Guanlin Church is situated in the town of Guanlin, an important economic area in the city of Yixing. The church, an important landmark in Guanlin, is located at the crossroad of Old Yijin Line and Duyang road.
Christianity was brought to Guanlin in the early days of Liberation by a preacher named Wang Minshen, who came from the church in Changzhou to Guanlin to preach. He did not have a fixed location nor a specific number of people who came to the church. By the 1960s, the number of believers increased and though there was no designated pastor, the believers spontaneously gathered in the home of Mr Jiang in the village of Zhangwudu.
In the 1970s, a house in Guandu was turned into a meeting place, a church body was formed, and a time for worship was fixed. The Three-Self Committee of Yixing appointed a pastor and elders to preach and lead the congregation.
By the end of 1994, the number of believers had increased to more than 600 people and because the church building could not accommodate them, the church building was relocated to a new place with a construction area of about 1200 square meters.
The new building was built in the 1990s with a steel roof beam and brick-concrete walls. And after many years of use, some parts of the building were damaged and unsafe. For the sake of security, the plan to rebuild the church at its original position started in 2012. At that time there were only 600,000 yuan available, so the believers were active in contributing to the reconstruction of the building.
The construction area of the new building was about 4500 square meters, and it had a cross-shaped plane. The main sitting hall was 24 meters wide and 50 meters long with a height of nearly 19 meters inside. The main body of the building has two floors with seven parts. The external main tower was 49 meters in height. The total expenses were about 15 million, and the church building was dedicated on the 18th of October, 2016.
The church building was designed in the Gothic style. The idea behind the design includes: to take the relationship between God and man as the main line, which predicts the human crossroad of life, and will foretell man’s “juvenile, youth and old age” life experience through three levels(ten steps for each level).
On both sides of the gate are relief sculptures which represent God’s grace and blessing; The Lord is my shepherd at the entrance represents God’s feeding, care, guarding and presence; Entering inside the 40meters long sanctuary represents the spiritual experience of the people of Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years; The seven complete pillars on each side represents the complete love and grace of Christ.
The 66 pictures of the cross on both sides represent the inspiration of the 66 books of the Bible; The two pillars of the holy archway represent the pillars and foundations of the truth; The cross represents God’s redemption; The Bible represents God’s truth; The shepherd’s staff and key represent God’s commitment and mission; The fish represents Jesus as Christ the Son of God, our saviour; The rose pattern represents Jehovah as God and His throne; And the entire domed roof surrounds the oneness of heaven and humanity, which is the highest state of eternal harmony with God.
- Translated by Merry
