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11 May 2005

China's Protestants aim to show faith as beneficial to all people

Simon Barrow
Athens (ENI). The mission of China's 16 million Protestant Christians is "to show God's love and to benefit all people" in a society that once saw their faith estranged from the national identity, a church leader from the world's most populous nation said on Tuesday.

The Rev. Cao Shengjie, general secretary of the China Christian Council, participated at one of the programmes during the 13th Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), in Athens, Greece.

"This is our first visit to Athens, and it is also the first time we have been part of CWME through this gathering," said Cao, noting the historic nature of the three person delegation from the China Christian Council.

The council was formed in 1980, after the re-opening of China's churches in 1979. The government has allowed a substantial growth in the minority Christian community and has begun to reverse the severe repression experienced during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 under Mao Zedong.

On the conference theme of healing and reconciliation, Cao declared that the task facing believers in China is to discover a distinctly Chinese perspective on mission and evangelism. She said grassroots education, social witness and the renewal of theological thinking would make this possible.

Welcoming the backing and prayers of Christians across the world, Cao noted that mission relations which went against the church grouping's "three-self" principles of self-propagation, self-governance and self-support harmed the long-term development of the Chinese church.

"Evangelism will not meet its goal if the methods of mission are not in accord with the truth of the Gospel," she explained, emphasising the need for Chinese Christians to seek unity among themselves and peaceful relations with other religions, including Catholicism.

Answering questions about state regulation and the presence of many unregistered house churches across China, Cao said that religious freedom required a legal framework to guarantee both security and stability. She added that the China Christian Council, especially through its Bible ministry, aimed to support all Christians in China, not just those who understood the three-self principles.

Some researchers suggest there may be between 50 and 70 million Protestant Christians in China rather than the 16 million claimed by the China Christian Council.

The World Evangelical Alliance, a grouping that is not part of the WCC, in April presented the United Nations Commission on Human Rights with an appeal that said more than 200 million Christians worldwide were denied religious liberty as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

China was among the nations it singled out for violating rights of Christians. Others were: Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

© 1994 - 2006 Ecumenical News International.

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