonverbal code systems are often classed according to the type of activity used

in the code. Burgoon suggests seven types: (1) kinesics, or bodily activity; (2)

proxemics, or use of space; (3) physical appearance; (4) haptics, or use of touch; (5)

vocalics, or use of voice; (6) chronemics, or use of time; and (7) artifacts, or use of

objects.

38

3.1.2 Pastors

The term “pastors” referred in this research including those Christian pastors and

evangelists of the ELCHK, or to be specified, the pastors and evangelists of the Truth

Lutheran Church, my study sample. This research does not in any sense

discriminate the status of other servants of God. In broader sense, neglecting other

deacons or even brothers and sisters since they have been also the communicators of

the Church. Pastors are given major attention because they are granted privileges to

lead liturgical worship, which carry significant symbolic meanings in the Evangelical

Church of Hong Kong.

3.1.3 Liturgy

Worship liturgy is a communion and mutual communication and service between

God and his people (Redse, 1996). On one hand the worship service is the Triune

God’s communication with and service for us, where he is present and speaks to us,

and cares for us in his mercy, through his Word and Sacraments. On the other hand,

we communicate with and serve God as we glorify and praise him, confess his name

and proclaim his deeds, intercede for the Church and the world, offer of his gifts to us,

and give thanks for his grace, mercy, and peace.

The word “liturgy” is Greek and comes from the two words: “leiton” which

means people or public, and “ergon” – work or service. It can be translated as “the

work (or service) of the people”. In general “liturgy” referred to an action of

significance that involves a group of similarly minded people. The “action” – or

service – implied, is our service for God as we worship him, and “the people” is the

people of God. The early Christians assembled together on each Lord’s Day. This

was understood as a profound action, something of great significance that the

Christians did together. Sometimes it seems like a minister conducts the service

39

alone. Yet, the liturgy has always been meant to be the responsibility of all the

people of God.

To focus on the liturgy of the ELCHK, already in the early fifties, when the basis

of the ELCHK was laid by mainland Christians from the Lutheran Church of China

(LCC), a need for some adaptation to the Hong Kong conditions must have been felt.

Over the years many congregation developed their own editions of the liturgy, often

excluding elements of the Entrance liturgy and the Holy Communion, and adding

elements unknown to the Chinese Lutheran Liturgy (CLL). In this way a variety of

liturgical traditions developed, more or less accidentally, without any basic guidelines.

Finally, in a meeting on 30 July 1990 the ministerial meeting of the ELCHK

resolved to establish a committee with the mandate to revise the various liturgies of

the ELCHK liturgy book, beginning with the worship liturgy.

3.1.4 Icons

The word “icon” is generally used to describe those religious pictures – mainly

portable wood panel paintings. The word comes from the Greek “ELKWV”

meaning image; it is the word used in the Greek Bible in Genesis chapter one, where

we are told that man is made in the image of God; and the same word is used when St

Paul speaks of Jesus Christ being the image of the invisible God in the Epistle to the

Colossians. The word “icon” thus leads us to explore both the painting of these holy

pictures, and the faith that they enshrine and represent.

3.1.5 The Youth

The youth referred in this research is defined as those youngsters between the

ages of 15 to 34. Since different communication techniques may be addressed to

youngsters at different ages by pastors, detailed descriptions on the addressed subjects

40

will be given as appropriate in various situations to clarify the possible ambiguity.

The term “youth” will be used to point out any general phenomenon shared by these

ages.

3.2 Data

To pursue a qualitative and comprehensive result, two interviews are conducted

to gather information for the analysis section.

3.2.1 Face To Face Interview – Pastor

An in-depth face to face interview with Rev. Pau, a pastor in charge of the Truth

Lutheran Church is conducted to investigate their nonverbal communication

techniques used in liturgy and icons. Face to face interview is used because this

communication can facilitate an instant information exchange and first-hand

information always provides a sense of spontaneity and authenticity.

The interview lasted for about one and a half hours and was conducted at the

interviewee’ office at the Truth Lutheran Church in late May due to the difficulty of

making appointment. The interviewee was provided the interviewing questions

ahead of the actual interview. Prompt answers with prime impressions toward the

topics were expected from the interviewee. All questions are set in an open-ended

form, which were hoped to encourage both quantitative and qualitative information

sharing. Questions are divided into four sections: 1) background, 2) inculturation, 3)

nonverbal communications in liturgy and 4) significance of icons in Church. The

main questions asked in the interview can be referred to Appendix V. Questions had

been adjusted during the interview in order to facilitate the communication process

and to explore other important and related information.

41

3.2.2 Focus Group Interview

A focus group interview was conducted and designed to collect opinions from 2

sisters and 4 brothers from the Truth Lutheran Church on the nonverbal

communication techniques in liturgy and icons used by pastors. The method is

selected because it is helpful to obtain background information, discover potential

problems in pastors’ communications and their impressions of youth ministry in the

ELCHK. Besides, with the collected information, we may contrast and compare

those with the opinions given by the interviewed pastor, Rev. Pau, and investigate the

effectiveness of those nonverbal communication techniques in liturgy and icons, so

that a thorough suggestion may be advised in the Conclusion. Questions were asked

on four sections also: 1) background, 2) inculturation, 3) nonverbal communications

in liturgy and 4) significance of icons in Church. The main questions asked in the

interview can be referred to Appendix VI.

The focus group interview was conducted in late May also. Their age and years

of attending the Truth Lutheran Church are as follows:

Name Age Years of attending the

Truth Lutheran Church

Trevor AUYEUNG 19 15

Kenneth FUNG 30 15

David YEN 33 19

James LEE 35 14

Conita IP 26 12

Cherly LIU 28 4

The meeting was held at 1:30p.m.on 28 May 2000 in Truth Lutheran Church and

lasted for one and a half hour. All participants were given a preview section at the

42

beginning. The conductor of this research acted as a moderator in the focus group

interview because who may have better understanding of the whole research. It is

reminded that their opinions may provide insights on how the congregation perceives

the stated situation at Church. Owing to limited time, only one focus group

interview was conducted.

3.2.3 Participant Observation

The Sunday worship of the Truth Lutheran Church was observed to examine the

nonverbal communication techniques used by pastors in communicating with the

youth. As the insiders’ conception of reality is not directly accessible to aliens,

outsiders, or nonmembers, all of who necessarily experience it initially as a stranger.

(Schutz, 1967; Simmel, 1950). Being one of the participant in the congregation of

the Truth Lutheran Church’s Sunday worship for about 12 years, I have been acting

the role of insider to obtain direct experiences on the effectiveness of nonverbal

communication techniques used in the Church.

