The intervention is a 8 weeks' programme. The Christianity approach as the framework for spiritual intervention includes use of Bible verses, prayer, hymns singing, sharing and caring for others (mutual support) within the group.

Through these activities, participants have opportunities to re-build and further develop their connectedness to themselves, to others, to their living, their environment, and to larger meaning and purpose.

Participants recruited in the waitlist control will be initially tested to generate pre-test scores and will then tested six weeks later which is equivalent to the timespan between the pre-test and post-test for the experimental spiritual programme. In between these two testing sessions, the waitlist control group will not receive any type of spiritual intervention. For ethical reasons, following the second testing session, the participants in the waitlist group will be given the opportunity to participant in the spiritual intervention programme.

Intervention includes use of Bible verses, prayer, hymns singing, sharing and caring for others (mutual support) within the group. Through these activities, participants have opportunities to re-build and further develop their connectedness to themselves, to others, to their living, their environment, and to larger meaning and purpose.

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001) is a self-reported questionnaire designed for use in primary care. It is a structured questionnaire that enquires after the nine symptom- based criteria for diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV depression. Score can range from 0-27. Sum scores of 0-4 indicate none or minimal depressive symptoms, 5-9 mild depressive symptoms, 10-14 moderate depressive symptoms, and 15-27 severe depressive symptoms. It has been found to have good sensitivity and specificity (Kroenke et al., 2001). The Cronbach's alpha was reported to be 0.86 - 0.89 (Smarr & Keefer, 2011).

The General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe, 2006) is an easy-to-use 7 items self-administered patient questionnaire used to screen the severity measure of generalized anxiety disorder with good psychometric property. Score can range from 0-21. Sum scores of 0-5 indicates mild anxiety, 6-10 moderate anxiety, 11-15 moderately severe anxiety, and 16-21 severe anxiety. The Chinese version was tested to be a reliable and efficient instrument. (Wang Li, Lukai, Rongjing, Dayi, & Sheng, 2014).

The State Hope Scale (SHS) ( Snyder et al., 1996) is a 6 items self-reported instrument for measuring the extent of hope individuals held toward ongoing events in their lives. It is an 8-point Likert scale, with 1 (definitely false) to 8 (definitely true), with odd-number items measuring pathway thinking and even number items measuring agency thinking. Scores can range from 6 to 48, with higher scores representing higher hope levels.. C. R. Snyder et al. (1996) reported that SHS was a reliable and valid measure of state hope, with factor analyses confirming the two factors of agency and pathways. The internal consistency values ranging from 0.90 to 0.95 for both the agency and pathways subscale, and all adaptations and translations of the scale are reported to retain the high internal consistency (Brooks & Hirsch, 2017). The Chinese version is available (Mak, Ng, & Wong, 2011).

The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) (Underwood, 2011) is a 16-items self-reported validated questionnaire that assesses ordinary experience of the transcendence in daily life. It includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent and compassionate love. It also includes measures of awareness of inspiration and a sense of deep inner peace. The first 15 items are scored with a Likert scale, from many times a day for 6 marks to never or almost never for 1 mark. The last item has only four response ranging from as close as possible for 4 mark to not close for 1 mark. The scores are summed up with higher score indicate higher level of spirituality. The reliability and validity of DSES have been tested to be satisfactory (Underwood & Teresi, 2002). It has been translated into over 40 languages. The Chinese version of DSES has been found to have the satisfactory psychometric properties (Ng, Fong, Tsui, Au-Yeung, & Law, 2009).