Our Year in China

The following is another item in our Epigram series of articles.

Our Year in China

By Mary Kaye Jacobs

It’s not so easy to sum up ten months of experiences and impressions in China. My husband, Bob, was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach environmental science in China for the 2010-2011 academic year and was assigned to Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

He applied to be sent to China because our ten-year-old daughter, Nina, was born in China. He felt like this would give us a good opportunity to experience Nina’s birth country together, while also pursuing his work in public health and environmental science.

It was a great year filled with travel and adventure of different kinds. We saw the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, the Potala Palace and mountains of Tibet, and Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou (Canton). One thing our year did NOT include was the support of a faith community.

In China churches and synagogues are few and far between. (This was something that surprised my husband, since I remember him assuring me there would be plenty of Catholic parishes in Chengdu.)

Another American who became our friend during our stay in China explained that there are three types of churches in China. One kind is the church that is both approved and financially supported by the Chinese government and Communist Party. One is the church that is registered with the government, but not financially supported by it. The third type is the house church, where members meet in homes and are generally left alone by the government as long as the neighbors don’t complain.

I found one Catholic Church in Chengdu and I belief it is a “Type 2” Chinese church. On the brick wall surrounding the Church of the Immaculate Conception is a bronze plaque declaring the church as a member of the “Neighborhood Patriotic Association.” Translated, this means the Chinese government and Communist Party, which are pretty much one and the same entity, has okayed it.

The Chinese government does not acknowledge the Vatican and its legitimacy, and vice versa. The government appoints bishops without the approval of the Vatican. So the status of the Catholic Church in China is confusing, complicated and contentious.

And we were not in the country long enough to find and experience the living church that is there.

I did attend two services at the Catholic Church. I chose the Saturday afternoon English service, since I don’t speak or understand Mandarin. To get to the church in that city of 13 million people, we walked about six blocks to the subway, rode the subway for 4 or 5 stops. Then we left the subway station and walked another six or seven blocks to the church. This trip took about 45 minutes or more.

We found the church, tucked away in an urban neighborhood. The benches were narrow planks, though the building was beautiful, with traditional old stained glass windows. The homily, however, was in Chinese and the prayers of the liturgy were difficult to hear and understand since the priest’s accent was thick and he appeared to struggle nearly as much with English as I struggle with Chinese. The service was over in 30 minutes.

There were some familiar and beautiful English hymns included in the liturgy, such as “Here I Am, Lord,” and “Be Not Afraid.” That was the best part.

It was a while before I returned. We were out of town some weekends and we went on outings with some new friends there many Saturdays, to hike and see nearby towns and museums. We did return, though, and the experience was similar: long commute to the church, hard benches, remote altar and priest, prayers difficult to hear and homily in Chinese. My daughter refused to go back and I also was not enthusiastic about returning.

It made me appreciate what the experience is like for those who come to our liturgies and do not understand English well.

I also came to appreciate the tremendous support I feel from my community here at Epiphany. I draw on the strength of others here and am fed spiritually, intellectually and emotionally by the services and homilies here. Without this community, we were left to find sustenance from personal prayer, family prayer, reading and occasional online resources. The knowledge that we were there only for ten months and would be returning to our home parish of Epiphany kept me going.

And I gained an appreciation for our freedom to worship in this country. The only other worship service I was aware of was which was non-denominational and held in a large restaurant. Everyone who attended had to present their passports at the door to be admitted – the government’s way of staying in control of large gatherings.

I believe there is a living, breathing Catholic Church in China. There are nuns and priests working there. It is just not accessible to someone there for a relatively short stay.