with Rev Dr Chris Walker
Christianity in China
Toward the end of last year I had a trip to China. It was a fascinating trip seeing this large, historic and rapidly developing country. So I will share some of what I saw, what I thought and what I have learned about religion in this communist country.
On the trip we visited many of the well-known sights of China. In Beijing we saw the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. It is gratifying that ordinary people can now see these places and not only the people in power. We also crossed Tiananmen Square where the massacre took place back in 1989. A trip to the Great Wall amazed me with its size and length.
In Xian we saw the terracotta warriors. At Guilin it was the mountains in the background and the lake in the foreground past two pagodas that made for a memorable boat ride. In Longsheng the terraced paddy fields high on the mountains were impressive. At Lijiang we walked through a Baisha village of the Naxi minority and also saw a Tibetan monastery. An Impressions show by the person who developed the opening program for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games had the high mountains as the background and involved hundreds of actors/dancers. It emphasised the minorities and their culture. Some 55 minorities make up about 5% of the population dominated by the Han people who constitute 95% of all Chinese. With negative reports, such as in relation to the Tibetans, the government wants to show it values the minorities.
We saw the mighty Yangze River. At Tiger Leaping George it narrowed into rapids and cascaded past a huge rock in the middle of the river. An interesting bus trip has us winding around the mountains until we got to where we climbed to white limestone pools fed by a spring. This was a sacred site we learned. The bird and flower market at our last stop at Kunming may have become more of a typical market but it still had an interesting range of flowers and creatures for sale. The Stone Forest near Kunming is rightly a world heritage listed site. It is very unusual and impressive. I enjoyed walking through the main concentrated section which was maze like. A final enjoyable show and then we were off back to Hong Kong and Australia.
What struck me as we travelled around China was the extent of development. Everywhere we went there were major roads being built, large apartment blocks going up, and huge cranes in view. At Xian a major subway is being developed and will be open for use in just a few years. The roads that had already been built were impressive. I appreciated the trees they typically planted along the major roads. Interestingly sometimes there were animals that used the nature strips between the roads – not just small animals but even cattle. China is rapidly developing and I had to wonder how they were able to do so much so quickly.
In terms of religion, the communist government is clearly now on side seeing it as part of the life of China and able to make a contribution to society. So instead of seeking to crush religion they are now fostering it. I was interested to read in a Bejing newspaper a report on the growth in the number of Chinese Christians. Coincidentally with the trip I had to China was a delegation to China from the Uniting Church. I heard a report from Kerry Enright of UnitingWorld of what he learned and the developing partnership.
The situation in China is as follows, though this is likely to be a conservative report as it comes from official sources. At present there are at least 23 million Chinese Christians (more than the population of Australia). Others estimate that there are over 100 million Christians in official and unofficial churches. Amity press has printed 100 million Chinese Bibles now. A new church is being built every three days. New Christians are expected to attend classes for two years so they have a solid grasp of the Bible and Christian understanding. The newspaper report said that over 2.4 million Protestant Christian followers were baptised in the five years to the end of 2012. In the past five years 5,195 churches had been newly built or renovated. 1,443 pastors, 482 curates and 1443 elders had been ordained. The total number of full-time theology teachers had risen to 292 with 130 of them holding a master’s degree of above. Three new Protestant seminaries were founded in the period. Over 4,300 seminary students had graduated and 3,702 were currently studying. 94 new branches of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China and the China Christian Council were set up in cities and counties. It is no wonder that the Chinese Church is interested in the theological education that the Uniting Church engages in. It is also interested in the social welfare and advocacy practices of the Uniting Church.
While the number of Christians is small compared with that of Buddhists they are a growing minority which will no doubt have an increasing influence on Chinese society especially if they continue to disciple their new people as they are currently doing. I have no doubt that just as China is becoming an increasingly significant nation in world affairs so its Christian population will have its contribution to make to the community and to the world Christian movement.
It will be interesting to see how the Chinese Christians relate to others, especially those in nearby countries in particular South Korea and Japan. Hopefully they can have positive relationships in order to further God’s purposes across Asia and the world.
Chris Walker
(National Consultant Christian Unity, Doctrine & Worship)