Lament has not been a popular genre in contemporary Christian music (CCM), whether in the West or in Hong Kong. However, in the late 2010s Hong Kong saw an increasing number of compositions related to this genre, especially during the protests surrounding the anti-extradition law between June 2019 and early 2020. This article aims to explore that phenomenon and argues that these laments illustrate a type of grassroots theology by Hong Kong Christian musicians. Categorising these compositions as ‘Hong Kongese City Lament’, the article begins by examining the usage of the city lament in the ancient Near Eastern world, especially in the context of the Hebrew Bible. It then discusses the adaptation of the city lament into CCM and how lament has become popular since the Hong Kong protests. Three CCM laments from Hong Kong are analysed in terms of their musical composition, visual effects illustrated in the music videos, and the texts in the lyrics and captions. The article offers an alternative voice for the way in which grassroots Christians construct their theologies through music in the Hong Kong context.

In the 1960s and 1970s, dynamic equivalent, common language translations (such as Good News for Modern Man) changed how the global church read the Bible. In this period, a dynamic equivalent, Thai common language translation of the Bible was made, known as the Prachaniyom (‘Popular’) Version. Yet despite the optimistic naming of this translation, a great deal of work and the support of Bible Societies, the Prachaniyom version proved unpopular with the Thai church. This article tells the story of the Prachaniyom version and explores why it was a glorious failure – examining both the fascinating things attempted by the translation and the reasons why it was not accepted by the Thai church.

Publishing on World Christianity depends heavily on research completed in the Global South. Yet making the fruits of such research available to Global South communities through accessible publications has proved to be challenging. Either such scholarship is published in the Global North and rarely returned to the countries of origin, or scholarship is published within the country, but rarely makes it beyond its borders. One attempt to address this challenge is the work of the Kachere Series and Mzuni Press in Malawi. A striking example is The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian 1924– 2024: A Centenary Assessment, edited by Kenneth R. Ross and Mwawi N. Chilongozi and published by Mzuni Press in 2024. Through co-publication arrangements, it has a print edition widely available in Malawi, another print edition available in the southern African region, a print-on-demand edition available in the Global North and an open access edition available worldwide. Taking inspiration from this example, we explore in this article ways and means by which research originating in the Global South can be published so as to become available to the communities from which it arises.