The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the China Christian Council (CCC) have reaffirmed the
relationship between both bodies that began in the early 1980s.
In January, a BWA team led by President David Coffey visited the cities of Beijing, Nanjing,
Hangzhou, and Shanghai in China as guests of the CCC, an umbrella organization for Protestant
churches in China.
Gao Feng, CCC President, expressed pleasure at the strong ties of friendship with the BWA and
expressed the hope that these ties could be built on in the years ahead.
BWA leaders have visited China as guests of the CCC since the early 1980s. CCC leaders began
attending the Baptist World Congress in the 1980s, and are expected to be present at the 20th
congress in Hawai´i from July 28 to August 1, 2010.
Coffey and the BWA delegation conducted a “listen and learn” tour, and were impressed with the
level of Christian witness in China. They were “able to visit churches and speak openly with church
leaders.”
The BWA team visited the Amity Printing Press, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2010
and is one of the largest publishers of the Christian Bible in the world. The printing press produces
approximately 1.5 million Bibles each month, in addition to other Christian literature and educational
books for children. Amity has exported more than 20 million Bibles to more than 70 countries in 75
different languages.
Meetings were also held with the Amity Foundation, founded in 1985, which promotes education,
social services, health and rural development. The foundation has established clinics, educational
training programs, foster care projects, HIV/AIDS education programs and rehabilitation facilities,
among other programs.
The BWA team was keen to determine the state and status of unregistered churches in China. The
CCC reported a figure of 16 million Christians in registered churches, but other reports suggested that
there were an estimated 80 million Christians in the most populous country in the world, “which would
take account of the reportedly large numbers of believers in unregistered churches,” a report from the
delegation stated.
“We specifically asked our hosts if we could meet with unregistered church leaders in order to
verify these news reports but we were asked not to do so, and since we were guests of the CCC, we
honored that request,” Coffey said.
“We must have patience for the church in China,” Coffey stated. “It is going in the right direction.”
Even though “it became evident to us that there is not yet full liberty for the church, totally free of
state control, there is sufficient freedom for a vibrant spirit-filled church life to exist under the existing
religious law, which is evolving all the time.”
In addition to visiting with the CCC, the Amity Printing Company and the Amity Foundation, the
delegation also had meetings with the leaders of the Three Self Patriotic Movement which, along with
the CCC, includes state-sanctioned or registered Protestant churches in Mainland China. Meetings
were also held with leaders and students at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, officials at
China's Foreign Affairs Department, and with the director general of the State Administration for
Religious Affairs.
In addition to Coffey, members of the BWA delegation included Wood-Ping Chu of Hong Kong, a
BWA vice president and president of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation; Douglas Inglis of the Baptist
Union of Scotland and the Scottish Baptist College; and Blake Killingsworth, assistant to the president
at Dallas Baptist University in Texas in the United States and a member of the BWA Emerging
Leaders Network.
PHOTO: The BWA delegation in Tiananmen Square in Beijing; from left, Wood-Ping Chu, David
Coffey, Douglas Inglis, and Blake Killingsworth
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