China opening for Global South primates: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 30, 2011 p 7.

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Primates of the Global South coalition of provinces have opened ecumenical relations with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) — China’s official state Protestant Church.

The 12-day visit to China by 11 senior archbishops led by Singapore’s Archbishop John Chew — who represent a majority of the communion’s members — has sparked public controversy in evangelical circles with some conservatives perturbed by the outreach to the Communist Party-approved state church.

The visit will also pain supporters of the current institutional structures of the Anglican Communion, as the China trip marks the establishment of an international Anglican ecumenical movement independent of the London-based instruments of communion.

From 30 August-10 September the Primates of South East Asia, Myanmar, Uganda, Jerusalem and the Middle East, West Africa, Burundi, Nigeria, the Southern Cone, Kenya, Rwanda and Central Africa visited Peking, Chunking, Nanking, Shanghai and Soochow as guests of the Chinese government’s Minister for the Stated Administration of Religious Affairs, Mr Wang Zuoan.

The primates also met with leaders of the TSPM and China Christian Council. “This visit is opening the way for greater cooperation between China and the countries we represent, especially in the areas of church development, social services and commercial activity,” the primates said in a statement released at the end of their visit.

The China communiqué stated the Global South primates were “excited by the invitation by the Church in China, with the support and encouragement of SARA, to develop a long-term relationship with the Global South of the Anglican Communion for mutual encouragement and sharing of experiences.”

They also noted China’s “advances in economic growth and social development” over the past 30 years “including the recognition and encouragement given to the church and other religious organizations.”

The primates said they were “inspired by the exponential growth of the Church in China, in spite of the challenges she faces. We are encouraged to see a Church that is actively leading people to faith in Christ, training lay leaders for ministry, advancing the theological education of catechists and clergy, and being a blessing to society, especially in providing social services to the needy.”

They noted the success of the Amity Printing Press, which has produced over 90 million Bibles and the work of the Amity Foundation in providing social services to the needy. “These achievements affirm the church’s faithfulness in doing God’s work in a manner that is self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. In all this, we recognize God’s divine providence, grace and wisdom,” they said.

However, the communiqué made no mention of China’s house church movement, home to the overwhelming majority of Chinese believers, nor of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement’s complicity in the state’s persecution of Christians.

Conservative bloggers were quick to denounce this oversight with posters at the website StandFirm expressing outrage the Global South would align itself with the TSPM. However, the Rev Loren Fox, a former missionary in Singapore told The Church of England Newspaper, these criticisms were misplaced.

Fr Fox noted the experience of the Diocese of Singapore and Archbishop John Chew had coloured its outlook on the Chinese church. The diocese of Singapore had been “generally liberal through the 1960s, but with Bishop Chew Ban it saw a movement sweep the Church through the influence of the Charismatics.”

During the Second World War the leaders of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Anglican churches “were imprisoned together by the Japanese,” he noted. In their prison camps “they prayed together deeply. That unity laid the groundwork for the Charismatic outbreak across the island in the 1970s that still influences all branches of the Church there today. Thus, the Singaporean Church has seen a weak (liberal) church transformed from within.

“Likewise, the TSPM/CCC has also moved from biblical faith to a faith filtered and truncated by the Communists, which has now returned to a biblical faith,” he said. Singapore and the Global South primates want “to encourage a further transformation of the Church — both government-sponsored and independent/house churches. Their own history gives them reason to believe it is already happening and will continue to do so.”

He added that Chinese history had seen “regime changes” brought about by changes in religion. “The Communist Party is afraid of any change in religion — whether it is Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhism, Uighur Islam, or Christianity.”

The Global South knows this and “has been helping the Communist Party’s Religious Affairs Bureau to see how biblical Christianity makes for good citizens,” Fr Fox said.