Holy Saviour's Cathedral is a former

Anglican 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 th ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Xicheng District Xicheng District () is a district of Beijing. Xicheng District spans , covering the western half of the old city (largely inside the 2nd Ring Road - the eastern half is Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District), and has 706,691 inhabitant ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

History

English evangelism started in Beijing in 1862 with the arrival of missionaries John Shaw Burdon and Samuel Isaac Schereschewsky. In 1880, the

Diocese of North China The Diocese of North China ( zh, t=聖公會華北教區, w=Shêng Kung Hui Hua Pei Chiao Chʽü, l=Anglican Diocese of North China), also known as Hua Pei Diocese (), was an Anglican diocese in China established under the supervision of the Churc ...

was founded to serve the city's growing Anglican population. The property on which the cathedral is situated was originally owned by Ying Keting, an official who worked in the Criminal Department of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. Charles Perry Scott, Bishop of the

, purchased with the intention to build a Cathedral for the burgeoning Diocese. The church was built in 1907, and is the oldest surviving Anglican church in Northern China. It was the seat of the

. Anglican worship at the cathedral ended following the Communist takeover in 1949. The building fell into disrepair, but was restored in 1990 by the Saiweng Information and Consulting Center. In 2003, the building was listed as a Beijing Cultural Protection Site. In 2019, the building was converted to a branch of Beijing's Mofan Bookstore.

Structure

Architecturally, the cathedral is

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

, with the north–south axis laid out as a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

. Other structural aspects, such as the aisles, are also built in a typically European fashion. However, many of the interior and exterior features are Chinese in style, with the whole building being built with typical grey bricks and Chinese roof shingles that blend with the area's

Hutong ''Hutong'' () are a type of narrow street or alley commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of ''siheyuan'', traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods wer ...

architecture. The cathedral's bell tower, situated above the crossing, is built in the manner of a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

. The cathedral's entrance is also built in the Chinese style, with blessings inscribed. Several memorials to past clergymen are present inside. The cathedral's interior is furnished in the Chinese style, with wooden walls and a trussed timber roof in blonde wood.

References

{{Reflist Churches in Beijing Anglican cathedrals in China Former Anglican churches in China Cathedrals in Beijing