Personal Reflections on Chinese Church

8/2/2019 Personal Reflections on Chinese Church

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Being a Chinese Christian in the UK: a personal reflection

Yu Wai Chen

In this article, I shall describe what it is like to be a Chinese Christian(1) in the UK. ByChinese, I refer to those who have significant attachment to the Chinese culture andcommunity, and not to their nationality or ethnicity. Just like all other Christians, a ChineseChristians religious experience is largely centred on their own local Chinese church, if thereis one. It is important to understand the nature of Chinese churches in order to grasp themeaning of being a Chinese Christian in the UK. To many, the church is their family.

In May 2007, the Cambridge Chinese Christian Church (CCCC) (2) celebrated its tenthanniversary. The CCCC has 200 registered members and is considered to be a medium-sizedChinese church in the UK. It is enlightening to briefly review the history and development ofthis church. While it is impossible to make generalisations, the CCCC is a goodrepresentative example of how a Chinese church came into existence and how it operates.

Brief history of a Chinese Church

Many Chinese churches in the UK started out as Christian student groups in higher educationinstitutes, usually universities. Established in the 70s, the Cambridge Chinese ChristianFellowship (CCCF) has a much longer history than the CCCC. Its members were ChineseChristian students of Cambridge University, mainly from Hong Kong, Singapore andMalaysia. More than twenty years ago, these students felt the urge to reach out to localChinese people who were somewhat out of touch with English parish churches because oftheir deficiency in English and the cultural barrier. Despite settling here, some of the earlyChinese immigrants were inclined to preserve their original way of life as much as possibleand reluctant to accept Westerners. In 1994, the CCCF gathered a small group of localChinese Christians and began to hold a weekly Sunday service under the roof of the EdenChapel in Cambridge (3), with a mission to preach the Christian gospel to the local Chinesecommunity. In 1997, the CCCC was established serving mainly students and local Chinese

who speak Cantonese, the dialect spoken mainly by people from Hong Kong and Canton,China. Within two years a Mandarin-speaking congregation was beginning to grow and soonit proved necessary to provide a separate service to cater for this group. In 2000, the CCCCmoved to St Columbas Church (4) in Cambridge city centre. As the congregation continuedto grow, there was a need to provide an English service for the second generation and youngprofessionals who were more comfortable with English. At present, the CCCC is a tri-lingualChurch with three congregations living in parallel. In addition to Sunday service, there aremore than twenty other meetings in the form of Bible study groups or fellowships to promotesocial and religious interaction among people of similar background.

The development of many of todays Chinese churches in the UK follows a similar patternand so they tend to build up in cities where there are universities and where Chinese studentpopulations are high. For example, there is no Chinese church in Peterborough probablybecause of its lack of a university. In the whole of the UK there are about 70 Chinese


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churches (5). Among these many are independent and without affiliation. A number ofchurches are associated with the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission (COCM) (6).Denominations like the Baptist, Methodist, Alliance (Christian and Missionary Alliance),Lutheran, etc, also planted churches in major cities. In London alone, there are more thantwenty Chinese Christian congregations.

Theology, tradition and cultureThe CCCC is an interdenominational church. However, throughout its history, the CCCC hasstrongly favoured the Baptist tradition. The church accepts the Christian faith as set forth inthe Bible and as summarised in the Apostles Creed (7). The doctrinal basis of the church isthe fundamental truths of Christianity including: the sovereignty of the Trinity, of God, JesusChrist and the Holy Spirit; that humankind is sinful in nature and that the only means ofrestoring a relationship with God is to confess their sins, repent and accept Jesus Christ, whowas crucified and has risen from the dead, as saviour. The Holy Spirit resides in thebelievers, enlightens and provides guidance. The mission of the church is the GreatCommission as set out by Jesus: to spread the gospel to all nations, to baptise believers and

to build up Christians (Matthew 28:19, 20, The Bible).

