wfn.org | Chinese Church growing, says delegation

["Communication Ministries" <wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: July 2, 2001
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: Cmiller@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

01a-37

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- "God is at work in China. Somehow he has
performed miracles," said Wenzao Han, president of the China
Christian Council, the official church of China's 15 million
Protestant Christians.  A delegation of Chinese Christian
leaders, including Dr. Han, and government officials, visited
leaders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in
Indianapolis June 26-27.

	"There is much misunderstanding about the church in China here
in the West," Han said.  Stories surface now and again about a
nationwide campaign to persecute Chinese churches. "It is very
much different from our own experience.  Our own experience is
that we want to offer thanksgiving to God for how he has guided
us the last 20 years." 

	The last 20-plus-years have been remarkably fruitful.  The
1966-76 "cultural revolution" in China resulted in the closing
of all churches and seminaries and the burning of Bibles.  "We
could only meet in small groups -- silently if not secretly,"
said Han of those years.  After the cultural revolution was
deemed a failure, Han and his colleagues took a wait-and-see
position on resuming church work, wary of a new wave of
religious repression.  "When we came to realize the sincerity of
the top leadership to implement the policy of religious freedom,
we began to revive our work," Han said.  

	When the China Christian Council was founded in 1980, there
were but three known Christian churches in all of China.  Today
there are 50,000 congregations.  Some have full-time pastoral
leadership.  Others are "meeting points," likened to "house
churches," many in rural areas and led by lay Christians. 
Overall, China's Christian population has bloomed from 700,000
at the time of the communist revolution in 1949, to an estimated
15 million today.  

	Disciples General Minister and President Richard L. Hamm said
the growth of the church in China can be a matter of pride for
Disciples, who have participated in mission work there since the
1880s.  "It is also very humbling," Hamm said.  The Chinese have
established congregations and "meeting points" at the rate of
six per day since 1979.  "And we're hoping to establish a
thousand Disciples congregations over the next 20 years here in
North America," the GMP said.  

	The China Christian Council operates 18 religious education
institutions. They provide seminary education, extensive Bible
study, correspondence courses and lay leadership training. 
Among the schools is the Union Theological Seminary of Nanjing. 
The Rev. Carolyn Higginbotham, a Disciples minister and religion
professor from Zanesville, Ohio, along with a Presbyterian
professor have just been granted Chinese government permission
to teach the Old and New Testaments, respectively, at the
Nanjing school.  They are the first foreign religious educators
to be allowed to teach in China for an extended period since the
1949 revolution.  They'll serve, at the invitation of the
seminary and the Christian Council, for a year. Higginbotham's
husband, the Rev. James Higginbotham, will join his wife at the
seminary as an English teacher.  

	There are occasional reports of government repression of
religious expression conducted outside the bureaucratic
protocol.  Still, Han is grateful for the level of freedom
resulting from a 1984 constitutional revision calling for the
tolerance of religious belief and practice. "China being so
vast, one can never expect all government policies to be
implemented, including the policy of religious freedom,
everywhere the same.  When we receive a complaint from below, we
feel it is our duty and responsibility to refer the case to the
higher government office, asking for investigation or
rectification." 

	For the government's part, "we also are against any kind of
intolerance of religious freedoms.  We are trying to advocate
the implementation of all kinds of law in China as well as the
implementation of the law relating to religious freedom in
China," said Xiaofei Qi, vice deputy of the China State
Administration for Religious Affairs, also a member of the
delegation.  "It is not totally complete because in the world
nothing is perfect. Society is progressing. But the religious
people in China say they are now in the ‘golden period' of
religious faith in China," Qi said.   

	The Protestant church in China is a lesson in Christian unity,
according to the Rev. Robert K. Welsh, president of the
Disciples Council on Christian Unity.  "The name of their church
is the China Christian Council, but it's not a council of
churches," said Welsh. "It is one church that is really
post-denominational. How do you set aside the denominational
structures and yet maintain denominational traditions within one
church?  We as Disciples have a lot to learn from them," Welsh
said. 

	The China Christian Council is a partner church to the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of
Christ and the delegation was hosted by Global Ministries, the
overseas ministry partnership of the two denominations. The
delegation also visited the Cleveland headquarters of the United
Church of Christ. After the formation of the China Christian
Council, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was the
first denomination to invite its representatives to visit the
United States. Dr. Han was part of the first delegation that
accepted the invitation and met with Disciples leaders in
Indianapolis.

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