Documents of the Three-Self Movement

236 Pages·1963·13.341 MB·English

by  Y.T. Wu / Three-Self Patriotic Movement

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Documents :
of the
Three-Self Movement
Source Materials
for the study
of the
Protestant Church
in
Communist China
Compiled and published by the
FAR EASTERN OFFICE, DIVISION OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN THE U.S.A.
475 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y., 10027
Wallace C. Merwin Francis P. Jones
Executive Secretary 1963 Consultant & Editor
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Introduction
When Mao Tse-Tung came to power in 1949, he announced that the new regime
would ‘‘lean to one side,’’ that is, it would align itself completely with the Communist
bloc, and cut off all cultural contacts with capitalist nations. Of these contacts the
outstanding example in China was of course the whole missionary enterprise. What
came to be called the ‘‘love America, praise America, fear America’’ psychology
was strong among the clergy and laity of the. Protestant churches.
A number of Chinese Christian leaders who were attracted by the socialist
program of the Communist Party set themselves to correct this psychology. In active
cooperation with Communist officials they worked out a program of 1. Liquidating
the whole missionary enterprise; 2. Cutting off the dependence of Chinese churches
upon foreign funds; and 3. Setting up a new overall organization which should work to
equate support of the new regime with patriotism.
By early 1951 the missionaries had either left the country or been rendered
ineffective, and the Edict of Dec. 29, 1950, cut off all foreign support of church
enterprises. The third step required a longer time for its implementation, but it
succeeded in placing the China Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement ina posi-
tion of complete authority over all the Protestant churches of China.
This new organization bypassed the older National Christian Council of China.
The NCC had the imperialist taint of having been an outgrowth of the same inter-
national movement that produced the International Missionary Council. Then too the
NCC had become identified with the liberal wing of Protestantism, with the result
that many of the more conservative churches had refused to join it. A new organization,
it was hoped, would not have these handicaps as it attempted to unify the churches
of China.
In the history of the Three-Self Movement six accomplishments stand out, and
they are all reflected in the documents given herewith. The first was the production
of the Manifesto in May, 1950. Forty outstanding Christian leaders were the charter
signers of this blast against missionary imperialism. Many of the more moderate
leaders were aghast at the severity of the language in the Manifesto, and at first
refused to sign. But the campaign for signatures continued with increasing intensity
for several years, and the total claimed finally reached 400,000, though a later
Lutheran analysis showed that in some areas more Lutheran signatures were reported
than there were Lutherans there, indicating that the statistics are no more reliable
than mass church statistics anywhere.
The second event of importance wasia meeting of Christian leaders in Peking
with Chou En-lai in April, 4951. In this the Three-Self Movement was made more
lil
definite by the appointment of 25 men to serve as a Preparatory Council to direct
the work until a national conference of Protestants should set up a proper governing
body.
This National Conference was held in July, 1954 in Peking, with 232 delegates
present from all over China. It heard a report from Y.T. Wu on the work of the Three-
Self Movement to date, and set up a national Three-Self Committee, with a smaller
standing committee, which was thus considered to have a mandate from the Christian
churches of China to regulate their affairs until their successors should be appointed
at the next National Conference (1961).
The fourth outstanding event was the March 1956 enlarged meeting of the
Three-Self Committee in Peking. No structural changes in the organization were
made at this time, as this was not considered a National Conference, but merely an
enlarged meeting of the Committee. But in the nearly two years since the 1954 Con-
ference the opposition to the Three-Self Movement had been effectively silenced,
primarily through the suppression of the belligerently fundamentalist Peking preacher
Wang Ming-tao and the dissenting leaders of the widespread indigenous church, the
Little Flock, especially those centered in the Nanyang Road Meeting House in
Shanghai. This 1956 meeting was therefore able to go ahead with greater confidence
with its program for unifying Chinese Protentantism.
The results became apparent in the fifth great development, the unification of
worship in all denominations which took place in 1958. The action of the local Three-
Self Committee of Taiyuan, which is recorded here, is typical of what happened in all
the larger cities where more than one denomination was at work.
This was the period of the organization of communes, and of the Great Leap
Forward in industry, when the army-like regimentation of all labor left almost no time
for outside activities, such as church work. Concrete news of church activities accord-
ingly shows a sudden drop at this time, and it looked as if the church might be
throttled out of existence by the sheer multiplication of other tasks laid upon the
people. But the sixth major event, the second National Conference, held in January
1961, and this time in Shanghai, showed that no such pessimistic outcome was
feared by church leaders.
The interim reports made to these various meetings in 1951, 1954 and 1956 by
Y. T. Wu, and in 1961 by Wu Yi-fang, constitute an official history of the Three-Self
Movement, and a running commentary on the problems with which it was faced.
The primary source for much of this material is the Tien Feng magazine pub-
lished in Shanghai. This Christian magazine continued as a weekly until 1956, when
it became a bi-weekly. Halfway through 1960 it suspended publication for six months,
and when it resumed pyblication in January 1961 it was put out only once a month.
These changes were undoubtedly due to financial troubles. It is referred to here as
TE. \
