Churches of the Wuyi Region

and Taishan County in particular

29 June 2007

Churches of the Wuyi Region

The Christian Gospel first reached the Wuyi Region in the mid to late 1800s, when some of its expatriate citizens were converted, and they wrote to their relatives back home to share the "Good News" with them. Later, as western missionaries increasingly reached the Wuyi region, Christianity started to take root. Expatriate believers also sent missionaries to their homeland to build and establish churches. Christian villages developed where all villagers turned to Christ, and three such villages still exist.

Reverand Alexander Don visited Taishan County during his missionary tour of 1879 and 1880 at which time the American Presbyterian Mission had already opened a number of chapels, and other protestant missionary organisations were operating in the district. The China Inland Mission, now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, does not seem to have had a presence in Taishan County, but an independent mission station was established in "Sunning-hsien" in 1918, and as such was not affiliated with any missionary society, and, in my opinion, is unlikely to have left any records. However the German Berlin Mission is known to have operated in Southern Guangdong Province.

After all western missionaries were forced to leave with the Communist Revolution of 1949, many local churches were prevailed upon to join the government-sponsored church union. These were forced to close with the troubles of the Cultural Revolution (1976-9). Implementation of China's Reform Policy allowed these churches to reopen and form their own county-based Christian Councils, which now govern their own congregations and control their own finances, properties and operations.

At the same time, the Jiangmen Christian Council was formed to encourage good relations between these councils, establish training facilities and programmes and develop fellowship activities. By the end of 1996, there were about 30 pastors and church workers in the Wuyi region, ministering to 26 congregations, and about 3,000 believers.

As these churches had an offical status and a more settled existance, many have retained their registers of baptisms, weddings and burials, which are useful for genealogical and historical purposes.

Those churches who didn't join the government-sponsored church union went underground, meeting in home-groups or out in the fields. For over forty years, they were subject to persecution and their pastors and elders imprisoned and beaten. Today they are comparatively though not entirely free of persecution, and, I understand, there may be some 25,000 believers in these underground churches in Taishan County alone.

These churches were all on the secret, and, in consequence, are, in my opinion, unlikely to have kept registers of any sort.

Church Union Congregations of Taishan County

Taishan County is one of the five counties making up the Wuyi Region. It has 14 offical congregations, of which some lack full-time pastors.

Taicheng Church is the central congregation of Taicheng City, the capital of Taishan County, and is located on the city pedestrian mall at 186 Tai Xi Road, Taicheng 529200. Its chapel was originally constructed by Presbyterians in 1891 and reconstructed in 1922. This elegant red-bricked building has a capacity of 300, and its side hall, library, prayer room and staff office have lately been renovated. The pastors may be contacted on (0750) 552-5709.

Meeting Schedule:

Sunday Worship (Sunday 12:00-13:00)
Prayer Meeting (Wednesday evening)
Bible Study (Friday 19:30-20:30)
Choir Practice (Saturday 19:30-20:30)

Associated Churches

Cornerstone is a parachurch organisation established in 1995, mainly by members of the Hong Kong Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches, to assist in church rebuilding, social services and disaster relief in mainland China. Their area of interest includes Taishan County.

Missionary Societies

The Foreign Missions Office of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand now maintains an archive of their activities. Items of specific interest may possibly be found under the subject categories of Kwangtung Synod Papers, Canton Villages and South China Mission Papers and In Memorium. However conversation with the archivist suggests that there is little to be had from Taishan County itself. If you look and find something, I will be interested to hear from you.

Presbyterian Church Archives
Knox College
Arden Street
Opoho
Dunedin
New Zealand
Tel: (03) 473 0107 x7851
Fax: (03) 473 8466

The Reverend Alexander Don, the pioneering missionary of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, also wrote a history that is worth consulting, Memories of the Golden Road: A History of the Presbyterian Church in Central Otago, by Alexander Don, A.H. & A.W.Read, Dunedin (NZ) 1936.

British missionary societies and their archives have been researched extensively and summarized in A Guide to the Archives and Records of Protestant Christian Missions from the British Isles to China 1796-1914 by Leslie R Marchant, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands 1966. No reference to Taishan County was found in this volume.

British East India Company

The British East India Company operated in Hong Kong and southern China until the mid 1800s, though not in Taishan County itself.

Anglican Parish Registers
Some Anglican parish registers survive in their records which are housed with the India Office Records of the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) of the British Library. An India Office Baptisms, Marriages and Burials Search Service is available for Ł30 (+Ł5.25 VAT) provided a five year period and general location is specified .

The British Library
Asia Pacific & Africa Collections
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7873
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7641
Email: apac-enquiries@bl.uk

N/9 - Parish Registers for Macao and Whampoa (Canton) 1820-1833: Contemporary copies of registers of baptisms, marriages and burials sent to London for the information of the East India Company and the India Office. The returns relate almost entirely to European and Eurasian Christians. Few local converts are included.
Monumental Inscriptions
Their cemetery in Macao has been exhaustively transcribed and researched in the book An East Indian Company Cemetery: Protestant Burials in Macao by Bernard Mellor and Lindsay Ride, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 1996.

British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia

The British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia is a charity set up in 1976 to protect European cemeteries in South Asia. Over the years, they have restored, maintained and recorded inscriptions in many cemeteries. Their records are housed within the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library. Some of which have been published along with their journal Chowkidar which contains a section for queries on family history. They may be contacted through their secretary.

The British Library
Asia Pacific & Africa Collections
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7873
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7641
Email: oioc-enquiries@bl.uk

Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones
Hon. Secretary, BACSA
76 1/2 Chartfield Avenue
London SW15 6HQ
Email: rosieljai@clara.co.uk

Their records in the Oriental and India Office Collections are catalogued under Mss Eur F370. Some are of relevance to greater China, but not on Taishan County itself.

Cemtery Files
814 - China
Peking
Tengyueh 1932
Szechwan 1923 and 1932

815 - Foochow 1895-1895
816 - Macao
Old Protestant: 1811-1889 (closed)
New Protestant: 1767-1933

817 - Shanghai
Wan Guo (closed)
Shantung Road 1846-1868

818 - Whampoa (Canton)
French Island 1748-1876 (closed)
Danes Island: 1805-1873 (closed)

821 - Hong Kong
Stanley 1943
Happy Valley: 1842+ (open)

843 - Taiwan
Kaohsiung

847 - Tibet
Gyantse 1904
Gnatong 1887
Yatung 1904
Publications
1238 - Tombstones in the English Cemeteries at Macao by J M Braga, Macao 1940.

1239/40 - The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao by Lindsay Ride in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 3: 9-35, Hong Kong 1963.

1241 - The Protestant Cemeteries of Macao by Manuel Teixeira, Macau 1989.

1242 - Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley by Solomon Bard in Antiquities and Monuments Office Occasional Paper No 4, Hong Kong 1997.