It is reminded that the observed situation applies to the Church of the ELCHK

and especially the Truth Lutheran Church only, i.e., particular communication skills

would be perceived to use by pastors in the particular setting. Because of limited

time, no other participant observations are conducted.

3.3 Method

Argyle, Furnham, and Graham’s Social Situation Approach (1981) will be used

to construct the Analysis Section. This approach is selected because a

comprehensive overview of the stated situation can be formulated. The Analysis

Section will be categorized into nine main features and put into order as 1) goals and

goal structure, 2) rules, 3) roles, 4) repertoire of elements, 5) sequences of behaviour,

43

6) concepts, 7) environmental setting, 8) language and speech, and 9) difficulties and

skills.

The concepts of semiological thought (Morris’s three dimensions of semantics,

syntactics, and pragmatics, Langer’s Theory of Symbols and Saussure’s Semiology)

together with the results from my observation of the liturgy of the Truth Lutheran

Church will be used to interpret how pastors manipulate the environmental settings

into effective nonverbal communications in liturgy and icons.

44

Chapter 4

ANALYSIS

As mentioned in Chapter 2, a situation is like a rule-governed game. In this

research, the situation refers to the “dimension” where goal-oriented interactions

between youngsters and pastors take place. The main responsibility of pastors is to

play the game by the best way (to make good use of every element in the

environment), i.e. to try their every effort to let youngsters understand the Christian

faith as much as possible. It seems that this religious playground is occupied with

various symbols, and so every participant in this game has no choice at all, but plays

with these symbols. To win the game, effective nonverbal communications play a

vital position.

This Chapter will be divided into nine structural elements which are constructed

into order in order to describe clearly the situation – youth ministry in new

evangelization age. The analysis aims at investigating how the nonverbal

communication techniques used by pastors, and from which, we may get more

insights into how effective communications can be taken place in this religious

context.

The Goals and goal structure reveal what pastors should try to accomplish in

youth ministry. Acquiring techniques in nonverbal communications will be

discussed as a sub-goal to pursue the main goal. The Rules specify what are

permitted, required, or prohibited in accomplishing these goals. After discussing the

goals and rules, the Roles of pastors may than be identified. The two roles stated in

the Pastoral Exhortation – March Into The Bright Decade, are discussed to see how

they are related to youth ministry.

45

Repertoires vary with different situations. The Repertoire of elements tells us

what specific nonverbal signs counted as meaningful moves in religious

communication context. These elements gathered together and form Sequences of

behaviour. We will discuss whether the sequences are considered as significant or

less important in Church nowadays. Concepts are strategic to the game as well.

The psychological aspect of youngsters from 50’s to 90’s will be discussed. The

trend shows how up-to-date concepts are constructed and related to youth ministry in

nowadays society.

In this research, the Environmental setting and the Language and speech

(focus on nonverbal aspect) are emphasized to reveal manifest nonverbal

communication techniques used by pastors. With the participant observation and

youth’s opinions from the focus group, we may determine the effectiveness of such

nonverbal communication techniques used by the missionaries. Those predictable

obstacles found in playing the game are discussed in Difficulties and skills.

4.1 Goals and Goal Structure

To facilitate better understanding on the goals of a pastor on youth ministry,

description on environmental changes around the youth is a must.

4.1.1 Environmental Changes

In recent years, there have been rapid changes in the educational environment in

schools, the structure of families & work places, and the ideology of the society as a

whole. These changes have seriously affected educators, parents, bosses, and most

of all, the youth.

In school, there will be a great change in the teaching environment of principals

and teachers, due to the education reform. Without extra support for them, those

46

educators simply cannot focus their efforts on implementing the reforms and thus lose

the guiding principle for teaching. At the end, many youngsters in school cannot

adapt to new systems of assessments, public examinations and school place

allocations. During this transitional period of reformation, youngsters may receive

inadequate supports and their deviate behaviours may not be altered in time. Some

of them may result in escaping from schooling. For those fresh workers, they did

not equip themselves well in school. When facing environmental changes, they feel

confused and depressed.

Undoubtedly, when youngsters cannot get sufficient supports from school, they

will seek for help at home. However, family ties are generally weakening in

nowadays society. There are increasing numbers of divorced parents, single parents,

and new immigrants from Mainland China or parents living apart due to working

requirement. It is observed that there is an increasingly tendency of either

over-caring or insufficient caring for children. In some families, indeed, even the

parental role is taken on by domestic helpers.

With the still recessed economy, unemployment and underpaid are common in

different corners of the society. Youngsters may not be able to sustain the situations

and chose to escape or end their lives.

Nowadays, the young followers have become more educated, but it does not

mean that their ability to reflect on their faith has improved accordingly. More and

more of the youth tend to be self-centered; they seek materialistic fulfillment and

instant pleasure, abuse freedom, and lack of goal in life. “They can’t help

themselves but falling into the temptation of this secular world and at the end, leave

the Church as they receive no support from it while under great depression. On the

other hand, the Church focuses on working other than enriching the Christian faith of

followers. It seldom teaches the followers how to establish a closed relationship

47

with God as well as understand the love and WORD of Him. Many youngsters have

lay their faith aside,” Rev. Pau said. “In a nutshell, we have to educate our

youngsters. Through cultivating better understanding on our liturgical worship, they

will become more attentive to God and feel more enjoyable in liturgy. As the liturgy

is full of nonverbal communicative signs, my role or all pastors’ role is to lead the

youth to be in touch with those nonverbal communicative signs.”

4.1.2 Formation Goal

As suggested in the Pastoral Exhortation – March Into The Bright Decade, there

were five essential aspects that should be cultivated ultimately amongst the youth: a

deep faith, a sense of the Church, love for Hong Kong, concern for China, and the

mission of evangelization. Rev. Pau said, “It is important to help them to develop as

an all-round human being with depth”. The “depth” here may refer to having the

consciousness of the above five aspects.

To Rev. Pau, his major goal on youth ministry is of course to enrich the Christian

faith of the youth and lead them to the “Kingdom of God”. On the other hand, the

Church needs the enthusiasm of youngsters. To the Church, they possess a particular

innate quality called joie de vivre, something reflected the original joy God had in

entering the 21st century (Pope John Paul II, 1994). It hints the necessity of their

participation in the Church. The Pope John Paul II said to young people on the day

of the inauguration of his papal ministry: “You are the hope of the Church and of the

world. You are my hope.”

4.1.3 Communication Goal

It is believed that by more communication, both missionaries and youngsters can

get to know each other better. This is the other goal of pastors – to have more

48

communication with the youth and thus lead them to better understand the Church.

Since the Christian faith consists of enormous nonverbal communication symbols, the

missionaries have to train themselves a better competence in expressing and

delivering these symbols. Improving nonverbal communication techniques becomes

one of the important goals to the pastors, as well.

