I have loved every minute that I have served on teams on the Walk to Emmaus, and being part of the Emmaus community in Hong Kong has been one of the greatest blessings in my personal walk with Christ
I am honoured to serve as the Lay Director on the upcoming Men’s Walk which will be happening, on 19th – 22nd March, at Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, Sha Tin.
The verse for this Walk is Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things will be added to you”
Some years ago a brother in a Bible study challenged me to have a life verse and I chose this verse a) because it was easy to remember as I recalled it from a Sunday school song, b) it sums up how we are called to live as followers of Christ, to seek the Kingdom of God as first priority in all things.
My prayer for this weekend is for Our Father to bless the pilgrims and the team who will give their time to seeking the Kingdom and to deepen their relationship with Christ.
As ever, we are counting on you, the Emmaus community, for your expressions of Agape love and support through prayer, gifts and food, and to help our Agape team before and throughout the Walk.
Please offer help in any way you can, it is most welcome. Please let us know if you can come and assist during the weekend. We look to the community to sponsor and encourage new pilgrims to attend the walk and care for them into their 4th Days.
Some key times to note:
If you are sponsoring a pilgrim, consider bringing them to TFS at 6.30 pm on the 19th and staying for the Sponsors Hour at 7.30 pm
If bringing food for the Banquet (and please do) please bring by 5pm on Saturday 21st
Gut bucket is at 8 pm (costumes are plentiful, aspiring chickens please let me know)
Community service is at 8.30 pm and Candlelight is 9.30 pm.
The closing service is at 3.00 pm on Sunday 22nd
Mike Small (Lay Director)
Please pray for Walk#86 and the team, we have a lot of first and second timers on the team. Please pray for and boldly ask the pilgrims who God has made known to us to join this walk. We pray that we may serve God and the pilgrims with joy and peace on the Walk and in the future, and that we may all know God’s power at work within us.
And finally, as you can see from the team list below, we are a bit light on Agape so please do reach out to me if you can help over the weekend. (my email is [email protected])
Having recently held the best walk ever for the Women in October, we now eagerly await the Men’s Walk WTE #86, which will be held 19-22 March, 2026.
With ever increasing costs in Hong Kong, we are finding that there are both team members and pilgrims who need financial help to be able to attend the walk.
As a community, we are confident that we would not want finances to be a reason to limit someone from joining the walk. In the past, we have informally asked sponsors to help with this, but we also do not want such a financial burden to deter anyone from sponsoring a new pilgrim in our community.
The WTE Board would like to give our community the opportunity to help others in this way and to help support our renewed season in Hong Kong. Therefore, we are asking for your generosity through donations to support scholarships for WTE #85 and future walks.
Each scholarship will provide a 50% reduction in the WTE fees for those whom the Board and its delegates find eligible to receive them, such as those experiencing financial hardships, those in full time Christian ministry, and NGO workers.
We may periodically ask for donations to top up the fund, which will be managed by the WTE Board and its delegates.
If you are able, would you consider giving a small contribution in order to help someone else have the experience of the Walk that you have already had? A donation of HK$2,300 will currently provide one Pilgrim scholarship, but any amount is welcomed and would be most helpful.
It’s a time to rejoice as the Women’s Walk to Emmaus will be happening, after a long break, on 7th – 10th December, at Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, Sha Tin.
Our Father encourages us, and the verse for this walk, which has been laid on my heart, is Ephesians 3 v20-21:
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
We are joyful to be part of this walk and in welcoming new generations of pilgrims to journey with us on this weekend. This verse helps us to see that we worship an amazing God and can rely on Him to provide the help, leaders, pilgrims and direction for Walk#83.
We are counting on you for your expressions of agape love and support through prayer, gifts and food, and to help our Agape team before and throughout the Walk. Please offer help in any way you can, it is most welcome. Please let us know if you can come and assist during the weekend. We look to the community to sponsor and encourage new pilgrims to attend the walk and care for them into their 4th Days.
We hope that many of you can join us for the Saturday evening Community Service on 9th December and for the Closing Community Service on Sunday 10th December. Let’s celebrate God’s love for each of us and our love for one another.
Please pray for Walk#83 and the team throughout the planning and team formation. Please pray for and boldly ask the pilgrims who God has made known to us to join this walk. We pray that we may serve God and the pilgrims with joy and peace on the Walk and in the future, and that we may all know God’s power at work within us.
Please join the HK Emmaus Community at our upcoming Community Gathering for a night of fellowship, praise and worship, food and sharing.
This will be our first post-covid gathering and it is shaping up to be a great evening. Come help us to celebrate our recent Men’s Walk to Emmaus Retreat #82, which was a tremendous success!
