Fuzhou Church Thrives inside its Doors

UNCLAS GUANGZHOU 000449 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL USDA FOR FAS/ITP AND FAS/FAA USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN USPACOM FOR FPA SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIRF PGOV SOCI PHUM CH SUBJECT: Fuzhou Church Thrives inside its Doors (U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Senior members of the Christian Association in Fuzhou are positive about local church development and expansion of community outreach despite limits on promoting religious activities outside of the church. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) On March 28, the Consul General and Consulate staff visited Fuzhou's Zhongzhou Protestant Church and met with representatives from the City's Christian Association. The Zhongzhou Christian Church sits on Zhongzhou Island in Fuzhou. The Church, originally constructed in 1947 but torn down and the site turned into a park, was rebuilt by a wealthy Christian businessman in 2003. The church is a growing religious center that serves 1,600 worshippers each week. It fills all three floors of its sanctuary on Sunday and offers other meetings during the week. ¶3. (U) Zhongzhou church does not have a minister, though not all registered churches have full-time ministers. Volunteers support the Zhongzhou Christian Church's operations, which include daily morning services, bible study in the evening, a Sunday school for attendees to learn about Christianity and small group meetings. The church has built eight senior citizen centers that accommodate over 1,000 elderly people in Fuzhou City. It is also looking into building another new and bigger center that can serve about 800 people. Church officials said the community encourages small group bible and prayer group meetings at a dozen other sites, probably in homes, though we were not told specifically where. The church finances its activities through collections during services and from member donations. ¶4. (U) Zhongzhou Christian Church also arranges specific activities for young people. Chen Zengping, one young member of the congregation present during the tour, remarked how she came from a religious family, but had not been religious herself for much of her life; however, one of the church-sponsored activities had attracted her to the congregation and ultimately converted her to Christianity. In Chen Zengping's case, before she was accepted for baptism, she needed to engage the local Christianity Association officials to prove that she had a correct understanding of Christianity and could "bear witness to an authentic need to follow the Lord." According to the church's director, most of the believers who are involved in the Zhongzhou church are teachers and business people, though during the visit, most of the volunteers we met with were elderly or retired. ¶5. (U) While the church appears to be an island of religious freedom - free to worship and hold various religious activities - it does face local government constraints. All religious activities must be held on property owned by the church, thereby limiting the church's influence and outreach. Purchasing property and registering it with the Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) is a lengthy and costly process. In addition, the RAB meets with the church staff regularly to instruct on religious policy and support the RAB expects from the church, as well as to warn the church of any impropriety. Church leaders said that they have close relations with many of the Protestant churches in Fuzhou but do have cooperative activities. Overall, they were very positive throughout the visit, perhaps, in part, due to the presence of a local foreign affairs official. They concluded the visit by proudly showing off a new electronic marquee on a busy thoroughfare which featured several religious messages that would not be approved by the RAB in Guangzhou. GOLDBERG