Rev. Pau shared with us that the Church seldom actively revealed the importance

of nonverbal communication symbols to followers in the past. However, as stated in

the five year developmental plan of the Truth Lutheran Church (Appendix VII),

several objectives to better improve our liturgical worship are to 1) educate followers

to know more about the liturgical rituals, Church building, Church calendar, Bible

reading, Holy Communion and the Apostles Creed, 2) enhance the quality of choir

and 3) improve the musical instruments. Almost all of the objectives mentioned

related to nonverbal communication symbols. Even in the new semester of the

Sunday school, a new subject known as “I Love My Lord’s Church” has syllabus like

Church building, Church calendar, rituals, and Holy Communion etc. All these

show that Rev. Pau and other pastors in the Church begin to find that the nonverbal

communication symbols can be useful to transmit a deeper meaning beyond the word

itself, which helps to communicate abstract religious ideas.

He also pointed, “Youngsters, being curiosity and show concerns to the Church

they attended, like to explore the importance of nonverbal communication symbols,

especially what these symbols related to their faith in God. They feel amazing that

after knowing the meaning of these symbols, they get closer to God and foster their

sense of belonging in this big family, the Church.”

Rev. Pau concluded that learning better the nonverbal communication symbols is

one of the major goals that pastors should pursue of in the 21st century, at least at the

Truth Lutheran Church. On the one hand, the nonverbal symbolic techniques may

49

help the missionaries to communicate efficiently with the youth and on the other hand,

good communication skills may effectively draw youngsters’ attention to the gospel of

God.

4.2 Rules

It should be reminded that the youth ministry belongs to a “process” which

means the Church and young people grow up together in their lives. The process

requires a long life commitment. During their development, apart from the religious

doctrines, the missionaries should take care of the youth in every aspect, helping them

to explore their potentials and developed to be a “whole person”.

The services offered by the Church have to be relevant to the needs of the youth

in the contemporary society, rather than something remaining “the Beatles”. The

missionaries should bear in mind that the skills on youth ministry have to be renewing

all the time. This process can be integrated with different stages and certain degrees

of flexibility, so that young followers may accord with their own situation, make good

preparation in receiving the graces from God.

Nevertheless, young ministry is not simply a process, it also involves a common

goal shared by the Church and youngsters – they search and serve for the world

together. The missionaries have to assist the youth in developing their common

goal.

Overall, the pastors should aware that the youth need surrounded with freedom,

equality, respect, involvement, acceptance, friendship and forgiveness. Involvement

and acceptance are the two important symbols in the process. Pastors should accept

their ideas and encourage their participation in the Church and the communities.

“Let them present their ideas and get their involvement, rather than decide everything

and restrict them to follow,” said Rev. Pau. It is significant to cultivate their

50

analytical minds, together with the Christian faith, they can construct a wonderful

world, practice justices, and witness the love from God. It is the task of pastors to

develop their spiritual living, as well as cultivate their faith in daily living.

How to keep up with the rules? The ELCHK should first assist its member

churches to understand the overall orientation of the development of the ELCHK, so

that in their pastoral work they can follow this orientation in response to the youth.

At the same time, the missionaries should equip themselves with relevant skills.

Pastors should stay close to the youth to understand their needs. It is important to let

youngsters to experience Jesus Christ in their lives.

4.2.1 Rules on using Nonverbal Communication Symbols

Pastors use nonverbal communication symbols to proclaim the Good News to the

youth as do God self-communicate Himself to human beings by various signs. To

win youngsters’ hearts, certain symbolic techniques should be acquired beforehand.

Symbols have gained their form in complicated strategies of communication. There

are many rules guiding effective symbolic exchange.

Most probably, the following four significant rules should be noticed by pastors

in communicating with the youth. Firstly, any commonly used symbols should be

simplified and sharpened in certain specific meanings, so that only limited ideas will

be inferred and ambiguity can be reduced. James from the focus group interview

said that “A nonverbal symbol needs to be precise, uniform, and unmistaken, just like

the Cross, which is the universal symbol reminding us Jesus Christ was crucified for

saving our lives.

Moreover, the best symbols in religious context are those which serve as a

sketch-map entering the “Kingdom of God”. Jesus had once said, “I am the way and

the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).

51

What Jesus means is by following him, one can be to God’s Kingdom. He Himself

symbolized as a compass, which points to the Heaven always.

Furthermore, symbols should be intimately related to social cohesion and social

transformation. Symbols and society belong to one another and each influences the

other. Because of this, we need to transform symbols into culturally constructed

concepts. The using of symbols challenges many of our most basic concepts which

constraints the way we conceived signs and articulates many of our other experiences

in symbolic interpretation. New ideas and values should be connected with the old

one in certain ways, so that the receivers may associate the expected latent meanings.

In short, pastors should use culturally constructed symbols – inculturized symbols,

indeed.

Lastly, symbolic language should also be associative, which gives scope for

some varieties of interpretations. This is not contradicting to the first rule, which

emphasizes on the directive nature of symbols. Once a symbol is used for its sake to

express unquestionable fact, its use is finished and becomes a timeless white. Then,

a symbol looses its magic, and may not function to strengthen people apprehension of

divine reality, which transcends human experience and knowledge.

The above said rules may serve as the best reference to incarnate meanings when

using nonverbal communication symbols, particularly in the religious context.

4.3 Roles

After discussing the goals and rules, we then come to the roles of pastors.

Roles of pastors in the Pastoral Exhortation – March Into The Bright Decade referred

to: “In future, …..ought to pay greater attention to their roles as servant and prophet

and take care to develop both in a more balanced way.” It seems that these roles are

important concepts guiding pastors’ participation in society. Obviously, the main

52

role of pastors is to serve those who are in need, as Jesus Christ did two thousand

years before. “Jesus Christ comes here to serve, and not to be served,” said Rev. Pau.

Metaphorically, pastors need to “bind up the wounds of the wounded members of our

society”, so that their prophetic role is to make every effort to eliminate the social

causes of these wounds. They should heal the crowds by spreading the gospel of

God.

How can pastors make these two roles relevant to the youth? Or, what have the

pastors of Truth Lutheran Church done to act out their roles?

4.3.1 Servant Role

The interviewees agreed that youngsters need certain guidance, while pastors

may certainly give them auxiliary advice, and appropriate services. By practicing

this role, Rev. Pau believed that the Church should actively look for youngsters

outside the Church and locate their problems, rather than sitting at the office and

waiting for them. For those already in the Church, Rev. Pau opined that education

on knowing more about the Church should be provided to the youngsters. The

servant role should be done autonomously and spontaneously.

