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Hangzhou Chongyi Church () is one of the largest
Hangzhou Chongyi Church () is one of the largest Protestant churches
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
in mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, registered under the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement
The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM; ) is the official government supervisory organ for Protestantism in the People's Republic of China. It is colloquially known as the Three-Self Church ().
The National Committee of the Three-Self Patriot ...
(TSPM).
History
The church traces its history back to November 1866, when theChina Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...
founder Hudson Taylor
James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...
established the first settlement for the mission in Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
, renting an old haunted mansion and converting it as a home for living. The mission would buy land on 77 Qintai Street () in 1901 and build the original Chongyi Church in 1902.
Chongyi Church would participate in the newly formed TSPM in 1951. However, by October 1958, when unified worship services were mandated across China, consolidating churches in a given region, the land owned by Chongyi Church was converted into warehouses for railway materials. Chongyi Church would only be reopened in the 1980s after religious policies changed.
As Christianity was rapidly growing in Hangzhou, plans were made to build a larger property. After collecting (), ground was broken on December 30, 2003 and the building was completed on May 5, 2005.
Megachurch
Chongyi Church is one of the largest churches in mainland China. The building covers an area of 12,480 square meters and its main sanctuary can accommodate 5,500 parishioners. A number of well-knownevangelists
Evangelists may refer to:
* Evangelists (Christianity), Christians who specialize in evangelism
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament
* ''The Evangelists
''The Evangelists'' (''Evangheliştii'' in Roma ...
have preached from its pulpit, including Franklin Graham
William Franklin Graham III (born July 14, 1952) is an American evangelist and missionary. He frequently engages in Christian revival tours and political commentary. He is president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and ...
, before 12,000 attendees in May 2008, and Luis Palau
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...
, to an estimated 14,000 in March 2010.
Until January 2016, the senior pastor of the church was Reverend Joseph Gu Joseph Gu () was former senior pastor of the Chongyi Church in Hangzhou, one of the largest churches in China today, and former head of the Zhejiang Christian Council.
Biography
Gu, originally from Shangyu City, Zhejiang, was born and raised i ...
, who was removed from his post in a probe into the embezzlement of funds.
Services
Sunday at 7:30am to 9:30am and then 10:00am to 11:45am. 5,000 people can be in attendance for each service. Translation into English is available by remote headsets. A small English Prayer service is held at 3:30pm on SundayReferences