Christ Church. Also known as Christ Church Cathedral from 1927 to the 1950s. is a
Protestant place of worship in Cangxia,
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
,
Fujian, China. Upon its completion in 1927, it became the cathedral of the Diocese of Fukien (Fujian) of the
Anglican Church in China. It was closed during the
Cultural Revolution and reopened in 1985.
History
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
first entered
Fujian in 1830 during the
Qing dynasty. The congregation of Christ Church was first established in 1870. In 1882, the Church of England purchased an old tea storage house at 1 Yixiaqiao () and turned it into a church building.
In 1906, the Diocese of Fukien (Fujian) was established within the
Church of England, with
Horace MacCartie Eyre Price
Horace MacCartie Eyre Price (3 August 186321 November 1941) was a missionary of the Anglican Church.
Horace Price was born in Malvern into an ecclesiastical family on 3 August 1863: his father was W. Salter Price. He was educated at Rossall Sc ...
as its inaugural bishop. In 1919, the diocesan synod resolved to rebuild the church into its cathedral.
John Hind laid the foundation stone on 1 November 1924, and
Sa Zhenbing, governor of Fujian, gave an address. The new cathedral was completed on 13 November 1927. The construction cost was . According to Frances Slater, the cathedral was also built to commemorate
John Richard Wolfe
John Richard Wolfe (1832-1915) was an Irish missionary serving with the Church Missionary Society in Fuzhou, China from 1862 to 1915.
Biography
Wolfe was born in 1832 near Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland, which at that time was part of Gre ...
, an Anglican missionary in Fuzhou.
After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, members of the Diocese of Fukien (Fujian) first signed "
The Christian Manifesto
"Direction of Endeavor for Chinese Christianity in the Construction of New China", commonly known as "The Christian Manifesto" or "The Three-Self Manifesto", was a political manifesto of Protestants in China whereby they backed the newly foun ...
" in 1950 at the cathedral. On 30 July 1951, at an evening gathering at the cathedral, the diocese declared to severe its ties with the Church of England. In 1956,
Howard Mowll
Howard West Kilvinton Mowll (1890–1958) was the Anglicanism, Anglican Anglican ministry#Bishops, Bishop Diocese of Western China, of Western China from 1925 to 1933, and Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Archbishop of Sydney from 1933 until his ...
, the
Anglican Primate of Australia, led an Australian Anglican delegation to visit the church and attend worship. Parts of the church site was occupied by a local pharmaceutical factory in 1958, and all Christian services halted after the
Cultural Revolution began in 1966. During the Cultural Revolution, the church site was entirely used by the pharmaceutical factory.
After the
in 1978, the church was returned to Christian use. It was reopened on 11 August 1985. In 1989, it had a congregation of about 2,000.
Architecture
The church occupies a site of about . The site has an entrance at its southeastern corner, and is surrounded by civil housing. The church building is long and wide, with a total area of . It can host a congregation of 1,500 people. It is in
Latin cross form, facing 30 degrees to the west of south.
The church is in
Neo-Gothic style
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
. It is built with bricks and timber. It has two -tall bell towers, featuring windows with pointed arches in triplets. Above the main entrance, three Chinese characters "" ( "Christ Church") are engraved in stone. The roof of the church is supported by triangular frames, but it used to have English
hammer beam
A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams ...
s. The roof frame is from the floor.
The foundation stone is at the southeastern corner of the church. It bears the inscription:
Notes
References
Citations
Academic theses
*
Book chapters
*
Books
* {{Cite book, script-title=zh:福建省志·宗教志 , trans-title=History of Fujian: Religion , isbn=978-7-5615-4628-4 , publisher=Xiamen University Press ({{zhi, s=厦门大学出版社) , date=December 2014 , editor=Fujian Local History Editorial Committee ({{zhi, s=福建省地方志编纂委员会) , ref={{harvid, ''History of Fujian: Religion'', 2014
Anglican cathedrals in China
Churches in Fuzhou
Gothic Revival church buildings in China
20th-century Anglican church buildings in China
Former Anglican churches in China