Christian Encounters with Chinese Culture by Philip L. Wickeri

Author:Philip L. Wickeri [Wickeri, Philip L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History
ISBN: 9789888313297
Publisher: HongKongUP
Published: 2015-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

The CHSKH merged into unified worship in 1958, but the tradition of Prayer Book worship did not completely disappear. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when churches in Mainland China resumed activity after the end of the Cultural Revolution, churches and seminaries in Nanjing, Shanghai, Fujian, and Henan retained the Eucharist service—now called “liturgical Holy Communion” rather than “Anglican worship”—with a Book of Common Prayer liturgy. In Henan Province, at least one version of Book of Common Prayer liturgy, including Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the order of baptism, liturgical Holy Communion, the marriage blessing, and funeral rites originating from the CHSKH prayers, was republished in 1989. (However, it is uncertain whether all of these prayers originated from the former Henan Diocesan Prayer Book.) In 1993, the China Christian Council published Worship Orders and Liturgical Uses in Churches, which included the Eucharist Liturgy as the Liturgical Eucharist Rite IV.34 Both the Henan prayer book and the China Christian Council publication included a copy of the CHSKH order of the Eucharist. This was most likely because the Reverend Peng Shengyong, ordained by Bishop R. O. Hall (1895–1975) in the Diocese of Victoria, a priest familiar with the rites of the no longer existent Diocese of Kiangsu, was associated with Shanghai churches after 1949, and was instrumental in compiling this book. In addition, some churches in Fujian Province continued to use their own version of the prayer book after the reopening of churches in the late 1970s.

Although the compilation of a prayer book in Mainland China came to a halt with the implementation of union worship, Anglicans in overseas Chinese communities witnessed further developments. The Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao republished the Kiangsu Diocesan Prayer Book for the Diocese of Taiwan which, in 1953, was still in its preparatory stage of formation. In 1956, the Diocese of Singapore and Malaysia edited and published the Fukien Diocesan Prayer Book of 1949, which later became the foundation for that diocese’s Chinese Prayer Book. In 1957, the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao re-edited its own BCP, first published in Hong Kong in 1938. According to the Reverend Canon Michael Poon, the compilation of the BCP in overseas Chinese communities after 1949 was mainly based on the Anglican and Episcopal Prayer Books. The single exception was the Prayer Book published by the East Asian Anglican Conference in 1976. This rejected the dominant Anglican and Episcopal liturgies and tried to produce a Chinese liturgy and prayers for the twenty-four Chinese seasons, which were adapted to traditional Chinese thinking and festivals.35 However, this Prayer Book, never fully accepted in the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao or in overseas Chinese communities, remains controversial. In the last few years, the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui General Synod resolved to publish a new BCP for use in Hong Kong and Macao, a proposal that would realize a long-standing dream of Chinese Anglicans.

Although a unified BCP for Chinese Christians in the Anglican and Episcopal traditions has never been produced,

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