Global Chinese Ministries Newsletter - October 2007

Growth in Anqing City, Anhui

Edited by Tony Lambert, Director for China Research, OMF International

Anqing is one of the largest cities in the eastern province of Anhui. Situated in the south-western part of the province, it has some 700,000 inhabitants. There are at least 7,000 Christians (this is an official figure so does not include many house-church members). This means that only 1% of the population belongs to the “official” church. Even allowing for house-church Christians, it seems unlikely the total number of believers can be above 2-3%. This is a sober reminder that Anqing, like many major Chinese cities, is still relatively unevangelized, even after 30-40 years of unprecedented church growth in China.

There is only one large church in the city center capable of holding about 1,000 worshipers—the Church of the Incarnation (shengdantang). So local Christians have received permission to renovate the old Holy Saviour Church (shengjiuzhutang). The story reveals many of the problems which have faced Christians over the past quarter century or so in reclaiming their church property—no easy matter even if permission has been obtained.

During the Cultural Revolution the church was turned by a factory into 38 small homes for workers. In 1984 the municipal government returned the church in principal to the Christians. It took more than a decade to resettle 37 of the families living on the church premises. However, one family was unwilling to relocate. Renovation of the church began while they were still living in part of the church courtyard. The believers did much of the work themselves, tearing down some of the partitions and lacquering the old wooden pulpit. This “do-it-yourself” method is quite common all over China when Christians get official permission to renovate old church buildings, and it saves a lot of money. Nevertheless, money is still needed for complete restoration.

The Holy Saviour Church was built by American missionaries between 1900-1903 in the gothic style. In 1910 it became the chief church for the Anhui-Jiangxi diocese of the Episcopal church. In 1991 it was designated an important historical monument by the provincial government—the only surviving gothic church in Anhui.

(Based on an article in June 2007 Tianfeng, the magazine of the China Christian Council.)

HONG KONG—1997-2007

It hardly seems possible that ten years have already passed since Hong Kong passed from British rule to becoming a Special Administrative Region of China. Most Hong Kong people and overseas commentators say that their worst fears were not fulfilled. In the first few years after the handover, Hong Kong suffered a major financial slump, bird flu, SARS and huge pro-democracy demonstrations in 2003-04. Tung Chee-hwa, the billionaire appointed as first chief executive, was forced to step down in 2005. However, Hong Kong has weathered all these crises remarkably well. It still enjoys a free press and has recovered its economic growth and prosperity in recent years.

The anniversary was celebrated on July 1 with fireworks and lion dances, and China’s president, Hu Jintao presided over the swearing in of Hong Kong chief executive, Donald Tsang, for a further five-year term. He promised a gradual move towards democracy, but gave no timetable. He left before nearly 70,000 people joined a march calling for “one man, one vote”—the largest protest rally in Hong Kong since 2004. (The Times & Daily Telegraph, 2 July)

Hong Kong’s churches, Christian publishers and parachurch ministries continue to flourish. There is a degree of discreet self-censorship, but in general, Christian ministry develops undisturbed. Many Hong Kong Chinese churches now have strong relationships with churches on the mainland and provide a much-needed pool of theological and practical expertise. Deng Xiaoping’s plan for “One Country, Two Systems” seems to have worked well.