The new website on the Church in China

I read with interest this story about the new website about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China. I have some connection to the church in China (a tiny one) only because I visited one of the expat branches in Shanghai a couple of years ago, and I used to attend church in Taipei when we lived there. And my daughter presently serves a Mandarin speaking mission in the US.

The story includes a brief video from Elder Oaks and a link to the website itself. The website is available in English as well as simplified and traditional Chinese characters. (Simplified characters are more common in the PRC; traditional in Taiwan.)

There are Q&A sections for folks who join the church outside of China and want to return to the PRC, and for priesthood leaders who have people in that circumstance. What a terrific resource!

I’m fascinated with the church’s presence in China and with our meticulous adherence to local regulations (expat congregations are separate from local congregations and no proselyting in the PRC, for instance). Those regulations, by the way, apply to all denominations, not just ours. I have expat acquaintances – both from the US and from Taiwan -- from other faiths who are subject to the same restrictions.

I’m thrilled that the website addresses the wild speculation of proselyting missionaries’ being sent to the PRC (not happening). And that there are clear Q&As for members who join the church outside of China but need information about how to find a congregation in China (the website provides contact information).

There are some fascinating opportunities and challenges already for the church in China. For instance, the Chinese culture’s keen interest in family history has made family history research for members a remarkable experience. When we did youth baptisms in the Taipei temple, it was not unusual to do work for people who were born “BC” – something I’ve never seen in western records. At the time we were in Taipei, we were told that Taipei and Hong Kong were the only temples handling the Chinese character names. (I imagine as Chinese converts increase in other major cities around the world that also have temples, perhaps some of those names could go to those temples, too, but I have no knowledge of that.)

What a terrific step forward the website is. Hopefully it will help PRC citizens who find the church overseas stay connected when they return home.

The Church in Shanghai

I had the opportunity to spend eight of the last ten weeks in China on business (two trips, four weeks each). While there I attended the Shanghai Pudong Branch in the Shanghai China International District. And my last Sunday I was able to attend a district conference of the Shanghai China International District, as well.

The Chinese government allows for religious freedom, but places some restrictions on the church there. Like other denominations, expatriate branches of the church are open only to holders of foreign (non-Peoples Republic of China) passports, or the spouses of holders of such passports. Church members are not to disseminate church literature to Chinese nationals, nor are they to proselyte in any way. In the branch I attended, an announcement in the bulletin and also from the stand at the beginning of sacrament meeting made this policy clear.

Non-LDS friends in China also indicated that their experience is the same at their churches. (They attend different denominations in different languages: English, German, Spanish and Mandarin (Taiwanese).)

I'm impressed (but not surprised) that the church is so cautious. Until sometime last year, the church was recognized by the national government, but not by the local Shanghai government, so they could not rent a public space for meetings. With the official recognition in Shanghai, the church can now rent a beautiful conference center for Sunday services of the two Shanghai branches. There were two other branches represented at the district conference: Nanjing and Suzhou. I didn't count noses, but I'd estimate we had over 500 people there for the Sunday session of conference.

One of the things I noticed early on in my visits to the Pudong Branch was the absence of full time missionaries. When we lived in Taiwan, we met in a stake center next to the temple, and shared our building with five wards, and there were full time missionaries in the building throughout the day on Sunday. Not having missionaries in regular church meetings was strange to me. (The last time I attended a ward without missionaries was in Provo while I was at BYU.)

Of course, lessons and topics are common, though the population of these branches is more diverse than my suburban ward in Southeast Michigan. In the branch I attended, over the course of my visit I heard speakers from the US, Japan, Korea, Australia, the Philippines and Italy. Many (including Americans) have been in China for years. A young man of Korean birth spoke in district conference. He said his family had been in China for ten years which meant he's probably attended all his schooling in China. And others were from close to home. I sat next to someone from my home stake in Michigan during conference.

It's a rich blessing for the saints to be able to meet wherever they find themselves. I know I was glad to have the Pudong Branch to call my own for the weeks I was in Shanghai.

UPDATE:  Because this particular post generates a lot of traffic, I'm adding a link to my more recent post on the Church's website on the Church in China.  You can read the post here.