Church, an overwhelming majority of Protestant congregations are determined to consolidate around the China Christian Council and locally around the provincial and municipal Christian Councils. Strictly speaking, the Christian councils are not churches in the ecclesiological sense. So we may say that the Chinese Protestant Church is still a uniting church, not quite a United Church of Christ in China. We are advancing toward church unity in the sense that we have forgone denominationalism. It is a new model of conciliar unity. The China Christian Council is different from National Christian Councils in many other countries in that the latter presuppose the existence of denominations or other church constellations. The CCC is not quite a United Church of Christ, for it still lacks a well defined church polity. On the local level the many congregations are represented in the local (municipal or county) Christian councils which serve as coordinating and advisory committees but do not have administrative authority. It is not like the Presbyterian synod. The relations between the China Christian Council and provincial councils, and those between the provincial and the local councils are not very clearly defined either. Councils of “higher levels” do not “direct” or “order” but advise or summon councils of “lower levels” and local congregations, offer help and exercise “leadership” through consultation and persuasion, not coercion, and by organizing cooperative activities and enterprises such as running leadership training classes etc.
One can sense that this is a rather loosely organized unity. At the Fifth All-National Assembly held in January in Beijing, a document entitled “Provisional Regulations on Church Order and Ministry” was adopted. Basic rules concerning Church Membership, Ordinance, Church Council and Offices were laid down and recommended for trial practice. A new clause was also added to the Constitution of the China Christian Council to emphasize the obligation on the part of provincial local councils to implement pertinent resolutions and recommendations of the CCC. These are some of the attempts to strengthen the solidarity and unity of the church.
The idea and ideal of church unity have been the subject of arduous studies and heated discussions for almost a century. Various models of church union have been conceived and attempted. The experience of the Chinese church is unique in that it is based on a particular socio-political context. The roots of denominationalism had never gone deep enough in the soil of Chinese culture. So once we have come together and done away with denominational barriers, we are on cleared ground to experiment in building an edifice to enfold and give shelter to multitudes who hold the Christian faith, and to bear witness to “the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all” (Eph. 4: 3–6).
We realize this is no easy task. We have learned to move carefully and slowly onward, and to guard against hastiness, coercion, artificial uniformity, proselytism, and schismatic division. The cardinal virtue, the essence of Chinese culture, is the “peaceful unity of opposites.” We are endeavoring to achieve church unity through this virtue.
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I can only be brief in the second part of my paper. Is not the development of religion like the tree of evolution, always divergent ad infinitum, as shown in the post-Reformation development of the Protestant churches into numerous denominations, and the sudden flowering and proliferation of hosts of cults and new religions in the second half of this century? Humans are alike in being religious, but very much different from one another in their ways of seeking spiritual satisfaction. Will the incipient centrifugal tendency of the three “established sects” I mentioned above, namely the Little Flock, the Seventh Day Adventists, and the True Jesus Church, escalate and grow into new denominations and eventually break the fragile unity of the Chinese church? Perhaps possible, but unlikely. First, as the “Conciliar” Church (I use this to denote collectively the churches within the fold of the Christian councils, often also called the “Three Self Church”) has a respectful attitude towards these groups and takes thoughtful measures to accommodate their specific requirements or requests (like welcoming the Seventh Day Adventists and the True Jesus Church members to hold services according to their customs on Saturdays, and offering conveniences to the Little Flock members to have their bread-breaking meetings wherever they like), most of them are quite willing to maintain friendly ties with the Conciliar Church rather than breaking away. Secondly, as regards the minority of these groups who are not ready to cooperate, the Conciliar Church is willing to wait with patience and love, and not to put pressure on them. In history, church unity has never been complete and “pure” without dissenters. Small numbers of dissenters do not precipitate the formation of schismatic splits.
Lastly, there remains the question of sects, cults and new religions. As the Protestant church in China is making rapid advances in the increase of the number of adherents, there arise a multitude of sects and cults that style themselves as “Christian churches” and proliferate in wide areas, especially in more backward rural communities. Many of these bear some resemblance to the Pentecostals in their meetings, for example in singing “spiritual songs,” spending long hours in prayer accompanied by weeping, crying or howling, dancing “spiritual dances,” speaking in tongues, and invariably practising “spiritual healing.” Some of these are eccentrically apocalyptic, believing in the imminent Second Coming of Christ. Most of these groups gather around some charismatic leaders who demand absolute loyalty and blind obedience from their followers, and usually take a hostile attitude toward or stand aloof from the Three Self or Conciliar Church, which in turn regards them as aberrant or heretical in their beliefs. Their activities are often clandestine and occult, and it is difficult to gain access to them and to assess their numerical strength. It is believed that they account for the rapid growth of Protestant Christianity in some way and to a certain degree.
I cannot go into detailed description of such groups. Our present concern is whether these will become a threat to the church unity leading to its eventual dissolution. Plausible answers to this question require more comprehensive and intensive studies in the theology, psychology and sociology of cults. This is why I am looking towards learning from the wisdom of Prof. Geertz and his presentation. But many believe that in the processes of modernization, with improvements in mass education, medical care and cultural activities, most of the sects and cults will lose ground and gradually die out. New ones may emerge. They come and go, and most probably will remain marginal. Their effect on the main stream of Christianity can only be negligibly small.
The unity of the church in China started as a dream; it is now being realized. We are realistic and aware of the difficulties and barriers on our path. We are striving forward until the uniting church will become a United Church of Christ, and spell out the present CCC (China Christian Council) as the Church of Christ in China.
6 In the event, neither Armin Geertz nor RotislavFellner were able to attend the conference in Beijing.
7 For detailed descriptions of the schema, see Michael Hill, A Sociology of Religion, pp.47–94; J. Milton Yinger, The Scientific Study of Religion, pp. 224–28.
8 In 1920, fifty-five missionary societies sent more than six thousand missionaries to China. These belonged to the following seven major denominations: Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and the China Inland Mission. See The Christian Occupation of China, 1922, Chinese transl., vol. III, p. 1190.
9 H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources of Denominationalism.
Living as Christians Today
Biblical Insights
(Nanjing, 1988)
Behold, now is the acceptable time;Behold, now is the day of salvation.
(2
