Xinhua photojournalist Yasser Zhang speaks to Father Zhang Fengming, a Catholic priest in a rural village in Shaanxi Province who is faced with a dwindling, ageing flock. more ›

A few links to start off your day: This week Business Week looks at the somewhat shady practice of Christian private schools luring over wealthy Chinese exchange students in order to proselytize and convert them. In a Foreign Policy piece entitled "The End of the Chinese Dream", Christina Larson examines the palpable sense of frustration among city dwellers, and asks the question: "Could it possibly be true that a swath of people in China's big cities is downwardly mobile?" more ›

There's a new surge in Christmas celebrations in the People's Republic, but not everybody seems to know what the holiday season is really for, says the Christian Broadcasting Network. more ›

AP reports that government officials forcefully shut down an outdoor Christmas party organised by Christians in Xitan village (溪坦村) in Zhejiang province. Xitan bills itself as a "Christmas village", and it comes under the jurisdiction of Ruian city which is home to many underground churches and manufactures some 500 million yuan in Christmas products each year. more ›

Catholic news portal AsiaNews.it reports that the ordination of a Vatican-approved bishop, Father Peter Luo Xuegang (罗雪刚), will take place tomorrow in the diocese of Yibin in Sichuan province. But here's where it gets tricky -- while the consecrating bishop on paper is the 95-year-old Msgr. John Chen Shizhong, a bishop from the diocese who is in communion with the Vatican, China may want Paul Lei Shiyin, the recently installed bishop of Leshan who is now president of the Catholic Patriotic Association, to take part in the laying on of hands. The participation of Lei, who was excommunicated by the Holy See in July, could render the ordination of the new bishop "illegitimate" according to Vatican rules. more ›

China is not just building roads, railways, bridges and stadiums on the African continent. It's also building its churches. Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Pentecostal -- China's building them all at a price that the Africans can swallow. From the Ecumenical News International:

“We have worked with them before and we have had a very good experience with them,” the Rev. Anthony Mwituria, who oversees constructions in the archdiocese, said in an interview. “We issued a tender and they came with the best deal.” Church officials say the companies are reliable, quick and efficient. more ›

Stephen MacDonnell of Al-Jazeera offers this excellent bird's eye view of the rise of evangelical Christianity in modern day China. In this episode of 101 East, he visits the government-approved Chongyi Church in Hangzhou, supposedly the world's largest Chinese megachurch, where evangelist Luis Palau preached at a gospel rally last year. He also speaks to Zheng Datong, pastor of a house church in Wenzhou, as well as Samuel Lamb, the 86-year-old pastor of the 4,000-strong Rongguili Church, an unregistered church that has grown too influential for local police to raid. He also attempts to visit the open-air service of Beijing's Shouwang Church, but the service doesn't take place as believers are taken away by police as soon as they arrive. more ›

American journalist Paul Mooney has written a most fascinating, must-read article on the current state of relations between China and the Vatican in the South China Morning Post. more ›

Gays and lesbians across China were left pleasantly stunned last evening by an unexpected report from national broadcaster CCTV which not only slammed award-winning actress Lü Liping (吕丽萍) for stoking homophobia, but also assured members of the LGBT community of their place in society. more ›

Paul Lei Shiyin, the new bishop of Leshan installed by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association without papal approval, has been excommunicated by the Holy See. In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican said, "Rev. Lei Shiyin, ordained without the Papal mandate and hence illegitimately, has no authority to govern the diocesan Catholic community, and the Holy See does not recognize him. The effects of the sanction which he has incurred through violation of the . . . Code of Canon Law remain in place... An episcopal ordination without Papal mandate is directly opposed to the spiritual role of the Supreme Pontiff and damages the unity of the Church." more ›

For our Roman Catholic readers, a special mass is to be held tonight at the St Ignatius Cathedral to mark the liturgical feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The announcement from the Italian Cultural Institute:

The IIC Shanghai is glad to announce the celebration of the Holy Mass in Chinese language with the Holy Lesson in Italian language, which will be held on Wednesday 29th June 2011, at 19:00 at St.Ignatius Cathedral, XuJiahui. more ›