Most of the interviewees thought that the Church has provided sufficient

resources on youth ministry including: 1) youth fellowship, 2) Sunday worship for the

youth, 3) close relationship with Lutheran Middle School, 4) Summer Evangelical

Project for the youth and 5) study group etc. The interviewees feel welcomed that

the Church has begun to be aware of the importance of youth ministry after entering

the 21st century. However, though sufficient resources have been provided, there is

still room for improvement. The Church has not fully coped up with the needs of

youngsters yet. Rev. Pau hoped that through more services and resources from the

Church, the gap between the Church and youngsters will be eliminated.

53

To conclude, the interviewees thought that the Church should increase

counseling services for the youth so as to help them face challenges from different

sources, including family, media, peer group and work place. On the other hand, the

Church should improve the liturgical worship so as to help the youth release from

their worries and worship God. Through this close contact with God, they are being

renewed and grand the strength to face anything again.

4.3.2 Prophetic Role

The youth are searching for close relationship with God; they are searching for

the strength to handle challenges from the environment as well as they are searching

for the meaning of life. As the gospel says, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

(Luke 10:25) In this search, they cannot not help but encounter the Church. And

the Church also cannot help but encounter the youth. It is necessary that the youth

know the Church that they perceive Christ in the Church, Christ who walks through

the centuries alongside each generation and every person. He walks alongside each

person as a friend. An important day in a young person’s life is the day on which he

becomes convinced that this is the only Friend who will not disappoint him, on whom

he can always count (Pope John Paul II, 1994).

The missionaries play a prophetic role. They serve as a bridge connected the

Kingdom of God and the secular world, where the youth may find the way to the truth,

where they can find companions to walk through their lives. In this role, the Church

has to proclaim the gospel of God to the youth, and at the same time, to respond to the

development and growing needs of them. To perform this role, Rev. Pau made clear

that the only necessity is the Church has a profound understanding of what it means to

the youth.

54

4.4 Repertoire of Elements

Repertoire of elements varies with different situations. In religion context, they

can easily be recognized. The Church uses a lot of nonverbal symbols, and its

doctrines carry distinctive content, which unlike other discourses found in popular

texts. In general, three visible nonverbal symbols are mostly accustomed in religious

communications. They are the Cross, the Altar, and the architecture of the Church.

4.4.1 The Cross

Most of the interviewees pointed out that the Cross represents the salvation of

Jesus Christ, which signifies the central faith of the Church. The Cross is often

symbolized as the Church by the secular human. One can ever finds a big Cross in

God’s houses – the churches. The pastors always wear one, too. The act represents

they have an identical duty as Jesus did two thousands years ago. Rev. Pau

illustrates the “ ” as signifier, which simple straight lines signify the connection

between God (the vertical line connects the Heaven and the earth) and human beings

(the horizontal line connects people together) through the crucification.

4.4.2 The Altar

The altar, the holy table, should be the most noble, the most beautifully designed

and constructed table the community can provide. It is the common table of the

assembly, a symbol of the Lord, at which the presiding minister stands and upon

which are placed the bread and wine (during Holy Communion) and their vessels and

the book. It is holy and sacred to this assembly’s action and sharing, so it is never

used as a table of convenience or as a resting place for papers, notes, cruets, or

anything else. Some interviewees pointed out that while they are walking towards

55

the altar to receive the Holy Communion, they walk in the central corridor that they

can clearly see the Cross hanging upon the altar. This action of walking towards the

altar and receive the Holy Communion, the body and blood of the Christ, gives them

several seconds to review their lives and relationship with God and other people.

4.4.3 The Architecture of the Church

A church signifies the house of God. Jesus said to the people, “Is it not written:

‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ (Mark 11:15). It is the

place where the salvation of Jesus Christ has been repeated again and again by pastors

in rituals during liturgical worship. Inside a church, one may find various symbols,

artifacts and rituals which communicate different aspect of the Christian faith. For

example, the Holy Communion is considered the greatest and noblest sacrament in the

Church. It signifies Jesus Christ, His divine nature, His human nature, His soul, His

body, and His precious blood. It is the greatest sacrifice offered to God and the

memento of His perpetual union with human being. All meanings are hidden whole

and entire under the appearance of bread and wine.

A church becomes a visible bible, where human beings may understand God

through it. In addition, a church is always believed as a place we may get protected

and sheltered. To better illustrate, the church building of the Truth Lutheran Church

is designed as an inverted ship of Noah in Old Testament. The interviewees shared

that every time when they enter the Church, they will think about the well preparation

of God to the family of Noah, and to us nowadays.

4.5 Sequences of Behaviour

In the ELCHK, sequences of behaviour have always been considered rigid and

boring, especially on rituals and liturgy. However, in nowadays’ society, the concept

56

needs to be amended. In order to fit the needs of the youth, who are fond of freedom

and new things, the missionaries use various ways to communicate with the youth.

Even in liturgical worship, which had saved the most tradition, are subjected to

change.

Sequences are significant in rituals and liturgy. Liturgy is a celebration of

laity’s faith, a form of proclaiming the gospel, which celebration is of the total

community, not of the pastors alone. The Holy Communion is the centre and apex

of laity formation, through which, the followers experience the salvation again. That

means there are interactions within the laity, the pastor and God.

In most of the liturgical worship, the rituals are often fixed into certain mode.

Usually, a pastor cannot change the sequences and elements extensively in the Holy

Communion. It is Jesus instituted the Holy Communion. For the Truth Lutheran

Church, its liturgy is set by the Liturgy Committee of the ELCHK. Rituals have

been saved the original format and remained the significant symbols. A significant

change of them will create a dilemma to the Church.

However, though the mysteries the Church celebrates in the liturgy transcend all

cultures, the expressions of the mystery and the people’s response to it in liturgy are

necessarily culturally conditioned. Because of this, the Truth Lutheran Church has

been carefully revising the rituals, by inserting the youth values into the presentation

format, without changing the original symbols, according to Rev. Pau. For example,

contemporary music is used instead of classical one sometimes.

The interviewees thought that the missionaries should teach them the meanings

of the liturgy and its sequences, so that they can understand the distinct meanings in

each part of the liturgy and can enjoy themselves in the communion.

57

4.6 Concepts

In order to perceive the concepts guiding the situation, an understanding to the

psychological aspect of youngsters from 50’s to 21st century can help to illustrate how

concepts are constructed and related to youth ministry. In different generations,

youngsters seek for distinct symbols from the Church. The Church responses to

them differently.

