The Asian Region Seminar to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the International Missionary Council was hosted in the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, Jiangsu, in person and virtually on October 27.
The seminar themed "The Attempt and Efforts of the Chinese Church to Move towards Independence in the First Half of the 20th Century: From Perspective of Mission" began, with a speech from Rev. Wu Wei in the opening ceremony.
Rev. Wu, president of China Christian Council (CCC), explained that Chinese Christians were fortunate to have this opportunity to hold this conference, as Chinese churches participated in the work of the World Council of Churches (WCC), according to CCC&TSPM. Churches in China should not be absent from the ecumenical movement and world mission, as the early leaders of the Chinese churches had made outstanding contributions in the movement, he added.
The one-day seminar contained three sessions.
The first session had discussions on the topics of "World War I and the Indigenization of the Chinese Church", "The 1956 Conference on Theological Education in Southeast Asia", "The Anglican Church and the Indigenization of the Chinese Church in the First Half of the 20th Century", and "'The Necessity for Sinicizing Christianity'—Chinese Christians and the World Mission Conference at Edinburgh 1910".
The second session focused on issues such as "The Early Self-Evangelism Attempts and Efforts of Chinese Christianity from the Development of the International Missionary Council's Concept of Evangelism", "The Growth of Singapore Chinese Church Outside the Sinophone World: The Transforming Singapore Chinese Church", and "The Chinese Church and the International Missionary Council".
The third session included the lectures titled "Theology of Love and the Greater Mission - Yang-chu James Yen's Christian Humanism and Civilian Education Movement", "Tsu Ch’en Chao and the Sinicization of Christianity" and "International Missionary Movement and the Church in China".
During the seminar, besides Chinese Christians serving in WCC, representatives from the Chinese mainland academic community, churches in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the Foundation for Theological Education in Southeast Asia gave remarks. In addition, the participants also discussed how to do a good job of evangelism, the relationship between the Singapore Chinese Church and other churches, the translation of "Mission" and other topics, with the responses from the speakers.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
