Chinese Christian demographic shifts

listening intently to the priest. She lowers her head at times to pray, looking utterly serene.
Her name is Wu Dingjin. She is a post-graduate student at Nanjing Agricultural University in east China’s Jiangsu Province. She was an atheist up until three years ago, but says that her journey towards God has felt like a homecoming of sorts.
Confused about her life and career prospects in her sophomore year, Wu started to read the Bible late at night when others in her dormitory had fallen asleep. She says that she was surprised to find that the purity and beauty of the words could have an effect on her.
“After coming to know God, I now know that someone loves me and that the most important thing in life is not money or success, but the relationships I have with God, my family and friends,” Wu says.
“I’m not afraid of the future anymore.”
Young, well-educated Chinese like Wu are becoming increasingly interested in Christianity. Each week, about 4 000 people go for religious services at St. Paul’s Church, which was established in 1923 as the city’s first Christian church.
Other major churches in the city, such as the Mochou Road Church, have also seen a growing number of worshippers.
“About 4 500 people attend our services each week,” says Li Lancheng, a clergyman at the Mochou Road Church.
Jiangsu is home to 1,8 million Christian worshippers and 4 300 places of worship. Forty percent of these Christians regularly attend church services and participate in Bible study groups.
According to the 2010 Blue Book of Religions published by the Institute of World Religions under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there are about 23 million Protestant Christians in China, or roughly 1,8 percent of the country’s population. Kan Renping, a pastor at St Paul’s Church, believes that the caring attitude of the Christian community is responsible for attracting most of the church’s newcomers.
“Some people come here first just to find out what it’s all about, but once they are here, they develop an attachment to a community where people love and help each other. That’s the charm of Christianity,” he says.
Gu Chuanyong, deputy chief of Jiangsu Provincial Administration for Religious Affairs, believes that the phenomenon is the result of well-off people seeking to satisfy their spiritual needs.
“During this time of rapid economic and social development, more Chinese are seeking spiritual consolation and tranquillity, particularly when they find it hard to get satisfying answers to real problems,” Gu says.
Kan says there have been great shifts in the country’s Christian demographic over the past decade.
“In the past, most of our worshippers were elderly people, women or people in poor health. These days, we are seeing more young people, as well as academics and professionals,” he says.
Sigurd Kaise, a visiting German professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, says many of the Christians he sees here are relatively new to the religion.
“I have been very amazed to find so many Christian believers going to church and worshipping here,” Kaise said.
“People are realising that they need a relationship with God.”
To accommodate the growing number of Christians, as many as 11 churches are under construction in Nanjing, including the grand Hall of Holy Admonition. After being completed next year, the church will be able to house as many as
5 000 worshippers at one time.
Located in downtown Nanjing, the church covers an area of 1,3 hectares, which was given to the church for free by the municipal government. Funding for the construction of the church, which is predicted to run up to US$13 million, has largely been raised by the church with some help from the local government.
Although the number of churches in China is increasing, many of these churches do not have their own priests. In Jiangsu, there are 6 000 clergymen serving the churches, but only 250 of them are qualified priests.
Nanjing is home to the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, which has been educating church leaders since 1952. The seminary has produced about 2 000 undergraduate and post-graduate theology graduates, who often end up taking positions at churches around the country.
In the absence of professional priests, elderly churchgoers sometimes take the responsibility of preaching.
However, China’s Christians certainly don’t have to worry about a shortage of Holy Bibles. China is one of the world’s biggest publishers of the book, with approximately one-fourth of the world’s Bibles printed in Nanjing.
The Amity Printing Co. Ltd., the only authorised Bible-printing company in China, has turned out more than 90 million copies since it started its presses in 1987. Qiu Zhonghui, the company’s chairman, said the company’s main priority is to simply meet the needs of Chinese Christians. Profits from the company are donated to charities for people in need.
Amity Printing is a joint venture established by China’s Amity Foundation and the United Bible Societies, a worldwide association of Bible societies. The company publishes more than 50 editions of the Bible, including versions in Chinese, English, French and Spanish.
According to the company, about 32 percent of its books are exported to more than 60 countries and regions. The company benefits from favourable government policies, including tax exemptions, as well as subsidies from international organisations.
“Our prices are much lower than those of other books that are of the same quality,” says Qiu.
“In this way, Christians living in impoverished areas can still afford to have their own Bibles.”
The company currently has a goal of printing 20 million Bibles a year, more than double the amount it currently prints. The country’s expanding Christian population may very well help them achieve this goal. However, some pastors and other religious authorities are bracing for the challenges that will come with an increasing number of Chinese Christians.
“I feel the biggest challenge will be secularisation,” says pastor Kan.
He has seen many beautiful, spacious churches in European countries turned into tourist spots, with fewer worshippers attending services. He is afraid that the same phenomenon could strike Chinese churches.
“I feel that the most pressing issue for Chinese churches is to figure out how they can be helpful to society, and how they can become integrated with traditional Chinese culture,” says Kan. – Xinhua.