By Tom Philips, Liushi, Zhejiang province
The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily
that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.
It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands
of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance
- not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross.
The 5,000-caoacityLiushi Church, which boasts more than twice as
many seats as Westminister Abbey and a 206 ft crucifix that can be seen for miles
around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that
such a small town was able to build such a grand church".
The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of
Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest
Christian congregations on earth.
"It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It
gives us great confidence," beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who
was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy
Week.
"If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no
more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and
therefore no more crime," she added.
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country
but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and
spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches
began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the
Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to
become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous
Christian nation."By my calculations, China is destined to become the
largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a
professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China:
Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many
people are prepared for this dramatic change."
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members
in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with
an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in
China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa,
according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that
the number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put
China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants
in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics,
would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States
as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had
accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic – the Communists didn't. They actually failed
completely. "
Like many Chinese churches, the church in the town of
Liushi, 200 miles south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, had had a turbulent
history.It was founded in 1886 after William Edward Soothill, a Yorkshire-born
missionary and future Oxford University professor, began evangelizing local
communities.
But by the late 1950s, as the region was engulfed by Mao's violent
anti-Christian campaigns, it was forced to close.Liushi remained shut
throughout the decade of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, as places
of worship were destroyed across the country.
Since it reopened in 1978 its congregation has gone from strength
to strength as part of China's officially sanctioned Christian church - along
with thousands of others that have accepted Communist Party oversight in return
for being allowed to worship.
Today it had 2,600 regular churchgoers and holds up to 70 baptisms
each year, according to Shi Xiaoli, it's 27-year -old preacher. The Parish's
revival reached a crescendo last year with the opening of its new 1,500 ft
mega-church, reputedly the biggest in mainland China.
"Our old church was small and hard to find," said Ms.
Shi. "There wasn't room in the old building for all the followers,
especially at Christmas and at Easter. The new one is big and eye-catching.
"
The Liushi church is not alone. From Yunnan province I China's
balmy southwest to Liaoning in its industrial northeast, congregations are
booming and more Chinese are thought to attend Sunday Services
each week than do Christians across the whole of Europe.
A recent study found that online searches for the words
"Christian Congregation" and "Jesus" far outnumbered those
for "The Communist Party" and "Xi Jinping", China's
president.
Among China's Protestants ARE ALSO MANY MILLIONS WHO WORSHIP AT
ILLEGAL UNDERGROUND "HOUSE CHURCHES", which hold unsupervised
services - often in people's homes - in an attempt to evade the prying eyes of
the Communist Party. Such churches are mostly behind China's embryonic
missionary movement - a reversal of roles after the country was
for centuries the target of foreign missionaries. Now it is starting to
send its own missionaries abroad, notably into North Korea, in search of
souls.
"We want to help and it is easier for us than for British,
South Korean or American missionaries," said one underground church leader
in north China who asked not to be named.
The new spread of Christianity has the Communist Party scratching
its head.
"The child suddenly grew up and the parents don't know how to
deal with the adult," the preacher, who is from China's illegal
house-church movement said.
Some officials argue that religious groups can provide social
services the government cannot, while simultaneously helping reverse a growing
moral crisis in a land where cash, not Communism, has now become king.
They appear to agree with David Cameron, the British prime
minister, who said last week that Christianity could help boost Britain's
"spiritual, physical and moral" state.
Ms Shi, Liushi's preacher, who is careful to describe her church
as "patriotic", said: "We have two motivations: one is our
gospel mission and the other is serving society. Christianity can also play a
role in maintaining peace and stability in society. With God, people can do as
they please."
Yet others within China's leadership worry about how the religious
landscape might shape its political future, and it's possible impact on the
Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982
constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal
religious activities".
As a result, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and
preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from
what the Party considers acceptable.
In Liushi church, a closed circuit television camera hangs from
the ceiling directly in front of the lectern.
"They want the pastor to preach in a Communist way. They want
to train people to practice in a Communist way," said the house-church
preacher, who said state churches often shunned potentially subversive sections
of the Bible. The Old Testament book in which the exiled Daniel refuses to obey
orders to worship the king rather than his own god is seen as "very
dangerous", the preacher said.
Such fears may not be entirely unwarranted. Christians' growing
power was on show earlier this month when thousands flocked to defend a
church in Wenzhou, a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East",
after the government threats to demolish it. Faced with the congregation's very
public show of resistance, officials appear to have backed away from their
plans, negotiating a compromise with church leaders.
"They do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate or
accept it because of the growth there," said the church leader. "The
number of Christians is growing - they cannot fight it. They do not want the
70 million Christians to be their enemy."
The underground church leader said many government officials
viewed religion as "a sickness" that needed curing, and Prof Yang
agreed there was a potential threat. The Communist Party was "still
not sure if Christianity would become an opposition political force" and
feared it could be used by "Western forces to overthrow the Communist political
system", he said.
Churches were likely to face an increasingly "intense"
struggle over coming decade as the Communist Party sought to stifle
Christianity's rise, he predicted.
"There are people in the government who are trying to control
the church. I think they are making the last attempt to do that.
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