By the second week in Suzhou I had met a Chinese friend who invited me to go to church at a Christian church. Let me say first of all that I was totally surprised by finding an outgoing Christian who would invite me to church. This was like a hand of God reaching down and saying "I am God, alive and well in this place that you had thought I was not." I jumped at this opportunity. Being raised in a Christian family going to church, or being invited to go to church, had a feeling of belonging that is hard to describe. In my mind being a Christian and sharing with other Christians has a commonality that is truly heartwarming, especially in Communist China. So, I jumped at the chance to go to this service.
I had no idea where this church was located so I followed the directions of my Chinese friend and took the appropriate bus at the correct time and we met up that second Sunday morning. The bus went for quite a long distance eventually coming to a university district with dormitories on each side. We got to a particular intersection and disembarked. At that point we walked for two very long blocks past an indoor sports complex, ending up near a beautiful lake which had a park along its shores.
The church was a huge edifice with a gigantic metal statue of Jesus in the church's courtyard. A part of the church's grounds had Sunday School where the children were while the parents were in church. This church was very new. It was at most five years old and obviously created to satisfy the needs of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) and its ex-patriot foreign workers. Peculiar as it might seem this church was paid for and built by the government of China.
The interior of these church was beautiful, although a bit clinical, in some respects. Made of concrete, it was similar to the chancels of cathedrals in Europe with the shape being in the sign of a cross. There was a central area, and to both sides were more pews. There were TV monitors in multiple places within the church so that all who attended could easily see and hear what the pastor or song leaders were saying.. There were two flat screens on each side of the church at intervals, a large monitor in the front on each side. Projected on these screens were lyrics of the songs being sung, the passages from the Bible being read as well as the liturgy which was to be read as the service progressed.
Each Sunday there were two church services. One service was the for foreigners which is what I attended with my friend that first Sunday visit, and also a service for the local Chinese Christians. The service for foreigners was restricted to only those who had a foreign passport. The Chinese were kept out. This gave us the impression that if the service by the westerners contained information opposing the Chinese government, the local Chinese would not be privy to these types of tainted words. This particular Sunday, however, my Chinese friend managed to participate somehow.
I remember when the service was beginning the pastor asked where the visitors were from. There were quite a few people who stood and told their country of origin. I stood up and said, "I'm from the island of Guam" which caused a murmur from the congregation....."where's that?" Actually I don't really know what they murmured, but they did say something to each other when I was announced. I found that to be a bit funny. But, I wasn't surprised in that many people in the world have no idea where Guam is located.
The service was nondenominational and very center field, nothing too fundamentalist, nothing too straight, either. I'm sure that the pastors that had been chosen for this job were selected to please as many parishioners as possible. Again you must remember that this was all provided by the government of China. The congregation was an interesting mixture of peoples; very cosmopolitan.
After the church service my friend and I took a walk along the edge of the lake. Whoever had chosen the spot for the church had chosen well. The edge of the lake was a huge park where many people seemed to gather on the weekend. I was to find that the Chinese really enjoyed parks as places of solitude; places to "get away".
When I returned to work the next day I discovered that my music colleague had missed the service on Sunday but was a regular with the performing group who assisted the pastor for music. She had been in China for seven years and was a part of the life blood of this congregation.
Beyond the church service and the building this experience had proved something to me. The family of the Christian Church (although not spoken of much within or outside of China) was alive and well in this most populous country of the world.
I had no idea where this church was located so I followed the directions of my Chinese friend and took the appropriate bus at the correct time and we met up that second Sunday morning. The bus went for quite a long distance eventually coming to a university district with dormitories on each side. We got to a particular intersection and disembarked. At that point we walked for two very long blocks past an indoor sports complex, ending up near a beautiful lake which had a park along its shores.
The church was a huge edifice with a gigantic metal statue of Jesus in the church's courtyard. A part of the church's grounds had Sunday School where the children were while the parents were in church. This church was very new. It was at most five years old and obviously created to satisfy the needs of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) and its ex-patriot foreign workers. Peculiar as it might seem this church was paid for and built by the government of China.
The interior of these church was beautiful, although a bit clinical, in some respects. Made of concrete, it was similar to the chancels of cathedrals in Europe with the shape being in the sign of a cross. There was a central area, and to both sides were more pews. There were TV monitors in multiple places within the church so that all who attended could easily see and hear what the pastor or song leaders were saying.. There were two flat screens on each side of the church at intervals, a large monitor in the front on each side. Projected on these screens were lyrics of the songs being sung, the passages from the Bible being read as well as the liturgy which was to be read as the service progressed.
Each Sunday there were two church services. One service was the for foreigners which is what I attended with my friend that first Sunday visit, and also a service for the local Chinese Christians. The service for foreigners was restricted to only those who had a foreign passport. The Chinese were kept out. This gave us the impression that if the service by the westerners contained information opposing the Chinese government, the local Chinese would not be privy to these types of tainted words. This particular Sunday, however, my Chinese friend managed to participate somehow.
I remember when the service was beginning the pastor asked where the visitors were from. There were quite a few people who stood and told their country of origin. I stood up and said, "I'm from the island of Guam" which caused a murmur from the congregation....."where's that?" Actually I don't really know what they murmured, but they did say something to each other when I was announced. I found that to be a bit funny. But, I wasn't surprised in that many people in the world have no idea where Guam is located.
The service was nondenominational and very center field, nothing too fundamentalist, nothing too straight, either. I'm sure that the pastors that had been chosen for this job were selected to please as many parishioners as possible. Again you must remember that this was all provided by the government of China. The congregation was an interesting mixture of peoples; very cosmopolitan.
After the church service my friend and I took a walk along the edge of the lake. Whoever had chosen the spot for the church had chosen well. The edge of the lake was a huge park where many people seemed to gather on the weekend. I was to find that the Chinese really enjoyed parks as places of solitude; places to "get away".
When I returned to work the next day I discovered that my music colleague had missed the service on Sunday but was a regular with the performing group who assisted the pastor for music. She had been in China for seven years and was a part of the life blood of this congregation.
Beyond the church service and the building this experience had proved something to me. The family of the Christian Church (although not spoken of much within or outside of China) was alive and well in this most populous country of the world.
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