Shenyang
The first time I said "I'm a Christian" and the secret police didn't jump out to blindfold me and take me away forever, I thought maybe I have a misconception about this. One of the women at the English wore a cross and later one of those colored bead necklaces (the ones where the color stands for something like blue is for baptism, red is for Christ's blood, etc.) and then a father and daughter talked about going to the Catholic church, Christianity seemed less taboo. I was told about a fellowship that met in the hotel right next to ours, so we thought we would go check it out. We went in and looked for any signs saying where it was meeting and couldn't find any. So, we asked the hotel staff at the front desk and the word "fellowship" was completely lost in translation. The father and daughter told us to come to the Catholic church where they went. Though neither of us is Catholic, we thought it would be a good experience and at least they would be there so hopefully it wouldn't be a bust like the fellowship. After a rather interesting taxi ride, we finally found the church. It was completely out-of-place, a truly gothic style church with an iron gate, it seemed to be lifted right out of Europe, but it was surrounded by your average modern Chinese buildings.
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| Yes this is the church |
We walked into the church and were greeted by what looked like a wedding going on. But there were contradicting facts, there was a man in a suit and a woman in a white dress in the front, there were nicely dressed people at the very front of the church, then there were regularly dress people in the rest of the church. We sat down thinking, maybe they put a wedding ceremony in the middle of mass, maybe that's how they roll in China. People would walk in and sit down for a while, some would stay, some would leave. Everything was in Chinese so we had no idea what was going on. We finally decided this is definitely a wedding and we are out of our cultural comfortability to come to a wedding uninvited and without even a gift. As we were about to leave, something changed. Everyone started clapping and the couple turned to the audience and started bowing. So we started clapping too, after all they had just got westerners to attend their wedding for free, usually you have to pay them for that. After a lot of bowing and clapping the couple retreated down the aisle and proceeded to take pictures in the courtyard, that's what the car adorned with flowers was for.
As we walked out we saw our friends, they explained to us that the mass was actually in the smaller chapel and they were going to the Japanese lesson the church taught. They would see us afterwards for the cookies and hot drinks the church gave after the service. The "mass" was one of the most interesting I have ever been too. The priest was American and there were a bunch of others who did various things like sing, read verses, altar boys, etc. They were from all over the world. The attendees were as diverse, there was a French family in front of us and two Africans sitting behind us.
It was okay overall, but Ben's schedule didn't allow us to really go anymore to it. So it was difficult for us to participate in many organized church functions, but because the schedule was a bit hectic, we didn't look that much harder.
Shanghai
Before we left to come back to China this time, I thought ahead. I got the contact information for the local Chinese church in Pittsburgh and asked if they knew of any good church in Shanghai. They gave me the information for Shanghai Community Fellowship. I e-mailed the church about their cell groups and Sunday services. They had a note on their website: "In observance of Chinese government regulations, our English Services are open to foreign passport holders or foreign residence permit holders only. Chinese nationals are welcome to attend a Chinese service at Hengshan Church on Sundays at 7AM, 10AM, or 6:30PM." This made me wonder what exactly the regulations were. I have been researching and trying to understand what the official regulations are.
There are two types of churches in China, state- sanctioned churches and non-sanctioned churches, house churches. For a church to become state sanctioned, it has to follow certain guidelines and be approved by the Religious Affairs Department. Then it must make regular reports to the state and notify them if anything has changed. The two Protestant groups here are Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council, they combine to be the only state sanctioned Protestant churches. The Three- Self Patriotic Movement was started to try to take the Christian church back to the Chinese. It "promoted a strategy of 'self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation' in order to remove foreign influences from the Chinese churches and to assure the communist government that the churches would be patriotic to the newly-established People's Republic of China." So any state-sanctioned church in China, that is Protestant, is under the combined TSPM/CCC, and has to follow the regulations the government puts on them. Any Chinese national who is over the age of 18 is allowed to go to any of these churches. But why the separation between Chinese nationals and foreigners? I am still not sure, but when I find the answer I will share it. The one thing I have been able to deduce is that maybe it has to do with the TSPM and making sure the Chinese nationals are still committed to the PRC.
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| Shanghai Community Fellowship |
As for the church, I found out that there was a Saturday cell group that was about 10 minutes walk away from our hotel. We attended the cell group, which had quite a mix of people, including some Chinese which I was surprised at. It was a nice little group and we very much enjoyed it, though they are currently on hiatus because of Spring Festival. Shanghai Community Fellowship has two Sunday afternoon services, which are huge, maybe 500-750 people at each service and it is the holiday. So it is what I consider a mega-church, but the services haven't been that bad. They try to focus on community, which is right up our alley, last weeks service was on κοινωνία and I felt like I was sitting in HMBFC. I am glad they make it a point for people to join their cell groups, because I am not sure if their Sunday service would quite be enough. Though, I don't ever believe that the point of a service is to be the only part of community in your life.
Links:
Wiki - Christianity in China
Wiki - TSPM
Amity - China Church FAQ or Religious Laws
China Wiki - Christianity
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