4.6.1 The Psychological Aspect of the Youth in Recent Decades

In 50’s, most of the youth were sons of refugees from China. Since they lack

identities in a new environment, they felt confused. The nonverbal symbolism at

that time was nothing but “acceptance”. The Church concentrated on services and

love, and through which, spread the God’s gospel. Ten years later, the younger

generation became very localized. They concerned the society. However, they saw

unjustness in the society. They began to develop their own community apart from

the society and created a particular youth culture that never had existed in Hong Kong

society before. The nonverbal symbol in 60’s became “a sense of communion” in a

community life. The Church, as a symbol of community life, attracted many

youngsters. The Church at that time emphasized on “freedom” as well, which

corresponded to the desire of the youth.

In 70’s the new generation looked for an ideal society, one that is similar to

Marxism. They looked for justice and equality amongst different social classes.

They love their motherland – China, with the ideal communist structure. They felt

proud of themselves as Chinese, the generation of dragon. At the same time the

Church had equipped with a considerable number of pastors from local society.

These Chinese pastors related the gospel to an ideal world. The Church itself was

58

symbolized as a model of an ideal society, or in other words, a heaven on earth. At

the same time, it emphasized on justice, and fight for it with the youth.

Since 80’s and 90’s, however, there had been great changes in Hong Kong

because of economical and political reasons. All their expectations were collapsed

by seeing the disappointing conditions in the society. Since then, the Church

symbolized itself as “hope” and hoped that the new generation might be fueled by the

new ideal again. Reaching the year 2000, what the society talking about is high

technology, digital changes and fast communication. To better serve the community

and walk together with our youngsters and fulfill their needs, the Church has to adapt

to the fast changing environment and renew its preaching principles.

4.6.2 A New Evangelization

A new evangelization is needed to drive youngsters to conscious of the new

Hope. Both the Church and the youth need a new vision in the beginning of the 21st

century. Formation work in nowadays society should respond more to the needs of

the youth. The missionaries should use appropriate channels, messages and symbols

to the youth especially when using nonverbal communication symbols which have

profound effect than those verbal ones. The awareness of such attitude in the

missionaries is important; it is the first step of reaching mutual communications

between pastors and youngsters.

New evangelization needs new ways of doing – inculturation may provide a

needed perspective to the pastors.

4.6.3 Inculturation

Inculturation is crucial to nowadays Church, especially when the time a new

59

vision is needed. It becomes a prophetic and liberative movement which rejects

colonial Christianity and proclaims the liberty of all people to serve God within their

own basic world-view, thus eliminating the constant danger of dualism or dichotomy

in their lives.

Jesus abolished the ritual worship of the Old Testament, replacing it with a

worship performed with his own acts of loving obedience to his father (Hebrews 1:5).

By the same way, the Church should tactically reengineer its mode of evangelization,

so that the local laity can feel comfortable with the Christian faith inserted with

Chinese cultural values. Rev. Pau agreed that the gospel could be explained by

traditional values and symbols in Chinese society, so that the Chinese may feel

practical in living the gospel’s life. This is the real purpose of undertaking

inculturation.

The interviewees observed that the Church is decorated with traditional “Fai

Chung” to celebrate Chinese New Year. The pastors will give them red pockets and

a card with Bible verses. Even in the Sermon, the missionaries will associate the

New Year Customs with the Christian faith. For the music played in the liturgy,

Chinese instrumental music is arranged.

4.7 Environmental setting & Language and speech

In this part, environmental setting and language and speech (focus on nonverbal

aspects) will be discussed together.

Signs are used by people to give others identity cues, which are not material

possessions per se, but instead, are associated by symbolic phenomena. Besides

verbal communication, religious identity can be traced through the nonverbal one, the

environmental setting. Liturgy is taking place in a communication boundary (the

physical enclosures within which behaviour takes place) with props (the furnishings,

60

decorations, and objects contained in that boundary) occupied the surrounding, which

all give meanings to religious communications. Since symbolic messages are

sometimes difficult to transmit, modifiers are used to facilitate the communication

process in the environmental setting.

4.7.1 Boundaries

In tradition, the pastors meet the laity in the church, especially on Sundays.

With the great architecture, magnificent status and huge space, a church gives people

a sense of pious and holy atmosphere. The sacred feelings built in these boundaries

can facilitate the communication of Christian faith.

In recent years, some churches have been decorated into Chinese style. Besides

the Cross, there is only a pair of Chinese poem hanged on the two sides of the Cross.

By decorating into a Chinese way, the followers may feel a sense of belonging. The

pair of Chinese poem on the wall can be regarded as a signifier which signify a local

church. To the fact that the church has put much effort in inculturating the

environment and what it does really attract many youngsters to its liturgical worship.

After observing the liturgy of the Truth Lutheran Church, several nonverbal

communication symbols were found (Appendix VIII):

1. Cross – the Cross reminds us that we proclaim and celebrate Christ crucified, the

wisdom and power of God.

2. Altar – the table is the central visual object in the worship room because it is here

that Christ makes Himself present in the meal. The altar table is free standing to

make possible a sense that we are a people gathered around Christ.

3. An ordained minister presides at the meal.

4. Lectern – the location of the first great event in the liturgy – the reading and

proclamation. Others serve as readers and acolytes, special actors and actresses

61

in the great drama.

5. Pulpit – preaching and meal never compete. They are both Word – one verbal

and the other visual. The meal is the seeing, the tasting, the receiving of the

Christ proclaimed in the sermon.

6. Font – the font is prominent to constantly reminds us that we are people of God

by Baptism. It may be near the entry to tell us that we first entered the Church

by Baptism. We may turn to the font for the confession of sin and absolution to

remind ourselves that confession is a return to Baptism.

7. Icons – help to meditate the love and salvation of God.

8. Choir – the choirs function is not to perform but to lead the liturgical responses

and the hymns, sing special liturgical responses and offer special songs of praise

within the liturgy.

9. Pews – the congregation is not an audience but a group of actors and actresses

who take part in the great drama. The congregation offers praise in word and

song, actively listens to the reading and preaching, shares in the Creed and the

prayer of the Church, portrays the Church as a family of reconciliation by passing

the peace, and takes part in the drama of the gospel by offering the gifts and

sharing in the meal.

10. Ushers – smile and help people as a welcoming.

4.7.2 Modifiers

Sometimes, signs are difficult to see or understand, and auxiliary tools are

needed to facilitate the communication processes.

Nonverbal communications may help to indicate certain meanings in addition to

linguistic devices. A smile or a frowning may communicate many meanings. For

example, the missionaries keep smiling to show welcome or appreciation. The use

62

of voice tone is an important modifier, too. Usually, one may speak in different

voice tones to highlight different levels of significance in meaning. The

interviewees mentioned that voice tones of the missionaries are especially important

in delivering the sermon. Sometimes a very flat and median voice may bore them to

fall into sleep in liturgy. Moreover, modifiers may come from the physical

environment. For instance, a better acoustical environment may help the

congregation to concentrate in the liturgy.

