by Emanuel

This Chinese New Year, for our Sunday service Mandy and I visited the old Methodist church (Mu En Tang) located on the intersection of XiZhang road and JiuZhou road in Shanghai. Mandy had been several times before, but it would be a first time for me. Shanghai at this time of year is the usual hustle and bustle you find in the urban centers of China, duly amplified to accommodate the passing of the Chinese New Year. This is the central shopping district of one of the most populated cities on the planet, teeming with life. Everyone out in their New Year’s best for shopping, and with no lack of options either… hawkers of all trades vying to sell their wares outside the doors of the dozens of gigantic shopping malls which grace Shanghai’s central district. Inside label brands from every corner of the world are engaged in an even fiercer competition for the consumer’s heart and mind.

Shanghai Church

As we approached the stately old church, now dwarfed by the glass and steel behemoths around it, but which must have been imposing it its time and still is today all the same, I must admit that, never having been inside before, I expected to enter and find it, as is the case in other such cathedrals all around the world, half derelict, with a few remaining elderly believers and a dutiful minister serving the remaining faithful, infused as it were with the lingering ghosts of glory days of the past.

As I walked in however, I realized immediately that this was no relic, after getting through the throng of camera trigger happy tourists dutifully taking the holiday photos outside the gate, we went inside to find the large church overflowing with worshippers for the Sunday service. All seats inside the main church hall were full and people were standing up in all available spaces, spilling out into the corridors and hallways. In fact this seemed to be a frequent problem, as in every available side room and chapel there was set up a projector screen, speaker systems and enough chairs to fill the room. This is where we eventually wound up and found a seat for the service.

Emanuel and Miranda

The minister gave his message from the pulpit in the main hall, which was broadcast by projector and speakers to those standing and sitting in the different rooms and hallways of the church. As a soft yellow light filtered through the stained glass windows, I thought how wonderful and different it was to have an old church filled with worshippers, a true bucking of the trend and here in China of all places, a testimony to the Christian movement which is still sweeping the country. I was pleased to see many young people, single young men and women and many couples as well – an important sign for the future I thought, the vital factor which will determine the staying power of the Christian faith in our postmodern world.

shanghai_church_front

We left the church and exited the courtyard, blending seamlessly back into the holiday mass, into the noise and bustle of this endless city, one could be forgiven for thinking that the service we had just attended was only a tiny island in the mad ocean of our modern societies, forever hemmed in by the world around it, condemned to minister to an ever-dwindling pool of faithful. But, I do know that in countless homes, apartments, hotel rooms, event halls, churches and cathedrals all around this great nation, millions of Christians are on this very same day meeting, worshipping and praying, for change in their lives and those around them. Today we were a small part of a small thing, which is part of a bigger thing, a force which is bringing change to China, and to the whole world as well.

Note: I attach a few pictures pictures, which I only remembered to take after the service and when our side room and the main hall had emptied of people, but which give a view of the interior and front of the church. Other pictures can be found online