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November 17, 2006

World’s Christians want to learn from Chinese says WCC’s Kobia 

by Ecumenical News International

SHANGHAI, China — Christians from other parts of the world want to learn from followers of the faith in China, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches has said.
 
     Sam Kobia, a Kenyan Methodist, was speaking to Chinese church representatives at his first meeting with them during a one-week visit by an ecumenical delegation to China and Taiwan led by the WCC head. 
  
     “Without the involvement of the Chinese church in the ecumenical movement and the WCC in particular, we would be a much poorer fellowship,” said Kobia. “As a post-denominational church, you are in a class of your own, and we want to learn more from you,” Kobia said. 
 
     The WCC describes its member church in China, the China Christian Council, as “a post-denominational church.” It is linked with the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China. The Roman Catholic Church and unregistered or “house” churches also have large followings outside the official church in China. 
 
     “Though the Chinese culture is renowned for its ancient history, now when we think about Chinese Christians, we think about the future, because more and more Christians are realizing that if we are to live the prayer of Jesus Christ that all should be one, then we need to be post-denominational in character,” noted Kobia. 
 
     The president of the China Christian Council (CCC), the Rev. Cao Shengjie, in welcoming the WCC-led delegation at a Shanghai reception on Nov. 15 said: “In the past, the Chinese Church was called a foreign religion. Since the 1950s, however, we have
adopted the ‘three-self’ principle of self-support, self-government and self-propagation. But this does not mean we want to be self-isolated.”  
 
     The ruling Chinese Communist Party for a long time discouraged religion because it was officially atheist. Despite this, people in China continued to practice their religious beliefs.

     During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, there was large-scale religious persecution and thousands of temples and churches destroyed. This period of turmoil was followed by one of gradual liberalization under the leader Deng Xiaoping and religion was no longer proscribed.

     In 1982, China’s constitution was amended to allow people considerable freedom of religion. 
 
     Chinese government statistics in April 2005 said there were “more than 100 million religious adherents” of China's 1.3 million people representing a variety of beliefs and practices. According to the official publication, the country had more than 85,000 sites for religious activities, 300,000 clergy, and more than 3,000 religious organizations. The same statistics had been in use since 1997. Some unofficial estimates suggest the country has more than 200 million believers, but different estimates vary widely.