On July 11, 2018, the Jilin CCC&TSPM held the grand pastoral ordination ceremony and the commencement of Korean Chinese theological students in a church located in China's northeastern border.
Nine Korean pastors were ordained and 21 students graduated from a theological class in Yanji, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin.
Rev. Meng Fanzhi, chairman of the Jilin CCC&TSPM and president of the Jilin Bible School, emphasized the importance of the Korean theological class in resisting foreign infiltration.
The newly ordained pastors have been serving in ethnic Korean rural churches whose ages range from 48 to 59. Due to their Korean language, they didn't have the chance to receive systematic theological equipment in Chinese seminaries but had to attend training sessions held by the prefecture CCC&TSPM.
To solve a lack of Korean Chinese preachers, the provincial-level CCC&TSPM commissioned the prefecture-level branch to open a theological class in Korean language subordinate to Jilin Bible School. Thirty students were enrolled in the first class begun in July 2010, who are from local Korean Chinese churches from eight counties. After graduation in 2013, they returned to work in their countryside churches that border the Korean Peninsula.
He said that the prefecture became a key area where foreign agents tempted preachers with money and private ordination, but the establishment of the Korean class blocked up the infiltration by providing theological training.
- Translated by Karen Luo
