04/22/2015

ELCA presiding bishop meets with Christian leaders in China

CHICAGO (ELCA) – In her first visit to China, the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), noted the importance of cooperation in deepening the relationship with Christians in China, and the ELCA’s methodology of “accompaniment is how we can relate.”

In an April 1 meeting with the Rev. Gao Feng, president of the China Christian Council in Shanghai, Eaton said that “most American Christians and Lutherans would be surprised by the large Christian presence in China.”

According to Feng, there have been 40,000 to 50,000 baptisms each year since 2012, with a total of more than 25 million Protestant believers. “The church faces many challenges with the rapid growth we are experiencing,” he said. “The church needs to train more pastors and lay workers together with meeting social needs,” he told Eaton.

Dr. Mellisa Lin, associate general secretary of the China Christian Council and director of the council’s theological education department, told Eaton that “many young people are interested in serving as pastors, but the ability to receive all of them into our seminaries is limited. We also lack (teachers).” She said the council seeks to send student scholars to study in the United States, as well as to invite ELCA professors to teach at the council’s Nanjing Union Theological Seminary.

Eaton, along with a group of ELCA leaders, was in China, April 1-6, 2015. The ELCA delegation met with representatives of the Shanghai Christian Council and Elder Fu Xianwei, chair of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Church in China.

Xianwei thanked the ELCA for its immediate disaster response efforts after the 2008 earthquake struck Wenchuan (Sichuan), China. He noted the ELCA’s cooperation with not just the church at the national level but also at the local level among ethnic minorities and local governments.
From Shanghai, the ELCA delegation traveled to China’s Yunnan Province and met with various groups including the Yulong County Christian Council, the Yulong County Bible Training Center and the Lisu Cultural Association. The ELCA leaders attended Easter worship at Meile Anqi (Rock of Ages in the Lisu language) Church and participated in the dedication of this new church. The church is at the foot of a towering rock that faces the small village of Meile. Christians there are from the Lisu ethnic minority.

“In this place that was an empty place, you now see a church,” said Eaton, who offered an Easter message. “When he was lifted up, Jesus said he would draw all people to himself. We depend on you to preach the gospel here. And we promise to you, the Lisu people, that we will preach the gospel back in America. And together we can fill the promise of Jesus, who told his disciples to go to all the world to tell about the new life we have in Jesus.”

Accompanying Eaton was the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director for ELCA Global Mission; Philip Lok, ELCA regional representative; Peter Shen, ELCA China consultant; Dorcas Wang, ELCA global personnel serving with the Beijing International Christian Fellowship; and the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, director for Asia-Pacific ministries, ELCA Global Mission.

“This visit by Bishop Eaton represents the ongoing commitment by the ELCA to accompany the Protestant church in China, both at the national and local levels,” said Ishida. “It has been a privilege for the ELCA to accompany the community in Meile in the construction of a church there. But it’s more than a simple church building; it is to be truly a people-centered place as they gather for learning, sustaining their culture and community development.”

“A key focus for the ELCA is in supporting local grassroots leadership development. With a lack of pastors in the region around Meile, the impact of local training, in part assisted by the ELCA, will greatly enhance the life of the church there,” said Ishida.

“The joy expressed by the people and the genuineness of the fellowship is overwhelming,” said Malpica Padilla. “Certainly we have received the abundant hospitality of the Lisu people. And that abundant hospitality needs no words because the bond of friendship transcends language. We humans find a way to express deep appreciation and love without the need for words. That is what we have experienced and received (here).”

Photos from Eaton’s trip to China are available at www.ELCA.org/Living-Lutheran/Photos.