In July, Christianity Today published an article about the worship song “The Blessing” and how it has become a global phenomenon during the pandemic. Just a couple of weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the US, Kari Jobe held a songwriting session with her husband, Cody Carnes, and Elevation Worship’s Steven Furtick and Chris Brown. Together,…
Chinese Churches
Friday Photo: A Church Bell
In honor of having turned the manuscript of my book on church bells in China over to an editor, here’s a photo of one of the bells I write about: It was cast in France, and now hangs in the east bell tower of the Xishiku Catholic Church in Beijing.
Orthodox Easter in China
On May 1, Orthodox Christians around the world celebrated Easter, or Paschal. In Catholicism and Protestantism the date is set according to the Gregorian Calendar, but in the Orthodox faith, it is set according to the Julian Calendar. In China, this Easter marked the first time in 16 years that an ordained Orthodox priest was able…
Catholic or Christian?
When I first went to China, I was bombarded with many questions that seemed rather odd: can you use chopsticks? How much money do you make? Why do American parents kick their children out of the house at age 18? On and on they went. But the oddest question I encountered was, “what’s the difference…
Manchurian Catholics
In the course of my research on church bells in Beijing, I have been learning a lot about the history of the Catholic churches here. One thing I have learned is that, even though the Jesuits had favor at the imperial court and were often on friendly terms with the emperor and his family, who…
Holy Trinity Church, Shanghai
This is one of my favorite photos from this weekend in Shanghai. Holy Trinity Church, opened in 1869, was the cathedral church for the Anglican Diocese of North China. It continued to function as a church until being closed in 1966, at the start of the Cultural Revolution. Unlike many other churches in Shanghai and…