4.8 Difficulties and skills

Situations may present unique social difficulties for the people in them because

of the stress that resulted. In order to get rid of the problems, certain skills or talents

are often required. Indeed difficulties in social situations may be seen as a direct

function of social skills – the more a person has the relevant skills in dealing with the

situation, the less difficulties experience, as Argyle, Furnham, and Graham said in

Social Situation. Thus, an investigation into the specific situation requirements and

difficulties may provide unique insight into the processes underlying the situation.

This part will first examine the problems found in inculturation and nonverbal

communications. After then, certain skills will be introduced to lesson difficulties

which may be found in the three levels of communication – interpersonal, group and

mass communication.

4.8.1 Inculturation

The scope of inculturation extends to the totality of Christian life and doctrine,

from proclaiming the gospel, rituals to pastoral methods. It certainly faces a lot of

difficulties in its process. The main difficulty comes from inserting new values to

traditional symbols. The transplantation of signs and symbols is very difficult,

63

especially both aspects of values are abstracted and made into a new spirit. When

two set of value come together, there must be ambiguity. It usually takes a long time

to process. In addition, some laity may refuse to change. The Church, as a social

institute, needs to take care of different masses of audience. For the Church, it is

difficult to balance its position.

Furthermore, the concept of inculturation may be ambiguous. Rev. Pau thought

that the concept needs further investigation. “A picture showing Jesus Christ dressed

in traditional style is not a kind of inculturation. The Chinese-decorated churches

are not inculturation, as well – everywhere can be a Church. The main point is that

we should concentrate on the message itself, rather than the packaging.

Some people may think that having Chinese style is inculturation, but indeed, it isn’t.

So the concept may be dangerous,” said Rev. Pau. It is stressed that the Church

should be message-oriented and task-oriented, other embellishments can be done, but

after the real gospel has reached the society. For the Church, inculturation should be

done in the way that it is helpful to inspire people’s thinking and understanding on the

gospel of God.

Despite there are many difficulties and problems, the missionaries should keep

on inculturating Christian faith authentically. In order to come to a new vision in the

21st century, the local Church should put more effort on it. There is a need for a deep

knowledge of both Christianity and culture and an intimate linkage between

emancipation and inculturation.

4.8.2 Nonverbal Communications

The Church is fond of using nonverbal symbols to represent religious ideas.

However, it gives the communicators of the Church, the missionaries, and certain

difficulties in proclamation. Nonverbal communications may sometimes be difficult

64

to understand. One of the reasons is that signs are often ambiguous. An obvious

case is that one signifier may have many signifieds. The Cross becomes fashionable

accessories in generation X, which symbolizes as a particular artifact amongst the

youth culture. On the other hand, the Cross symbolizes the crucification of Jesus

Christ. For others, it may be a tool to exorcise. The same symbol in different

places may infer different meanings. Since a symbol contains multiple meanings,

the receivers may get confused or have difficulties to interpret the symbols that

communicated. “The ambiguity found in signs gives them power, but it is also a

source of confusion,” said by Berger in Signs in Contemporary Culture. In this case,

pastors should state clearly the signifieds. They should give relevant examples only

to illustrate the signifieds. Too many explanations in this circumstance will cause

only confusion to readers.

Moreover, code confusion may come when senders and receivers have different

coding methods. Possibilities of aberrant decoding have always existed when people

from different cultures and social classes bring different codes to messages and

interpret them in different ways, even they speak the same language. The situation is

simply like people who speak different languages. It should be remembered that the

relationship between the signifier and signified is a matter of convention, i.e. we have

to learn what signs mean. For the missionaries, it is difficult for them to know each

follower’s way of coding and to check whether the listeners understand the symbolic

meanings or not, since their followers come from different cultures and social classes.

To solve this problem, pastors should communicate more with the followers and build

up mutual communication method.

Though the interviewees agreed that icons could somehow help them to meditate

the love and salvation of God, as well as help them to concentrate into the stillness,

Rev. Pau opined that the role of icons in the Truth Lutheran Church nevertheless is for

65

the purpose of decoration more.

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION

5.1 Findings and Implications

The new evangelization requires the insertion of inculturation. Inculturation is

of necessity a creative process geared to the future. It is especially important for the

young people. They need a new vision in this “lost city”, and they need a new

symbol that can represent a new hope to them. The Church may definitely help

them.

The youth ministry should not be only concentrate on teaching religious doctrine

to youngsters, it should take care of every aspect in their development, that they can

search and serve for the world together. In order to achieve the goal of reaching

holiness and becoming a whole person, special concerns on social teaching and

counseling are obligatory.

How can nonverbal communication be effective in enriching the Christian faith

of the youth? The answer is simple – an understanding and education of the youth

are necessary. The youth today tend to reject whatever they have not experienced

personally. They are influenced less by concepts than by images and vibes. In this

context, for instance, the liturgy of the Church should use creatively symbols that can

appeal to the youth. The insertion of the youth culture into rituals, hymns and

artifacts are helpful to build up a sense of communion amongst the youth and the

Church. Rev. Pau said, “Icons and the liturgy are all doorways into stillness, into

closeness with God. If we involve ourselves with them, we too can enter into that

stillness. If we participate wholly, with our hearts and intuition, we just may discern

the voice of God.”

66

5.2 Limitations

Because of limited time and funding in this small scale research, only the liturgy

of the Truth Lutheran Church was observed. The data of the observed situation may

possibly limit itself to specific circumstances only. Thus, part of the analysis may

only reveal particular nonverbal communication techniques used by pastors in the

specific setting.

Similarly, the research only collected the youth’s opinions from one focus group

interview because of the same reason as said above. The collected opinions may

only reflect ideas of limited ages of youngsters. One face to face interview was

conducted only due to the same reason too. Other pastors from the Truth Lutheran

Church may have different opinions on nonverbal communication to enrich the

Christian faith of the youth.

5.3 Suggestions

The ELCHK only occupied a small portion of the Christians in Hong Kong

society. To bear in mind that the ELCHK is an institute that keeping and following

many rituals set in the past, so it is interesting to see how other Churches use

nonverbal communication techniques to enrich the Christian faith of the youth or

different age groups of followers. In fact, there are many possibilities can be done

after this research. Further research may concentrate on particular group of

youngsters or make comparison of more than a group of youngsters.

In addition, there are many other topics that can be researched on the

communication issues in the Church. Under the influence of both oriental and

occidental thoughts, the Church in Hong Kong face with more severe challenges than

every time did in the history. With the coming of the 21st century, it is the best time

67

to see how the Church reengineers/inculturates itself, in order to preach the gospel to

more people.

