Chinese Officials Agree To Discuss Cooperation With the Anglican Church

Chinese officials have agreed to discuss the prospect of cooperation with the Church of England, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury and an October 23 International Herald Tribune report. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited China in October for meetings with officials from the government and from Party-controlled religious organizations, and said that Chinese officials have agreed to discuss the possibility of Anglican theologians teaching in Chinese Protestant seminaries and of developing a program for Chinese seminarians to study at Protestant seminaries abroad. "We've talked quite a bit about this, and in detail, and we have a group which will be taking this forward," Archbishop Williams said. An October 24 China Daily article reported that the bishop "said the Anglican church would expand efforts to help China's Protestant church train the clergy" but neither commented on nor confirmed the bishop's statement. According to an October 23 report on China.org, an official PRC portal site, the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), the Party-controlled organization in charge of the registered Protestant church in China, jointly hosted Archbishop Williams.

Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, met with Archbishop Williams and said that religion can play an "important role" in the government goal of building a "harmonious society." Jia also said that Christianity in China has "deep relations" with Christianity in Britain, according to an October 19 Xinhua report. The TSPM promotes cooperation with other Protestant churches and organizations abroad. Chinese officials refer to the TSPM as a "post-denominational" church. The TSPM does not allow Protestants to express denominational beliefs freely, and the 2004 Regulation on Religious Affairs requires that all Protestants worship at registered churches, regardless of their differences in doctrine and liturgy.

The Party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) has permitted hundreds of select Catholic seminarians to pursue graduate study in theology at Catholic seminaries and universities abroad since the 1990s. With some restrictions, the CPA also has permitted foreign theologians to teach in Chinese Catholic seminaries. In supervising these programs, Chinese officials have cooperated with Catholic groups abroad, including the U.S. Catholic China Bureau and the Ferdinand Verbiest Institute in Belgium.

For more information on Protestants in China, see the CECC 2006 Annual Report, Section V(d).