And when leaders of the National Council of Churches goes to Communist China, who do they meet with? Representatives of the official Protestant church, who else? According to NCC News:
The president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches, in a historic first, have traveled to China to affirm with Chinese Christian leaders a mutual desire to engage in an “even deeper working relationship that allows us to consult regularly with one another and to speak and act together in response to contemporary issues.”
H.E. Archbishop Vicken Aykazian and the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon met here February 26 with leaders of the China Christian Council (CCC) and the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches in China (TSPM). It was the first time an NCC president and general secretary have traveled together to China.
The NCC leaders along with the Rev. Gao, Feng, President of the CCC, and Elder Fu, Xianwei, chair of the TSPM, expressed “thanks for the distinctive gifts that God has given us in our different settings (a point which is central to the witness of the Three-Self Movement)” and rejoicing “that we are related to one another in Christ, and that through one another we can grow in knowledge and love of God. Ours is a relationship of mutual encouragement in order that the body of Christ might be built up in love (Ephesians 4).”
There’s no hint in this article that Kinnamon and his colleagues made any effort to meet with anyone from the house church movement, which comprises the bulk of the Christians in China. Nor is there any indication of any meetings with government leaders to discuss the violations of human rights of those believers which have been endemic in China for decades. Maybe that will be discussed in a forthcoming report, though I’m not holding my breath.
And what plans for mutual cooperation did the NCC leaders and government church leaders talk about? Cooperative efforts to evangelize the world’s largest non-Christian population, perhaps?
Among the contemporary issues on which the leaders plan to “speak and act together” are the pollutants that the U.S. and China emit daily into the world’s atmosphere.
“We recognize that China and the United States together produce 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions,” the leaders said. ”For this reason, political leaders in our two nations have affirmed the need to work together to reduce such pollution and, thus, to address the urgent problem of climate change.
As churches, we can encourage this process of political collaboration by joining our voices in defense of God’s creation. We can share materials on environmental protection and look for ways to provide education on ecological concerns that draws on the resources of one another.” The leaders pledged to raise the idea of deeper partnership with our governing bodies and to continue this conversation on forms of regular consultation.”
Yes, I’m sure that the government of the People’s Republic pays close attention to what the leaders of a few million Protestants say about carbon emissions. That’s a very purposeful use of the limited resources of the government churches in one of the world’s least democratic nations.