Under the sovereignty of China, it is projected that Hinduism is getting more and

more popular in Hong Kong. The number of Christian in Hong Kong has been

dropping in recent years. It is interesting to investigate the various impact of

communication in this issue. Although a situation is like a rule-governed game,

there is no such thing as failure in playing the game. In fact, through various

practices, most of the difficulties faced in the situation can be overcome.

68

69

REFERENCES

Alister E. McGrath (Edited). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian

Thought.

André Grabar (1980). CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY: A Study of Its Origins.

Routledge & Kegan Paul: London and Henley.

Anna Banks, University of Idaho. “Visual persuasion (book review)” The

Quarterly Journal of Speech. v.84 no1 Feb. 1998 p.125-6

Argyle, Michael (1981). Social Situation. The Press Syndicate of the University of

Cambridge, Cambridge.

Arne Redse (1996). Gathered Together in Jesus’ Name – A Historical Outline of the

Worship Liturgy & An Exposition of a Trail Edition of a New Chinese Lutheran

Liturgy. Taosheng Publishing House, Hong Kong.

Arthur Asa Berger (1989). Seeing is Believing – An Introduction to Visual

Communication. California, Mayfield Publishing Company.

Avery Dulles, S. J. (1974, 1987). Models of the Church: A critical assessment of the

Church in all its aspects. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.

Baggley, John (1987). Doors of Perception – icons and their spiritual significance.

Mowbray, London & Oxford.

Berger A. A. (1984). Signs in contemporary culture: an introduction to semiotics.

(Reissued) Sheffield Publishing Company, Wisconsin.

Broden, Thomas (1995). “For a semiotics of semiosis: beyond signifier and

signified.” Semiotic Inquiry, 15, 163-188.

Cheung W. J. (1994). Cong Du Lei Si Zhi Qy Shi De Mo Shi Kan Ji Shen Xue Fang

Fai. (English: “From Avery Dulles’s Model of the Model to see his theological

70

method.”) Annual Report, Holy Spirit Seminary College, Hong Kong, 15, 67-

80.

Chris Plateel. Dropping in the on the Dropouts.

David Morgan (1998). Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious

Images. University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London

Dillistone, F. W. (1986). The power of symbols in religion and culture. Crossroad

Publishing Company, New York.

Elizabeth Rodini. “Mapping narrative at the church of San Marco: a study in visual

storying” Word & Image. v.14 no4 October-December 1998 p.387-396

FABC -- OESC (1995, APRIL). “Inculturation and Liturgy.” Proceedings of the

Pan-Asian Consultation on Inculturation and Liturgy, OESC, India.

George Galavaris (1981). Iconography of Religions XXIV, 8: The Icon in the Life

of the Church. Institute of Religious Iconography State University Groningen:

Leiden E. J. Brill.

Herbert Anderson, Edward Foley (1998). MIGHTY STORIES, DANGEROUS

RITUALS. Jossey-Bass Publishers San Francisco.

Hong Kong Church Survey 1999 (Summary Report). Hong Kong Church Renewal

Movement Ltd.

Jan Thompson. The Christian Faith and its Symbols

Jeryldene M. Wood. “Breaking the Silence: The Poor Clares and the Visual Arts in

Fifteenth-Century Italy” Renaissance Quarterly. v.48 Summer 1995 p.262-86

John B. Wu (1995, June). Proclaim the Gospel of the Lord, spread the kingdom of

God: Interim report and proposals on March Into The Bright Decade Pastoral

Exhortation.

John Paul II (1994). Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Judee K. Burgoon. “Nonverbal Communication Research in the 1970s: An

71

Overview” Communication Yearbook 4, ed. D. Nimmo (New Brunswick, N.J.:

Transaction Books, 1980).

Mariasusai Dhavamony, S. J. (1997). Documenta Missionalia – 24, Christian

Theology of Inculturation. Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Roma.

Paul Messaris (1997). Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising. Sage

Publications, International Educational and Professional Publisher Thousand

Oaks, London, New Delhi.

Pope Paul VI (1995). Istituto Paolo VI. The International Congress on Evangelii

Nuntiandi, Brescia.

Powers, John H. (1994). Class lecture notes on COMS 1210 Introduction to

Interpersonal Communication. School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist

University.

Raj, P. Solomon (1994). “Art, faith and culture.” East Asian Pastoral Review, 31,

21-32.

Robert E. Webber, editor (1994). The Complete Library of Christian Worship,

Volume 4, Music and the Arts in Christian Worship, Book 2. Star Song

Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee.

Sanneh, Lamin (1995). “The Gospel, language and culture: the theological method

in cultural analysis.” International Review of Mission, 84, 47-64.

Sarah R. Stein, North Carolina State University. “Visuality and the Image” Journal

of Communication. v.48 no2 Spring 1998 p.170-7

Schutz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology of the Social World. Chicago: University

of Chicago Press.

Servus Gieben (1980). Iconography of Religions XXIV, 5: Christian Sacrament and

Devotion. Institute of Religious Iconography State University Groningen:

Leiden E. J. Brill.

72

Sesana, R. K. (1995, July). “The true art of the communicator.” Mission Outlook,

Pontifical Mission Societies, London.

Simmel, G. (1950). The Sociology of George Simmel, translated by K. H. Wolff.

New York: Free Press.

Stephen Neill, Gerald H. Anderson, John Goodwin (Edited). Concise Dictionary of

the Christian World Mission. United Society for Christian Literature,

Lutterworth Press, London.

Stephen W. Littlejohn (1996). Theories of Human Communication. Wadsworth

Publishing Company.

Susanne K. Langer (1979). Philosophy in a New Key – A Study in the Symbolism

of Reason, Rite, and Art. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,

London, England.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong 45th Anniversary Commentary.

The Truth Lutheran Church Annual Report 1996-1999.

