Churches in China greeted the Chinese New Year with retreats to boost believers' spirituality.
According to Suzhou Municipal CC&TSPM, on February 10, the first day of the Lunar New Year, distinct activity venues of the Suzhou Christian community in Jiangsu welcomed the new year with special services and worship featuring sermons, New Year’s greetings from pastors, praises performed by church committee members, red envelopes containing scriptures, free Chinese couplets of blessing, and traditional dances.
On the first Sunday of the Chinese New Year, Xucheng Church in Xuyi County, Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, hosted a praise meeting on the sinicization of Christianity. Huai'an Municipal TSPM stated that all the pieces were selected from indigenous hymns composed by Chinese pastors and musicians of sacred music.
On February 15, the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, a centennial church, the Ganjingzi Gospel Church in Dalian, Liaoning, held three Spring Festival retreats with the themes “Whole Person in Bless,” “Abundance in Life,” and “Pray for Blessings.”
Rev. Wu Bing, the keynote speaker of the retreats, preached the three roots of "blessing" in the Bible, with a focus on "blessing" in Chinese culture. He reminded the believers that "the blessings given by the Lord bring abundance instead of worries" based on the meaning of prosperity, goodness, and blessing as revealed through faith testimonies.
The history of Ganjingzi Gospel Church dates back more than a century. C. Waiatloew of the Danish Missionary Society founded the Lushun Lutheran Church in 1896, becoming the first church in Liaoning Province's Luda Administrative Area (now Dalian City). In 1902, a meeting place was established in Ganjingzi District, which served as a precedent for the Dalian Lutheran Church.
- Translated by Poppy Chan
