We must have patience for the church in China,” said Baptist World Alliance (BWA) President David Coffey. “It is going in the right direction.”
Coffey led a BWA team to China in January as guests of the China Christian Council (CCC), an umbrella organization for all Protestant churches in China.
The BWA team was keen to determine the state and status of unregistered churches in China. The CCC reported a figure of 16 million Christians in registered churches, but the BWA delegation had reports that there were an estimated 80 million Christians in the most populous country in the world, “which would take account of the reportedly large numbers of believers in unregistered churches,” Coffey said.
“We specifically asked our hosts if we could meet with unregistered church leaders in order to verify these news reports but we were asked not to do so, and since we were guests of the CCC, we honored that request,” he explained.
Even though “it became evident to us that there is not yet full liberty for the church, totally free of state control, there is sufficient freedom for a vibrant spirit-filled church life to exist under the existing religious law, which is evolving all the time.”
As a result of the trip, which included visits to the cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, BWA leaders reaffirmed its relationship with the CCC. The relationship between the two groups began in the early 1980s.
BWA leaders have been visiting China as guests of the CCC, and CCC leaders have been attending the Baptist World Congress since then. CCC leaders are expected to be present at the 20th congress in Hawaii July 28–Aug. 1.
Gao Feng, CCC president, expressed “pleasure at the strong ties of friendship with the BWA and hoped these could be built on in the years ahead.”
On this recent BWA “listen and learn” tour of China, Coffey and the BWA delegation were impressed with the level of Christian witness in China and were “able to visit churches and speak openly with church leaders.”
The BWA team visited the Amity Printing Company, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2010 and is one of the largest publishers of the Christian Bible in the world. The printing press produces approximately 1.5 million Bibles each month, in addition to other Christian literature and educational books for children. Amity has exported more than 20 million Bibles to more than 70 countries in 75 different languages.
Meetings were also held with the Amity Foundation, founded in 1985, and which promotes education, social services, health and rural development. The foundation has established clinics, educational training programs, foster care projects, HIV/AIDS education programs and rehabilitation facilities, among other programs.
In addition to the CCC, the Amity Printing Company and the Amity Foundation, the delegation also had meetings with the Three Self Patriotic Movement which, along with the CCC, form the only state-sanctioned or registered Protestant Church in Mainland China; leaders and students at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary; officials at China’s Foreign Affairs Department; and with the director general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. (BWA)
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