73

Appendix I

The following table illustrates the number of Christians registered, living in Hong Kong, attending worship, receiving Holy Communion and being the congregation, as well as the annual average increasing rate and Hong Kong population, from 1980 to 19991. (Sources are adopted from Hong Kong Church Survey 1999 – Summary Report,

published by Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement Ltd. in March 2000)

Year Registered HK Residents Worship2Holy Communion3 Congregation4 PopulationTotal Number

1980 215,000 N.A. 83,000 N.A. N.A. 5,063,100

1989 270,100 180,600 128,600 N.A. N.A. 5,686,200

1994 381,200 257,100 194,500 151,200 199,056 6,035,400

1999 345,118 197,402 175,571 111,471 172,237 6,843,000

Net Increment1980-1989 55,100 - 45,600 - - 623,100

1989-1994 111,100 76,500 65,900 - - 349,200

1994-1999 -36,082 -59,698 -18,929 -39,729 -26,819 807,600

Total 130,118 16,802 92,571 -39,729 -26,819 1,779,900

5 Years' Increasing Rate (%)1989-1994 41.1 42.4 51.2 - - 6.1

1994-1999 -9.5 -23.2 -9.7 -26.3 -13.5 13.4

Annual Average Increasing Rate (%)1980-1989 2.6 - 5.0 - - 1.3

1989-1999 2.5 0.9 3.2 - - 1.9

1989-1994 7.1 7.3 8.6 - - 1.2

1994-1999 -2.0 -5.1 -2.0 -5.9 -2.9 2.5

Ratio to HK Population1980 4.2 - 1.6 - - -1989 4.8 3.2 2.3 - - -1994 6.3 4.3 3.2 2.5 3.3 -1999 5.0 2.9 2.6 1.6 2.5 -

Remarks:

1. It is guessed that data for 1994 is higher than the actual number. As a result, the actual increment from 1989 to 1999 may not be as fast as what this research shows.

2. It means the average number of Christians attending worship. Number of Christians attending worship in 1989 and 1994 cannot be absolutely compared to those in 1999.

3. It means the average number of Christians receiving Holy Communion. 4. It means those Christians (all age groups) attending worship in a stable sense.

74

Appendix II

The following table illustrates the age distribution of Christians attending worship in a stable sense, Hong Kong population and their ratio, in 1994 and 1999. (Sources are adopted from Hong Kong Church Survey 1999 – Summary Report, published by Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement Ltd. in March 2000)

RatioAge of Congregations Number % Number % %

1994Below 15

Below 5 N.A. N.A. 372,200 6.2 -5~9 N.A. N.A. 217,700 3.6 -10~14 N.A. N.A. 430,100 7.1 -Sub-Total 14,678 7.4 1,020,000 16.9 1.4

15~2415~19 N.A. N.A. 414,700 6.9 -20~24 N.A. N.A. 446,100 7.4 -Sub-Total 36,221 18.2 860,800 14.3 4.2

25~34 52,906 26.6 1,205,300 20.0 4.435~44 37,066 18.6 1,096,800 18.2 3.445~54 17,107 8.6 595,900 9.9 2.955~64 16,368 8.2 512,600 8.5 3.265 or above 24,710 12.4 574,000 9.5 4.3

Total 199,056 100.0 6,035,400 100.0 3.3

1999Below 15

Below 5 6,776 3.9 330,500 4.8 2.15~9 9,719 5.6 406,900 5.9 2.410~14 8,422 4.9 420,100 6.1 2.0Sub-Total 24,917 14.5 1,157,500 16.9 2.2

15~2415~19 14,065 8.2 438,300 6.4 3.220~24 19,240 11.2 474,200 6.9 4.1Sub-Total 33,305 19.3 912,500 13.3 3.6

25~34 38,972 22.6 1,177,700 17.2 3.335~44 32,667 19.0 1,409,400 20.6 2.345~54 15,057 8.7 928,600 13.6 1.655~64 11,314 6.6 523,200 7.6 2.265 or above 16,005 9.3 734,100 10.7 2.2

Total 172,237 100.0 6,843,000 100.0 2.5

1,994 -1,999 -

Congregation1 Population

32.0

32.2

33.2

36.3

Age Medium

Remarks:

1. It means those Christians (all age groups) attending worship in a stable sense.

75

Appendix III

76

Appendix IV

The Truth Lutheran Church Annual Reports 1996 – 1999

Year Number of brothers and sisters

attending Sunday worship

1996 399

1997 389

1998 388

1999 406

77

Appendix V

Sample questions on Face to Face Interview with Rev. Pau

Part I: General Background

1. What do you think about the youth ministry / youth pastoral works in the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK)?

Part II: Inculturation

1. How do you value “Inculturation”?

2. What have been done by the Church, to your observation?

3. Can you suggest any effective ways to inculturate in the ELCHK, especially in

the Truth Lutheran Church?

Part III: Nonverbal Communications in Liturgy

1. As the Christian Times on 14 May 2000 (Appendix III) and the data from the

Hong Kong Church Survey 1999 (Appendix II) has clearly stated that the number

of Christians attending worship decreased a lot especially in the age group of

25-34, what do you think are the reasons behind?

2. What do the youth want nowadays? What kinds of things are needed by the

youth?

3. What nonverbal communication techniques have been used in liturgy in the Truth

Lutheran Church?

4. Do you think these nonverbal communication techniques are effective in

enriching the Christian faith of the youth?

78

Part IV: Significance of Icons in Church

1. In some Churches, for instance Orthodox Church, icons play an essential role in

delivering gospel message and thus can somehow enrich the faith of Christians.

Thus, what is the role of icons in the ELCHK and especially the Truth Lutheran

Church?

2. Do you think that environmental setting is a significant factor in communicating

with the youth?

Remarks:

Questions are designed for a one-hour duration face-to-face interview. They are

only typical questions asked in the interviews. Questions had been adjusted in each

interview tactically in order to facilitate the process and dig out other important and

relevant information.

79

Appendix VI

Questions on Focus Group Interview (To the participants)

Focus Group Interview

Date: 28 May 2000

Time: 1:30p.m. to 3:00p.m.

Duration: 1 1/2 hours

Part I: General Background

1. What do you think about the youth ministry / youth pastoral works in the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK)?

Part II: Inculturation

“An effort among many nationals and church leaders to incorporate local customs

and practices into the rituals and liturgy of the Church.” – The Catholic Encyclopedia

1. How do you value “Inculturation”?

2. What have been done by the Church, to your observation?

3. Can you suggest any effective ways to inculturate in the ELCHK, especially in the

Truth Lutheran Church?

Part III: Nonverbal Communications in Liturgy

1. As the Christian Times on 14 May 2000 (Appendix III) and the data from the

Hong Kong Church Survey 1999 (Appendix II) has clearly stated that the number

of Christians attending worship decreased a lot especially in the age group of

25-34, what do you think are the reasons behind?

80

2. What do the youth want nowadays? What kinds of things are needed by the

youth?

3. What nonverbal communication techniques have been used in liturgy in the Truth

Lutheran Church, to your observation?

4. Do you think these nonverbal communication techniques are effective in

enriching your faith in God?

Part IV: Significance of Icons in Church

1. How do you value “icons”?

2. Can icons help you enrich your faith in God?

3. Do you think that environmental setting is a significant factor in communicating

gospel message to you?

Thank you for your cooperation!

81

Appendix VII

82

Appendix VIII

Centre – The Cross and the Altar; left stand – the Lectern; right stand – the Pulpit.

The Font and the Choir.

An ordained minister and the Ushers.