Walk to Emmaus Community Gathering
on
Saturday, 3 June 2023
from
6:00PM to 9:00 PM
Schedule of Events:
6:00PM (5th Floor): Community Gathering and Fellowship, followed by Pot-Luck Dinner
7:15PM (Sky Chapel): Worship, Fourth Day Talk, and Community Communion Service
Community Gatherings are open to all, including those who have not (yet!) experienced their own Walk to Emmaus.
Please invite prospective pilgrims and supportive spouses/friends – all are welcome!
We ask that you please click the button below to confirm your attendance so that we can make appropriate arrangements.
The Hong Kong Walk to Emmaus Community mourns the passing of our beloved brother in Christ, friend, and fellow traveler, Dr. Hans Schrader, who passed from this world on 3 July, 2022, survived by his wife, Pascale Schrader-Litmaath, and four children, Christopher, Nicholas, Benjamin, and Fleur.
May his soul, through the grace of God, rest in peace.
Please join the Hong Kong community in a Memorial Mass on 15 October, 2022 at 10:00AM.
St. Joseph’s Church
37 Garden Road, Hong Kong
10:00 AM on Saturday, 15th October 2022
Please remember in your prayers the repose of the soul of Rev. Elmer P. Wurth, M.M. who passed away on October 4, 2021, in Kalida, Ohio. Father Wurth was 92 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 65 years.
Fr. Elmer served as Pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Stanley from 1988 to 2011 and was one of the earliest and strongest supporters of the Walk To Emmaus Community here in Hong Kong.
Memorial Mass: Wednesday, November 3, 2021 11:00 A.M. (11:00PM HKG Time) Queen of Apostles Chapel, Maryknoll, New York
FATHER ELMER P. WURTH, M.M. (1929 – 2021)
Father Elmer P. Wurth died on October 4, 2021 at Mercy Health – St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima, Ohio. He was 92 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 65 years.
Elmer Paul Wurth was born on a farm outside the small town of Kalida, Ohio in the diocese of Toledo, Ohio on the Feast of St. Michael, September 29, 1929, son of Edward and Clara Brinkman Wurth. He grew up with two sisters, Alice and Rita, and two brothers, James and Virgil, who are all deceased. Elmer attended St. Michael’s Elementary School in Kalida, where he was taught by the Sisters of Divine Providence of Covington, Kentucky. Upon graduation from Kalida High School in 1947, he went to the University of Notre Dame to prepare to coach and teach. While there he learned about Maryknoll, and was attracted by the assurance that upon ordination he would be assigned to one of the Society’s missions.
He entered Maryknoll in June 1948, studying in Maryknoll’s seminaries in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania; Lakewood, New Jersey; Glen Ellyn, Illinois; Bedford, Massachusetts and Maryknoll, New York. He was ordained on June 9, 1956. After ordination, Father Wurth was assigned to summer studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where, in 1959, he obtained an M.A. in Latin and Greek. He also taught in Maryknoll seminaries in Clarks Summit and Glen Ellyn.
In 1960, Father Wurth received his first overseas assignment to Taiwan, where he worked among the mountain tribal people until 1966 when he was recalled to the United States. He spent the next 13 years on vocational recruitment, fund-raising and mission awareness talks from offices in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York City and Maryknoll, New York.
As a member of the U.S. Region, Father Wurth returned to Asia in 1979, but this time to Hong Kong to join others in opening a research center for the study of religion in China. He made many trips to China as the country was reopening after many years behind the Bamboo Curtain. He visited church personnel, most of whom had spent many years in prisons and labor camps for their religious beliefs. He was officially assigned to Hong Kong in December 1982.
In 1988 Father Wurth began another chapter in his life, when Cardinal John Baptist Wu, Bishop of Hong Kong, asked him to become pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Stanley, an international parish with more than 50 nationalities among its parishioners. While pastor of St. Anne’s, he also served as chaplain to four prisons in the parish, and managed two Chinese schools. He spent one day a week at his research office and published two volumes entitled “Papal Documents Relating to China.” Father Wurth continued as pastor of St. Anne’s until November 2011 when he moved to the Stanley Village House in Hong Kong. He helped out at three local parishes, and in June 2013 was assigned to the Senior Missioner Community.
Father Wurth returned to the United States in January 2014 and moved to Kalida, Ohio, where he assisted at St. Michael’s Parish. In 2019 he celebrated his 90th birthday in Kalida surrounded by hundreds of parishioners, family members and friends.
A Memorial Mass was held at 10:30 a.m. on October 12, 2021 at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Kalida, Ohio. Father Mark Hoying officiated. Burial followed in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Kalida, Ohio.
A Memorial Mass was held on October 15, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Anne’s Church in Hong Kong, with Cardinal John Tong presiding.
A Memorial Mass was celebrated at Maryknoll, New York on November 3, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. in Queen of Apostles Chapel. Father John McAuley was Principal Celebrant and Father Peter Barry was homilist. Father John Moran read the biography and Father Cuong Nguyen read the Oath.
