Rev. Dai Lizhen, the oldest pastor in Shanghai, passed away at her home last Friday, February 14, 2025, at the age of 106.
Born in 1918 into a Christian family in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Dai was ordained as a pastor in 1981, becoming one of the first pastors ordained after the reopening of churches in Shanghai and the first female pastor to be ordained at that time.
According to Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai, Rev. Dai Lizhen's farewell ceremony was held in Shanghai on Sunday, February 16, with nearly 400 Christian coworkers in attendance. After representatives of her relatives and friends spoke, Rev. Yu Guangzhi, chairperson of the Shanghai CC, delivered a speech on behalf of the municipal CC&TSPM.
Rev. Dai Lizhen demonstrated a passion for her faith from an early age. Her father, Pastor Dai Yangqin, served as a Methodist pastor. During a gathering of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, she and her two sisters kneeled in prayer during the devotion session, dedicating themselves to the Lord. They all remained single througout all their lifetime.
According to the Heavenly Wind or Tianfeng, the flagship magazine of CCC&TSPM, Dai recalled graduating from Laura Haygood Girls' School in 1937 before enrolling in Soochow University, which had been temporarily relocated to Huzhou due to the war. However, her studies were disrupted when Huzhou was occupied by the Japanese army. She and her family sought refuge in a church at the foot of Mount Mogan. During Japanese raids, children hid in a large bathing pot to avoid capture. Reflecting on those times, she cited Psalm 46:1: "God is our refuge."
After China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, church schools reopened. Dai gave up a promising teaching position at a Shanghai kindergarten to serve at a less-developed kindergarten in Huzhou. She once said, "God never froze me or starved me even for a single day. His providence was abundant, and His grace was sufficient for me."
From the fall of 1948 to 1949, she studied through the correspondence course at China Bible Seminary, founded by Ruth M. Brittain. In 1950, while attending a summer camp organized by a Methodist young women's devotion missionary group, she was deeply moved by a sermon delivered by Rev. Yang Shaotang, a famous Chinese pastor in the 20th century, reaffirming her commitment to serving God. From the fall of 1950 to the summer of 1954, she pursued theological studies at the China Christian Worker’s Home.
During that same summer camp in 1950, Dai was assigned the role of a preacher to China’s borderlands in a biblical play. Initially hesitant, she resisted, feeling the border was too distant. The director challenged her, "Would you refuse even if God asked you to go?" In response, she silently prayed, "Lord, if You want me to go, I will go." Four years later, a student from Kunming invited her to Yunnan, where she served as a freelance preacher alone for eight months. "I experienced God’s faithfulness and saw the love of the congregation," Dai later recalled.
From 1957 to 1958, she ministered at Baxianqiao Bethel Church, and from 1959 to 1966, she was a preacher at Moore Memorial Church in Huangpu District. She also studied at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary from 1960 to 1961. However, during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1978), she was forced to leave the church but remained steadfast in her faith.
In 1978, Dai returned to ministry, serving as a preacher at Moore Memorial Church and the CC&TSPM in Huangpu District. She actively contributed to the preparations for Moore Memorial Church’s reopening in 1979. As the congregation grew—most of them women—Senior Pastor Sun Yanli encouraged her to seek ordination. However, the painful memories of the Cultural Revolution made her hesitant. It was the love of the congregation and the encouragement of older preachers that ultimately persuaded her to accept the calling.
On December 20, 1981, she was ordained as a pastor at Moore Memorial Church. From 1985 to 1987, she served as a chaplain at East China Theological Seminary. In 1998, she retired at the age of 80 but continued to pray for the congregation at Moore Memorial Church.
A Bible verse had hung beside her family photo since her father’s time: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
