"After passing the next stage of the completion inspection, the century-old Mingdao Church will be reopened once the equipment required inside has been purchased," said Rev. Chen Anti from the Church of Heavenly Peace in Fuzhou, Fujian.
An elder female believer from the Church of Heavenly Peace said, "The site of the Fuzhou School for the Blind, formerly known as the Mingdao Blind Girls School, is located in Mingdao Church near my home… ". This was shortly after the article "Century-old Fuzhou School for the Blind Founded by Missionaries" was published by the Gospel Times in early June.
Built in the 1870s by the Church of England, Mingdao Church was later rebuilt in 1928. In 1903, the British Indian Women Church established the Mingdao School for Blind Girls there.
The main body of Mingdao Church is a three-story modern Western-style building with a brick-wood structure and three large rooms. The front side is decorated with simple molds, and the top is made of a low parapet with four baluster columns. There is an arched door in the center of the first floor and arched windows on the second and third floors. The building has a total construction area of 800 square meters (0.198 acres) with two pastor’s buildings on the south side. The church was occupied during the "Cultural Revolution" and was returned after a new policy was implemented in 1999. It is also used as an affiliated gathering place for the Church of Heavenly Peace.
In 2018, the Fuzhou Municipal Government designated Mingdao Church as a historic building for original site protection. In April 2019, work was begun on the restoration of the church, with the work being completed after more than a year.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
