Members from two churches in Zhejiang and Anhui visit the patriotic education site of Jiaojiang church in Zhejiang.
On the afternoon of August 8, 2022, the worship team members of the Xianju church in Zhejiang arrived at the Jiaojiang church and took the tour of Hexie Garden, which is a patriotic education site, the Anti-cult vocation site, and the Shiliuhong station. The committee members and worship team members of Jiaojiang church greeted and talked with them, reported the church.
At the meeting, Teacher Kong Aiqing introduced that the Jiaojiang church has a history of 156 years. In the early 1920s, Jiaojiang church joined the Church of Christ in China and set up its own Christian self-governing group. During the war of resistance against Japan, it formed a propaganda group to counter the Japanese invasion and save the nation. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the church participated in the Christian Manifesto and the Three-Self Reform Movement. He added that it not only carried out activities to eliminate illiteracy but also vacated church space for the government to build public schools. On the eve of liberating Yijiangshan Island, it served the troop and peasant army as their depot and training behind the front line of the battlefield.
A few days ago, Rev. Guan Chengming, the chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Committee of Protestant Churches at Lixin County, Bozhou City, Anhui Province, and his colleagues visited the church, including the "Five Entries" (one of the Sinicization of Christianity) campaign construction and patriotic education site. The two sides held discussions on the direction of further practicing Christianity in the Chinese context.
Kong accompanied the guests on the tour of a church’s functional section, Hexie Garden, and introduced a variety of displayed historical relics from the war of resistance against Japan. These included a porcelain cup from the conquest of the Qing dynasty, a silver cup for the July 7 Incident, the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Medal, and other materials as criminal evidence, each of which was evidence of the crime by Japan for the invasion of China.
Rev. Guan, the person in charge of Chengguan Church in Lixin County, Bozhou, Anhui, is currently responsible for the construction of his hometown church, of which the main infrastructure is almost complete and is awaiting inspection. Rev. Guan said that through this visit, he would go back and work with his fellow workers to keep working on promoting the Sinification of Christianity and publicizing patriotism as well as anti-cultism, so as to become a window for local patriotic education. Learning this, Jiaojiang Church donated 3,000 yuan and other believers made donations to support them in building the church.
- Translated by Stella He
