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Chinese Christians play a role in the nation's social vision
2002-041-6
2/13/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
The 'extraordinary expansion' of Christianity in China is not sufficiently appreciated in the West, according to Caroline Fielder, an Anglican who will serve as a specialist on the subject for churches that are members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
There now an estimated 17 million Protestants and about six million Catholics in China, according to some estimates, although statistics are complicated because the number of Christians who attend churches not registered with the government is unknown. According to some experts, counting those Christians could increase the total by 50 percent.
Fielder, who speaks Mandarin Chinese and taught at a school in Jiangxi Province, said that she would visit the country at least twice a year because 'it is changing incredibly fast' and she must keep current on church trends. 'For the first time, the churches are being seen as part of the social vision for China,' she said.
Overseas churches currently support many social projects in areas such as health, teaching and rural development through the Nanjing-based Amity Foundation, founded by the Chinese with strong links to the China Christian Council, the official agency for the Protestant churches.
Chinese authorities have launched occasional crackdowns on churches not willing to work with the government, according to observers. The situation has gotten worse since the 1980s when Christians played a role in the collapse of Communist regimes in eastern Europe, leading some Chinese authorities to speculate that Christians in China might present a similar challenge. 'We don't do anything that's not transparent,' said Edmond Tang, an advisor to the commission on mission for Churches Together. 'We're not taking sides and we work to promote the reconciliation of the official and unofficial churches.'
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