On February 13, 2019, the Xiangshui Church in Nanzheng district, Hanzhong held a ceremony dedicating a new church.
Leaders from the government's United Front Work Department, Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, from towns and villages of the Nanzheng District, as well as heads of the church branches in the city of Hanzhong attended the ceremony. Six hundred people in total attended.
According to the church construction report written by Chen Lihua, the legal representative of the Xiangshui Church, the church was built in Chenbei village in 1984 by dozens of Christians who used to gather in Miss Jiang's home after the group had grown too large to meet there. After years of use, rain began leaking into the adobe church and large parts of the outer layers of its walls began peeling off. The new 478-square-meter church has now been completed at a cost of 850,000 yuan with the support of many other churches.
In the speech made by Rev. Qi Hongjun, the vice-president and acting secretary-general of both the China Christian Council (CCC) and Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) of Shaanxi Province, and the chairman of the TSPM of Hanzhong, he encouraged everyone to study and implement the spirit of the 19th Chinese communist party's national congress, implement the newly revised Regulations on Religious Affairs, follow the Sinicizing of Christianity, resist evil religions and foreign infiltration, and do well in providing social services.
The celebration ended with 16 wonderful performances by the Hanzhong Church orchestra.
-Translated by Lin Changfeng
