Neil and Helen Sinclair from our Stockton Road church in Sunderland, report here on a recent visit to China. This will have been of particular interest to their home congregation because of the link between St George's and the missionary Margaret Dryburgh, and also because of Helen's own family background which has included a number of Presbyterian missionaries.
In October 2009 we visited five provinces in Central and South East China as part of a visit organised by the Friends of the Church in China. What we found there challenged the commonly-held perceptions of Christianity in China. We look here at the different aspects of the rapidly growing, vibrant Church and of the Chinese Christian charity, Amity. We also mention some of the links made with China by missionaries from the North East in the past and how those missionaries’ work has born fruit.
The Protestant Church in China is a post–denominational expanding, growing Church with 20 million members. Churches were closed during the Cultural Revolution (which began in 1966), but started to reopen from the late 1970s. They have attracted an increasing number of worshippers, including young people, both in the cities and the countryside.
China is a one party state and people do not have the same freedoms as in the West, but the Church is generally able to operate in a more independent way than we had imagined. All the Protestant Churches who come under the umbrella of the China Christian Council have registered with the Department of Religious and Ethnic Minorities. Some churches have chosen not to register and are vulnerable to harassment.
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Chongyi Church in Hangzhou. This is the largest Church in China and can house 5,000 worshippers
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It might be thought that registering would mean restrictions on the training or appointment of ministers, or what the churches might teach, but we found no evidence of this in the provinces we visited. While some state officials in other areas might be hostile to Christian churches, those we met were generally supportive of churches and interested in working with them on social projects. With growing materialism in society in the cities in China, there are also signs that the government sees churches as being important in helping to build a ‘harmonious society’.
The theological colleges we visited are thriving and expanding. They are also looking at new ways of training ministers for the growing number of Christians. In Zhoukou in Henan the local Christian Council has to overcome the problems of having only five ordained ministers for 500,000 worshippers. As it is clear that many of the rural churches cannot fund a pastor, the training of the students in the theological college includes not only bible study, but also farming and other practical skills so that the church leaders can support themselves.
More about the Chinese Protestant Church can be found on the website of the China Christian Council
The Amity Foundation is an independent development organisation started by leading Protestant Chinese Christians in 1985. It seeks to respond to the educational, health, development and ecological needs of different communities in China.
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| A husband and wife who were on their way to tend their land in West Hunan. They explained to us the benefits that the Water Project funded by Amity had brought to their village |
We visited several projects in the City of Nanjing where Amity has its headquarters. These included the Amity Home of Blessings, for adults with learning difficulties, and the Amity Children’s Development Centre, for autistic children. This is one of only four centres in a city where there are estimated to be more than 10,000 autistic children. The Centre is supported by the Scottish Churches China Group who have arranged for specialists from Scotland to go to Nanjing.
Another project in Nanjing is the Amity Printing Company which is a joint venture with the United Bible Societies. Their vast new printing works produces 10 million bibles a year in 75 different languages for 70 countries. Many of the bibles it produces are of course for China and they are sold at subsidised low prices so they are as widely available as possible.
Two further Amity projects we visited were in rural areas of Henan and Hunan. In Henan Amity assists the education of children who have been orphaned after their parents died of AIDS after selling their blood to help support their families. We met three children who were orphans and were now living with relatives. This project is supported by the Friends of the Church in China.
High up in the hills of west Hunan we visited an Amity Water project which included a concrete dam, built to replace an earth dam which was in danger of collapsing, and new water channels. At the foot of the dam we met this husband and wife who were from the local Tujia people. They explained that the work on the dam and irrigation had allowed them to grow much more rice and it had also brought water to the local village.
For more information visit the Amity Foundation website.
There are several links between North East England and the Church in China. Robert Morrison (1732-1834), a Presbyterian from Morpeth, went to China as a missionary with the London Missionary Society. Between 1807 and 1823 he was responsible for the first complete translation of the Bible into Chinese.
The English Presbyterian Church had missions in the South East of China. One of these was in Shantou where from 1919 to 1927 a notable missionary was Margaret Dryburgh from Sunderland. She later moved to Singapore and after its fall in 1942 was interned by the Japanese in a prison camp where she died. Her pivotal role there is told in the Hollywood film ParadiseRoad. Margaret Dryburgh is commemorated in a memorial in St George’s URC in Sunderland. St George’s supported the mission station in Shantou for many years.
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| Members of the Friends of the Church in China study tour and officers of the Guandong Christian Council in October 2009. In the centre is the Revd Lei, Chairman of the Council, who recalled the important links between the missionaries of the English Presbyterian Church and the flourishing churches in Shantou today. Helen and Neil are on the right of the group. |
When we met leaders of the Christian Council of Guandong, the province in which Shantou is located, we learned that today there are several large and flourishing churches in that City. The churches were about to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the first English Presbyterian missionaries. The Chairman of the Council, who came from Shantou, told us that his Mother had attended the school where Margaret Dryburgh had taught. His father-in-law had been the minister of the former English Presbyterian Church in Shantou.
The links of churches in this counrty with China in the past have undoubtedly born fruit many times over. Equally important are the links today. The Christians we met said how much they still valued the contacts with Christians in Britain. A good way to encourage these links is through the Friends of the Church in China - visit their website for details.
Neil and Helen Sinclair