Baptist church leader resigns days before term ends

A pro-democracy church leader in Hong Kong who openly opposed the national security law and 2019’s ill-fated extradition bill has resigned from his post for “personal reasons”, days before he was due to complete his term.

The biggest umbrella group of Baptist churches in Hong Kong, the Baptist Convention, said on Wednesday that Reverend Lo Hing-choi, who headed the convention, had tendered his resignation the day before. His term was supposed to end at the end of April.

In an announcement, the convention thanked Lo for his leadership and service, and expressed a wish that he will be in God’s grace in retirement.

A day before Beijing imposed the national security law in 2020, Lo wrote of his opposition to the legislation on his blog. He later deleted the entry and all previous posts, reportedly saying that he didn’t want his articles to affect the convention.

The 68-year-old began serving as the head of the convention in 2018. He was re-elected last year, defeating an opponent who had once demanded the group withdraw its statements opposing the 2019 extradition bill.

Lo had also issued statements demanding the government withdraw its anti-mask law during the 2019 anti-government protests, lodge an independent probe into alleged police brutality, and for officers to wear their warrant cards on duty.