wfn.org | TOP-LEVEL NCCCUSA DELEGATION TO CHINA JULY 23-AUGUST 5

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC7/19/96                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

NEW YORK -- An ecumenical delegation led by
Bishop Melvin Talbert, President, and the Rev. Dr.
Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
(NCC), will visit China July 23-Aug. 5 to strengthen
ties with the Chinese people and the church of
China.

The visit by Dr. Campbell (a minister in the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and American
Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.), United Methodist
Bishop Talbert and other top NCC leaders is in
response to an invitation by the China Christian
Council and comes during a year of ecumenical study
on China and the role of the church in contemporary
Chinese society.*  It will be the third official
visit by NCC officials since 1981.

 "The NCC wants to show its ongoing support for
the church in China," Dr. Campbell said, "and for
its leadership, both present and those who will
come."

She noted that the Chinese church will soon
have a change in a key leadership post with the
anticipated retirement of Bishop K.H. Ting, 81,
president of the China Christian Council.
Furthermore, she said, "with the tensions between
the U.S. and Chinese governments, it is all the more
important that Christian people relate to one
another in a way that transcends the role of
government."

The 13-member delegation will visit Beijing,
Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xian, Shanghai and outlying
areas, including project sites of the Amity
Foundation.  Amity's efforts have included
irrigation projects, primary health care,
rehabilitation of disabled people, assistance to
rural areas and educational programs.  In addition,
Amity also has a printing plant in Nanjing -- a gift
of churches abroad through the United Bible
Societies -- where Bibles and hymnals in Chinese and
minority languages are published.

The delegation will visit churches and
seminaries and meet with Chinese Christians and
church leaders, exploring what it means to be
Christian in a country where less than 1 percent of
the population is Christian, but where the Christian
church has experienced much vitality and rapid
growth in recent years.

Members of the NCC delegation will also get a
chance to gain an understanding of the Chinese
church's selfhood and integrity as expressed in the
Three-Self Principle -- self-governing, self-
propagating and self-supporting -- during nearly five
decades as a post-denominational church existing
within a socialist system.

"We hope to build, strengthen and deepen
relationships with the people and the Church in
China," said the Rev. Krystin Granberg, coordinator
of the China Program of the NCC and its Church World
Service and Witness Unit, the NCC's development arm.
"In this year of ecumenical study on China, members
of the delegation will be able to bring back
valuable current information."

In Shanghai, the official headquarters of the
China Christian Council, the delegation will meet
with Cao Sheng-jie, vice president of the CCC and
director of its Commission on Church Administration;
Luo Guanzhong, Chinese Christian Secretary General
of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of
the Protestant Churches in China, and the Rev. Su
Deci, the CCC's associate general secretary and
director of its Subcommittee on Theological
Education.

In Nanjing, the delegation will meet with
Bishop K.H. Ting, president of the CCC, chairman of
the National Committee of the Three-Self Protestant
Church and head of Nanjing Union Theological
Seminary, and with Dr. Han Wenzao, Acting General
Secretary of the CCC and General Secretary of the
Amity Foundation.

In Beijing, the delegation will meet with both
national and local church leaders and may also meet
with a representative of the Religious Affairs
Bureau, the government agency that focuses on
religion in China.

In addition to Bishop Talbert and Dr. Campbell,
the NCC officers in the delegation will include the
Rt. Rev. Craig Anderson, NCC President-Elect and
President of the General Theological Seminary, New
York (Episcopalian), and his wife, Elizabeth
Anderson; Dr. Will Herzfeld, Chicago, NCC vice-
president and Chair of the CWSW Unit Committee
(Evangelical Lutheran Church in America); and the
Rev. Dr. Margaret Thomas, NCC Treasurer and Synod
Executive of Lakes and Prairies (Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)).

Communion representatives and NCC staff in the
delegation will include the Rev. Larry Camp, pastor,
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Brooklyn (National Baptist
Convention, U.S.A., Inc.); the Rev. Krystin
Granberg, Coordinator, China Program, NCC/CWSW,
(Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ); Victor Hsu,
Director of the East Asia and Pacific Office,
NCC/CWSW, (Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ); the Rev.
Rodney Page, CWSW Executive Director and NCC Deputy
General Secretary (Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ)) and his wife, Sandra Page; the Rev. Sandra
Peirce, Chair, Worldwide Ministries Division,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); and Mr. Peter Yoon K.
Sun, Organizing President, Pan Pacific University
(United Methodist Church).

Since China's expanding relations with the rest
of the world in the 1970s, the NCC/CWSW China
Program has organized many study groups to the
People’s Republic of China.  The first official
delegation visit was in 1981, the second in 1992.
During this time, hundreds of church groups have
visited China and there has been increased contact
and growing partnerships between the people and
churches in the United States and China.  These
include:

*The NCC China Program providing more than 150
teachers of English to the Amity Foundation during
the last 11 years.

*Beginning in 1991, the NCC China Program, working
with the CWSW Emergency Response Office, began
channeling emergency relief assistance to flood
victims in China. More than $500,000 in aid has
been sent to the Amity Foundation, which has
distributed the emergency supplies, for flood
relief.  In 1995-96, nearly $250,000 was provided
for victims of three earthquakes in China.  In
addition, CWS has provided assistance for
development and service projects.

*The China Christian Council has sent a number of
students to the United States for graduate
theological study.  These students have since
returned to China and are now in positions of
emerging leadership.  Among them are the Rev. Li
Yading, dean at Nanjing Union Theological
Seminary, and the Rev. Gao Ying, pastor of a
Beijing church, who serves on the board of the
Amity Foundation and will spend one year with the
World Council of Churches in Geneva.  Currently
two theological students sponsored by the China
Christian Council are studying in the United
States.  The Rev. Gao Feng and Wang Jianguo are
studying, respectively, at Luther Seminary in St.
Paul, Minn., and Princeton Theological Seminary in
Princeton, NJ.

-end-

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* See NCC News Release of 7/18/96 “NEW FRIENDSHIP
PRESS RESOURCES FEATURE CHURCH IN CHINA, HONG KONG”

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