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China Christian Council
and
Amity Foundation
Lutheran mission work in China has a
long and exciting history. American Lutheran missionaries first went to China in 1890.
During the next several decades, hundreds of missionaries went to several different parts
of China. After 1910, there was increasing cooperation between Lutheran mission groups,
and seminaries, a university, publication house, and other church institutions were
established and began to flourish despite disturbances due to political tensions.
The Lutheran Church of China was born in
1920. It was a loosely federated general body stretching from Canton in the south to
Manchuria in the northeast, and was still growing toward maturity when Communist control
of the mainland cut it off from Lutheran world fellowship in 1951. At that time there were
over 100,000 baptized members, 1250 places of worship, 180 Chinese pastors, and over 1000
lay workers. At the height of missionary activity, more than 600 missionaries representing
Lutherans from Europe and North America were at work in China.
After 1951, the Lutheran Church in China
joined the government-approved "Three-Self Movement," and it activities were
restricted to worship in the strictest sense. Christians in China were not allowed to
communicate with the West, and no one outside China knew what was happening. Then, during
the Cultural Revolution era (1966 to 1979), all religious activity in China was outlawed,
and Christian congregations only survived in small house groups. When religious freedom
was restored, a national church structure was needed, and the China Christian Council was
founded in 1980. The China Christian Council is a service organization for all Protestant
Christians in China. Churches in China generally see themselves as post-denominational,
with local congregations often bringing together Christians from very different
traditions.
The China Christian Council promotes
theological education and the publication of the Bible, hymn books and other Christian
literature, the exchange of information among local churches, and the development of
friendly relations with churches overseas. It is estimated that more than 12,000 church
buildings are open for public worship in China, and that some 25,000 groups of Protestant
Christians meet in private homes. Since 1980, more than 2,700 seminarians have completed
their training and 20 million Bibles have been printed and distributed.
The ELCA relates to China primarily through
the Amity Foundation, an independent
church-related organization developed by Protestant Christians in China to help meet needs
related to health education, social welfare, rural development, relief, and rehabilitation
within Chinese society. Amity seeks to contribute to China's social development and to its
contact with the world beyond China. It serves as a channel for contacts between China and
the international Christian community. The ELCA participates in three projects in China
which are part of the Amity program. The most active participation is in the English
Teachers program. In addition, grants are given for the Amity Rehabilitation Project,
which assists children who have contracted polio, and the Drinking Water Project in
Henan
Province, near the area where ELCA predecessor missionaries lived and worked from 1890
through 1949. The ELCA also assists with a project to develop better care for orphans.
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