Bishop Baker Finds Openness in China
Episcopal News Service. April 10, 1980 [80129]
John Martin
HONG KONG -- China's new found openness to Christianity seems likely to continue, according to Anglican Bishop J. Gilbert H. Baker of Hong Kong who has just completed an informal 15-day, five-city visit to the Peoples Republic.
Christian leaders have been given assurances that the present policy of freedom will be maintained, he said. They have been told to "get on with what they are doing. "
"Chinese political theorists still believe that ultimately religion will simply wither away," the bishop, who has been in London for the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, told John Martin, Associate Secretary for Communication of the Anglican Consultative Council. "But many are critical of those who tried to accelerate this process during the cultural revolution. They say that things must run their course, even if it takes 1,000 years."
It was something of a homecoming for the bishop whose ecclesiastical responsibilities nominally include China. He worked there, first in Canton and then in Shanghai, from 1934 to 1951. Bishop Baker's Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao is temporarily separated from the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Holy Catholic Church in China) and is associated with the Council of the Church of East Asia.
The Bishop's strongest impression is of a "new unity" among Christians who have suffered together for over three decades. A major aspect of this is the appearance of team ministries, comprising former members of several Christian denominations, in recently opened churches.
Among a team of former Church of Christ in China and Baptist pastors in Canton he met Lee Tim Ooi, the first woman to be ordained priest in the Anglican Communion.
Now 73 years old, thin and wiry, still with black hair, she expects to be involved with the second church in Canton reopening shortly.
Worship, he said, remains simple. At Canton, the congregation, which reached 3,000 at Christmas, used a locally printed hymn book. The sacramental aspect of worship has not made rapid strides. A national meeting later in the year may take up this question.
Christians he met did not want to talk too much about the cultural revolution, in his view a healthy sign. But they did reinforce the bishop's long-held view that the Church in China must be allowed time to "work out its own level. "
"At this stage," he said, "it is not possible, or desirable, for the West to even contemplate sending missionaries. The need for fellowship with other Christians was seen as very important. But the Church there would be very hesitant about outside money and support. There is such a legacy of suspicion."
At all levels, however, modern China is recognizing the need to be less self-centered. The cultural revolution, it is recognized, left China 10 years behind technologically. Of necessity, then, it will be more open to the West over the next decade.
There are signs of openness in other areas as well. Christian leaders told the bishop of how students from the universities have been seeking out Christian pastors with genuine inquiries about the nature of Christianity.
"There is a great spiritual hunger, illustrated by the warm interest people everywhere showed about Christianity," he said.
Asked if he thought there was something that the Christians of the West could learn about how best to approach the new China from the history of previous contacts between Christian missionaries and the Chinese, he said: "Too often in the past, Christianity had been identified with imperialism, be it through its close associations with Chinese emperors or coming in on the wave of trading and the unfair treaties which the opium wars created.
"On the other hand, Christians in China have a wonderful record for self-effacing, giving and caring which has left its own mark on China, even to this day."