The CCCC Sunday service follows a rather liberal format which is largely in common withthe practice of many Christian churches. It consists of these conventional elements ofworship: hymns, prayer, reading the Apostles Creed, choir anthem, offering, Bible readingand sermon. Once every month, the Sunday service incorporates the Holy Communion.

As discussed above, the theology, ritual and traditions in an average Chinese Christianchurch closely resemble those of any Protestant church, only everything is translated intoChinese. The church also has a social aspect that is more reflective of the Chinese culture:e.g. special celebration events during important festivals like mid-Autumn festival and

Chinese New Year.

Congregation and language

From whatever background a Chinese church is established, its primary concerns for thecommunities it serves are two fold: to support and provide pastoral care for its congregationand to preach Christianity to its local Chinese community. Where a Chinese church has aclose link with student groups, a major ministry is to support these students during theirstudies. This is characteristic of many Chinese churches in the UK, as overseas studentsusually have a big emotional need for care and support.

For the past six to seven years, the UK has seen a substantial increase in the number ofstudents from China, mainly from the Peoples Republic of China, whereas ten years agomost Chinese churches in the UK were dominated by Cantonese-speaking congregations.Many Chinese churches have acknowledged this dramatic change in the UK Chinesepopulation and responded by introducing Mandarin-speaking church activities. Asindividuals, many Chinese Christians also share in these ministries of the Chinese churches.Supporting newcomers to the local Chinese communities, for work, for study or forsettlement, has become an integral part of a Chinese Christians daily life. In the CCCC, thetwo Chinese congregations have different programmes but they worship and meet under oneroof. They interact with each other via joint meetings and services, as well as social

functions such as feasts and outings.


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development of Christian communities has undergone many changes at varying speeds indifferent parts of the nation. It would be a gross misconception to try to extrapolate what ispresented here to any part of China.

Post Script

Christianity is a global faith. Chinese Christians are Christians with a Chinese culturalbackground. We share the entirety of our faith in common with that of the globalcommunity of followers of Jesus Christ, i.e. we are all parts of the single body of Christ theuniversal Church. As the Bible says: there are many parts, but one body (I Corinthians12:20); one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all andthrough all and in all. (Ephesians 4:5, 6) We read the Chinese translation of the same Bible.Our ethnicity and culture confer upon us unique opportunities and responsibilities towardscaring for the Chinese in UK, especially those who are restricted by their language ability.Chinese Christian churches are by no means exclusive; anybody who is attracted to our Lord

Jesus will be warmly welcomed in our communities.

Notes

(1) In this article, the term Christians is used interchangeably with Protestants and does notinclude Catholics.

(2) The web site of the CCCC is http://www.cccc.org.uk(3) http://www.eden-cambridge.org(4) http://www.stcolumbaschurch.org(5) For a directory of UK Chinese churches, see

http://www.cocm.org.uk/chinesechurch/chinesechurch_UK.html

(6) http://www.cocm.org.uk(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles'_Creed(8) For an overview see http://www.answers.com/topic/religion-in-hong-kong

Yu Wai Chen came to the UK in 1987 for undergraduate and Ph.D studies and is presently aLecturer in Biochemistry at the Kings College London. He went to a primary schoolassociated with the Chinese Methodist Church, North Point, Hong Kong, of which he hasbeen a member for more than 25 years. In 1990/91, he was a Council Member of theLondon Chinese Alliance Church. Since 1998 he has been a member of the CambridgeChinese Christian Church (CCCC) and he was a member of the Church Council in 1998-1999.

A note about copyright

Requests for use or re-publication of this article should be made (via Shap if necessary) to thewriter, who retains copyright. If re-published in part or full elsewhere, the articlespublication in World Religions in Education 2007should be acknowledged.

The transliteration of specialist terms and the opinions expressed in this article are those ofthe writer, not of the Shap Working Party.

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Personal Reflections on Chinese Church