November 5 to 15, 2005 are red-letter days in my Calendar because for the first time, I was going to Communist China. In college, it was my �Maoist dream� to see China. It took 30 years for that to happen, a different time, a different situation, a different me.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution is over, China has opened its doors to the outside world---and I stopped being �China watcher.�

I have become a �Panda Hugger,� a �Dragon Slayer� or both.

A week before, the Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold and his senior staff included China as part of his brief Tour to Asia (primarily to receive an honorary doctorate from Rikkyo University in Japan). In a sense, ours was some kind of follow-up to the PB�s visit--- but the main reasons for our own visit was that Peter Ng and I were invited to attend the 20th Anniversary of the Amity Foundation in Nanjing, take part in the Asia Pacific Forum in Shanghai and meet with the leaders of the Three-Self patriotic Movement (TSPM) and the China Christian Council (CCC). I had the rare privilege of
conversing with the great Bishop K. H. Ting, the �godfather� of the Church in China.

We included in our itinerary a weekend stay in Hong Kong where, the Rev. Dwight Dela Torre, a former seminary classmate and colleague, works as Chaplain and coordinator of the Filipino Migrants Ministry. He had invited me to preach with the thousand-member Filipino Congregation at St. John�s Anglican Cathedral. There are over 250,000 Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong and Fr. Ike is a major part of this sociospiritual ministry.

From a domestic flight in New York�s JFK airport, we had a stop over in San Francisco where Brian Kwok (our EAM travel consultant) joined us. We changed to international flight to Shanghai Pudong Airport. I did not sleep because the plane ride always afforded me an opportunity to open my Lap Top and write materials for my �On-Line Course on AsianAmerican Ministry and Theology.�

We arrived in Shanghai at night after an l-o-n-g but uneventful journey and waited for the Car that would pick us up. Brian stayed in Shanghai but Peter and I had to take a three-hour ride (which later turned out to be six) to Nanjing where the Amity anniversary is being held. Due to the heavy fog, the highways were closed and we had to skirt the side streets, driving turtle-speed amidst the fog. It would have been all right for me to view rural China if not for the zero visibility-fog. I had become an instant �Peter fan� because, to while my time, Peter gave me a crash course on Chinese Culture 101. Peter is our EAM Council President Emeritus and the newly appointed Consultant for Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Anglican Global Relations (AGR). He had been to China many times and I felt quite secure in China with Peter by my side.

In Nanjing, we listened to lectures from noted professors and theologians in China who told us that the unprecedented economic growth of China necessitated a corresponding growth of societal values and religions such as Christianity are being looked upon as one of the sources for developing a �harmonious society.� There is a visible degree of openness as printing of Bibles is now allowed and the faithful are free to express their faith. Later in our visit to East China Theological Seminary in Shanghai, we learned that the religious books which were confiscated during the Cultural Revolution were all returned and are now being archived. I was amazed to find a whole shelf of Episcopal resources (history books, journals of conventions, theological books) and I joked with Peter that I might make a research on ECUSA in China!

Not only does the country experience dramatic economic growth; the Church in China also grew tremendously over the last twenty years. This Church Growth brought with it pressures and challenges. Externally they are challenged to respond to the invitation of the Chinese government towards building a harmonious society; internally they have to deal with the growing fundamentalism that characterizes many conservative churches and the resurgence of self-styled messianic movements. During the past two decades, China listed over 2,000 �self-proclaimed Christs.� Among those mentioned were Ling Ling Church whose leader Hua Xuehe proclaimed himself the modern Jehovah and the Yellers whose leader Changshou has been called Lord God by adherents.

The response of the China Christian Council and the Three Self Patriotic Movement is to call for a �reconstruction of theological thinking.� Theological reconstruction provides theframework for exploring theological responses in the Chinese context. Bishop K. H. Ting, bred in Anglican missionary ethos prior to the �three-self movement� said that the �political climate today is very different from that of the 1950�s and it is not easy for people to accept the ideas that some of us formed at that time.� Nevertheless, the greatest achievement of the �three-self movement � as theologian Luo Guanzong would say was the �severing of the relationship between Christianity and imperialism� and �a foreign religion used by imperialist aggressors to be transformed into an independent Christianity run by Chinese Christians themselves, self-governed, selfsupported and self-propagated.�

The historical experiences of Chinese Christianity, albeit rough and entailed tremendous human sacrifices, are a model to churches seeking autonomy and independence from foreign aid. �When a nation is rich and its people have well-being can the church be independent and flourish; when a nation is poor and weak and humiliated, the church will be controlled and used by aggressors, and thus transgress the benefit of its own country and people, Then the church itself will be damaged in such a situation� wrote Luo Guanzong. That is why the Chinese church is moving from a threeself
into a three-well, well governed, well supported and well propagated. Bishop K. H. Ting contends that even in Scripture the churches that are well run are firstly �self-governed, self-supported and self-propagated.�

While much of the China Church�s challenges are unique, some of them are similar to the American Church. Among them are shortage of adequately-trained clergy, structural weaknesses, the need to appeal to a broader spectrum of the China populace, especially educated young people and intellectuals, the continuing theological differences, a rapidly changing social environment and a government that continues to pressure religions to adapt to a socialist society.

With his age of 92, Bishop K.H. Ting has stepped down as president of the China Christian Council and amazingly handed over the leadership to a woman, the Rev. Cao Shengjie, who said aptly enough: �The Church exists in specific context, nation and society and churches in every nation develop their theological theories in step with the times and use them to guide the church in how it should build itself up on this foundation. The theological reconstruction of our Church (China) is currently carrying out must integrate with our national essence and culture, setting forth how the basic faith and ethical principles and canons of Christianity can enable us to better spread the Gospel and aid believers in living healthy and unchanging spiritual lives.�

One of the many things I observed about China Christians, aside from the legendary �Chinese inscrutability� (in China, you can only think, not assert, because what seems to be is not exactly what is) is their pragmatism and versatility. On the way to East China College, we ate at lunch at a restaurant situated in the entrance to the cemetery! In China (as in most of Asian cultures), funerals are big events with marching bands and banquets. Instead of driving or going far to eat after the funeral, why not have a restaurant by the cemetery?

The �hot button� gay issue and the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire came out of our discussion in Shanghai with the local leaders of the CCC and the TSPM and it gave Peter and me a chance to share about our perspective coming from the Episcopal Church. There was honesty among leaders who said that they are �very conservative� with some of them asking basic questions like �when a person comes to you for baptism and confesses he is gay, what will you do?�

We replied that in our faith-understanding we are guided by three pillars---scriptures, tradition and reason---and that we gathered from many studies that homosexuality is not necessarily an acquired trait but an immutable gift from the same God from whom we all are so wonderfully and equally made. To borrow from Martin Luther King, Jr., we judge people for baptism, confirmation, ordination and consecration not on the color of their skin or the specificity of their gender but on the content of their character and their adherence to the Christian faith delivered to the saints. Surely there was no agreement in those discussions but we came out of the conference room energized and pleased that at least the Christians in China are open, they are listening and watching on how we deal with this issue, knowing that one day soon, they too will have to face it.

One further thing that struck me in China is the theological understanding of the �cosmic Christ.� Among all Asian Christians, those in China must have suffered the most in the history of Christian witness (especially during the Cultural Revolution) and so they learned to adapt to the socialist regime with great respect for community. It seems to me that to say Jesus is �my personal Lord and Savior� is grossly individualistic, a �North American heresy,� as a friend from Hong Kong would put it. To build community, to survive as a community, to maintain �harmonious relation� as a community, how much are we willing to sacrifice? I think that China Christians have a lot to share to (or teach) America.