Empowering Women in the Chinese Church
by Rev. Ms. Gao Ying
The following are excerpts from two presentations given by the Rev. Ms. Gao Ying at the Church Women United 60th Anniversary Assembly, July 26-30, 2001 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ms. Gao, former chaplain of the Nanjing Theological Seminary, has just returned to Beijing where she will serve as senior pastor of Chongwenmen Church. Her participation at the CWU Assembly was made possible by the International Committee of the World Day of Prayer.The Church in China: Largely Peasants & Women
The Church in China, full of spiritual vitality and growing extremely fast, is predominantly rural, as more than 12 million of the 15 million Protestant believers live in the countryside. It is also a church consisting largely of women, who comprise 70 to 80 percent of the total church membership. One cannot understand the present church in China without an understanding of its rural Christians. Set in the context of an overwhelmingly non-Christian environment with its own belief systems, Christianity in China is not without manifold problems, and at the same time with its unique challenges. Many people come to the Christian faith with little understanding of what Christianity is all about. This seems true among many women, especially in the countryside where they bring with them ideas of folk or popular religions. Their everyday life is one of rituals and practices deeply rooted in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and folk customs in a sycretic fashion. The new Christians of rural China often have difficulty with Christian doctrine with only a superficial knowledge of Biblical truth. Lacking formal education and basic skills of articulating what they believe, Christian women in rural China are nevertheless sincre, active in church life, and uncomplicated in their faith. They have no interest in "theology" as such, let alone "feminist theology." Yet they possess much wisdom from generations of survival under harsh conditions. We theologically-trained people need to listen and learn from them, elevate and give voice to their hopes and aspirations, otherwise, we will be no more than a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.
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| Pastor meeting with young people after church service in Haikou, Hainan Island, 1990 | ||
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