Founded in 1849, St John’s Cathedral is the oldest neogothic cathedral in East Asia and China’s oldest surviving Anglican church still in operation. In its early decades it was a centre of colonial life in Hong Kong. More recently, it has opened itself widely to other communities in Hong Kong, becoming a truly international church with services held in several languages. Drawing on extensive archives, and written in a lively style, this first comprehensive history of St John’s traces the cathedral’s roles as a colonial parish church and as a bishop’s seat for a diocese that once covered the whole of China and beyond. It also discusses St John’s significance as a cente of worship for a modern cosmopolitan community.

Imperial to International is the first volume in the new series Sheng Kung Hui: Historical Studies of Anglican Christianity in China, co-published by the Hong Kong University Press and the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui.