Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Attending Church in China

Americans are blessed to have freedom of religion, or to practice their religion without repercussions.  This is not the case in China.  The PRC officially recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Taoism. This means people including the Chinese can attend these chapels and worship.
Under current PRC leadership, especially President Xi, religious freedoms are being eroded and some small, local churches are being bulldozed. The Catholic church in China doesn't recognize the Pope as the supreme authority over their church, but the PRC government.
That being said, foreigners can worship as they wish while in China. As long as they do not proselytize their beliefs to the Chinese.
Every week, the following statement is read during our Sunday services, which we call Sacrament meeting.
Expatriate members living in or visiting China should be aware of the unique limitations on religious activities in China.  While China permits freedom of religious belief, all religious activities in China need to comply with relevant laws and regulations.Some of the key limitations of which you should be aware include:  members may not engage in active or passive proselyting among China nationals;  only individuals who hold foreign passports, and their spouses, may attend meetings or others activities with expatriate members in China; expatriate members are not permitted to participate in religious activities with Chinese nationals, whether or not they are members of the Church; and religious materials may not be disseminated to Chinese nationals in China.Observing these guidelines helps support our efforts to build a foundation of trust with government authorities and enables us to continue to meet together as the government now permits us to do.

This  informative website, http://mormonsandchina.org/  is provided by the LDS church and gives guidlines for foreigners living in China and Chinese nationals who have joined the church abroad but are moving back to China.

Our small branch has about forty people. About half of the people are here as volunteers teaching English through BYUs Kenney Center. You can click here for more information about their program. Our branch has ten young single adults that are here volunteering as English teachers, They will all leave in December. We have a family that is here so the mom can teach at a local international school, and another family that is here as English teachers.

Our primary has three girls, and nursery has two girls. My children make up 3/5 of the Primary program. We currently don't have any youth.

LDS church services are usually three hours long. In China, they are two hours long. We do an hour for Sacrament meeting where we sing hymns, take turns giving gospel centered talks and take the sacrament. Second hour the children go to Primary class and the adults rotate Sunday School and twice a month break out into Relief Society for the women and Priesthood for the men,

Church can't be held in any public or government owned building so we meet for church in a home.

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