Other Christian magazines quoted are the Hsieh Chin, organ of the National
Christian Council, and the Nanking Seminary Review. Both of these have long since
ceased publication, but Tien Feng still continues. The Missionary Research Library
in New York has files, unfortunately not complete, of these magazines.
Of material in English we must mention first the China Bulletin (CB), put out
by the Far Eastern Office of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Coun-
cil of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. The printed Bulletins from 1952 to June,,
1962 constitute Volumes II to XII. Volume I is a series of mimeographed bulletins
published before February 1952.
Mr. Jones has written a history and analysis covering this whole period from
1949 to 1962 (The Church in Communist China; Friendship Press, 1962; cloth $3.50,
paper 1.95). The reader of these documents is referred to this book for an interpreta-
tion of the situation out of which they arose. It will be referred to as CCC (Not to
be confused with CCC, the Church of Christ in China). Other interpretations, more
and less sympathetic with the Three-Self Movement respectively, are those of
Katharine Hockin: Servants of God in People’s China; Friendship Press, 1962; and
of Leslie T. Lyall: Come Wind, Come Weather; Moody Press, 1960.
Several documents have been quoted from The Christian Church in Communist
China to 1952, compiled by Dr. Helen Ferris.
The Missionary Research Library in New York publishes a series of ‘‘Occa-
sional Bulletins’’ (OB), and our Wang Ming-tao articles have been taken from Dr. Frank
W. Price’s translations in those Bulletins.
Special acknowledgement should be made of the very helpful suggestions made
by Dr. Frank W. Price and the Rev. Frank Short.
Wallace C. Merwin and Francis P. Jones
Bugraphical Index
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Ai Nien-san XPS
Lutheran pastor in Shanghai.
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Chang Hsiang-lan (Helen Djang) Oe sap |9)
Before Liberation, Dean and Professor of Education at Ginling College, Nanking;
after Ginling College was merged with the University of Nanking, she was a
Professor in the combined institution, where she has probably continued since
its nationalization.
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Chang Kuang-hsu (Michael Chang) ae ig ATE
Sheng Kung Hui bishop of the Diocese of Fukien.
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Chao Fu-san a4 Boh
Sheng Kung Hui minister in Peking, early in this period Secretary of the United
Christian Churches of Peking, then assistant to Bishop Timothy Ling, and
afterwards Dean of Yenching United Theological Seminary. One of the younger
leaders of the Three-Self Movement.
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Chao Tzu-ch’en (Dr. T. C. Chao) #0 a. fe
Formerly Dean of Yenching College of Religion, and one of the six co-presidents
~ of the World Council of Churches, a position which he resigned in 1951 in protest
against the WCC action naming North Korea as instigator of the Korean War. He
was denounced in 1952, his orders were rescinded, and he was for a time under
house arrest. He has now recovered his position as a recognized Christian
leader, and a member (though apparently lay only) of the Sheng Kung Hui.
Ch’en Chien-chen (Robin Chen) BA. Lai
Presiding Bishop of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Episcopal Church). He at
first refused to sign the Manifesto, but later took active part in the Three-Self
Movement.
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Ch’en Chien-hsun BR aF <7
Lutheran pastor, Hankow.
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Ch’en Chung-kuei (Marcus Cheng) Be e
President of Chungking Theological Seminary, widely known as evangelist and
conservative leader.
Ch’en Shan-hsiang, Miss 4 4A
YWCA Secretary in Shanghai.
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Ch’en Wen-jun, Miss 1} ee aes
YWCA Secretary in Peking.
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Ch’en Wen-yuan PR KA
Methodist (Wei LiKungHui) bishop, denounced by Bishop Chiang Ch’ang-ch’uan
in 1951, and imprisoned for five years.
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Ch'en Yu-kuan (Y. G. Chen). PR WE A
President for many years before Liberation of the Christian University of
‘Nanking; removed from office shortly after Liberation.
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Cheng Chien-yeh BP fem Fi
Formerly in Kaifeng, as Secretary of the Honan Diocese of the Sheng Kung Hui,
consecrated bishop and assigned as Secretary of the SKH General Office in
Shanghai.
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Cheng Hsi-san Ap p=
Methodist pastor in Tientsin; member 1954 Three-Self Standing Committee.
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Cheng, Marcus (See Ch’en Chung-kuei). ie x AE
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Ch’eng Pu-yun ics Y &
Seventh-day Adventist leader in Shanghai.
Ch’i Ch’ing-ts’ai aX (‘2x
Leading Southern Baptist preacher, stationed in Shanghai.
Chia Yu-ming rt x (oha
President of the Spiritual Training Institute in Shanghai; formerly President
of the Bible Teachers’ Training School in Nanking; a leading conservative
preacher.
Chiang Ch’ang-ch’uan (Z. T. Kuang) 20 Fe IM
Bishop of the Methodist (Wei Li Kung Hui) Church, resident during the early
part of this period in Peking, and then in Shanghai. For many years pastor of
Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai. Died in 1958.
Chiang Wen-han (Kiang Wen-han) i 5a i A
Secretary of the National Committee of the YMCA in Shanghai.
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Chiang Yi-chen (Newton Tsiang) kas gZ Fin
Sheng Kung Hui clergyman and professor; formerly on faculty of Nanking
Theological Seminary, later on faculty of Yenching United Theological Seminary.
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Chiang Yo-han at 25 $43
Leader in True Jesus Church in Wuhan; denounced in 1958.
Chiao Wei-chen, Miss 42, af Bb
Head of a home for preachers, Shanghai.
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Ching Tien-ying
Head of the Jesus Family, an indigenous communistic community which started
in Shantung, and spread to include ‘‘families’’ in other parts of China. Mr. Ching
was denounced and imprisoned in 1952.
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