Gospel Church[a] is a Protestant church in the county-level city of Jiangyou, under the administration of the city of Mianyang, Sichuan Province. Founded in 1894, it was formerly an Anglican church in the West Szechwan Diocese of the Church in China.[2] It has been subjected to the control of the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Church since 1954.
| Gospel Church, Jiangyou | |
|---|---|
福音堂 | |
 Gospel Church after being rebuilt | |
| Location | Jiangyou, Mianyang, Sichuan |
| Country | China |
| Denomination | Three-Self Church (Protestant) |
| Previous denomination | Anglican |
| Churchmanship | Low church evangelical |
| History | |
| Status | Church |
| Founded | 1894 |
| Founder(s) | Church Missionary Society |
| Past bishop(s) | William Cassels |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1890s (old church building) 2008 (new church building) |
| Administration | |
| Province | China (formerly) |
| Diocese | Szechwan (formerly) West Szechwan (formerly; since 1936) |
| Clergy | |
| Pastor(s) | Xianke Li[1] |
History
edit
In 1894, a group of Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries led by the Rev. James Heywood Horsburgh introduced Anglicanism into a small town known as Zhongba (formerly romanised as Chungpa) under the administration of Jiangyou.[3] They established churches and mission stations across western Sichuan,[2] Chungpa Church was the first church building in the province founded by the CMS.[4]
After the communist takeover of China in 1949, Christian Churches in China were forced to sever their ties with respective overseas Churches, which has thus led to the merging of Gospel Church into the communist-established Three-Self Patriotic Church.[5]
During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the church was damaged beyond repair. A new Gospel Church was built at the junction of Fujiang Road and Qingxin Alley, completed in an entirely neo-Gothic style.[2]
See also
edit- Anglicanism in Mianyang
- Anglicanism in Sichuan
- Gospel Church, Mianyang
- Category:Former Anglican churches in Sichuan
- St John's Church, Chengdu – former cathedral of West Szechwan
Notes
edit- ^ Chinese: 福音堂; pinyin: Fúyīn táng; Wade–Giles: Fu2-yin1 tʽang2; Sichuanese romanization: Fu5 In1 Tʽang2.
References
edit- ^ Li, Zhen (31 March 2017). "四川江油福音堂同工走访成都新津县、崇州市教会" [Visitation of the Members of Jiangyou Gospel Church to Churches at Xinjin County and Chongzhou City]. gospeltimes.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ a b c Xie, Congdao (7 May 2013). "汶川地震五周年 江油教会仍未安定" [Five Years after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, the Church in Jiangyou is Still Under Construction]. gospeltimes.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ Couling, Samuel (2007) [1917]. "Church Missionary Society: Diocese of West China". The Encyclopaedia Sinica. Kent: Global Oriental. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-901903-93-5. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ China Continuation Committee, ed. (1915). 中華基督教會年鑑 [The China Church Year Book] (PDF) (in Traditional Chinese). Shanghai: The Commercial Press. p. 114.
- ^ Ferris, Helen (1956). The Christian Church in Communist China, to 1952. Montgomery, AL: Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center. p. 8. OCLC 5542137.