Gay groups have called for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in China to boycott movies by award-winning actress Lü Liping (吕丽萍) and her husband, director Sun Haiying (孙海英), after the former kicked up a maelstrom of debate on Sina Weibo for expressing support for the homophobic sentiments of a Chinese pastor in Rochester, New York decrying the legalisation of same-sex marriage by the New York State Senate. more ›

Beijing's embattled Shouwang Church has been rocked by a split in its leadership team of more than a dozen, marked by the departure of one pastor, one preacher and two deacons, according to the South China Morning Post. more ›

Pope Benedict offered special prayers for the Catholics in China who face severe constraints to practice their faith. He composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan in Shanghai for the occasion and asked that Catholics all over the world observe May 24 as the "World Day of Prayer for the Church in China", an annual day of prayer observed every year since 2007. more ›

News of the recent crackdown on the Shouwang Church, one of the largest house churches in Beijing, has sent shockwaves across the fellowship of house churches in China, with many pastors now urging their flocks to stand alongside Shouwang in prayer and support. more ›

An unregistered church in Beijing has been making headlines this month for attempting to continue unauthorized services outside the control of authorities. The saga continued today as dozens of church members were detained after attempting to attend a banned Easter service. The church, Shouwang, was evicted from its former location after refusing to come under the direct supervision of the Chinese government. An unidentified church member reported that the pastor and church leaders have also been placed under house arrest. more ›

More good news for Sino-Vatican ties following the ordination of Bishop Paul Liang Jiansen? more ›

A new Catholic bishop approved by both the Vatican as well as the state-approved church has been consecrated in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong Province. more ›

Take a look at the Silver Award winner in the Arts and Culture group from the 7th annual China International Press Photo Contest (CIPPC) that took place in Jiangsu last week. Not to be confused with the World Press Photo awards, the CIPPC is organized by the China Photo Journalism Society and this year included 38,000 photographs taken by 3,300 photographers from 70 countries and regions. This set gives us a peek at Christianity in Yunnan, where the religion has been practised since the 19th century, even among the ethnic minorities. more ›

In his traditional Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi" homily this year, Papa Ratzi aka Pope Benedict XVI prayed for Chinese Catholics with the following words: more ›

If you're tired of all the debate over whether China's headed to be the Next Great Superpower, fret no more! We found the answer, and we found in a place some of us (and probably most Chinese) never though to look: the Bible. more ›

As part of their continuing series on religion in China, NPR has a very insightful piece on the divide between the two types of Catholic churches found here - those that are sanctioned by the Communist government (even if the pope refuses to recognize them) and the "underground" ones still pledging their loyalty to the Vatican. Both are inching closer to reconciliation, but it is a painful and confusing process. For more on religion, they've also done pieces on the booming Christianity movement and Protestant churches in rural China. more ›

ChinaHopeLive points us to a couple of links that indicate an unprecedented level of reporting among Chinese media on underground churches in China: more ›

Great example of a piece of art that you can find only in China! more ›

On May 9, Shanghai's Russian community gathered in the St Nicholas Church on 16 Gaolan Road, for a special Victory Day service. Built in 1934, the Orthodox church was once used as a washing machine factory and later hosted a French restaurant, Ashanti Dome, on the upper floor, and a Spanish tapas bar on the ground floor called Boca. During the Cultural Revolution which sought to destroy the ‘four olds’ (old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking), public worship was prohibited but quick-thinking believers of various religions posted images of Mao over their places of worship to prevent overzealous Red Guards from bursting in to destroy the buildings. The St Nicholas Church was one of such buildings -- and the image of Mao kept watch over the building until it was taken down in the early 2000s. According to zinka who shared these pictures with us, the Russian community rented the church for this special event (note the worshippers standing under the disco ball), and it still remains unclear if and when the building will be converted back into a church. more ›

Josh Summers of FarWestChina follows up on our story of Alimjan Yimit, the imprisoned Uyghur Christian pastor of an underground church, and tells us a little about the Uyghur people and Christianity in Xinjiang:

Many people don’t realize that there are government-approved Christian churches in Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi. I have personally been inside and sat in on a couple services. According to Chinese law, the government is supposed to supply registered religious organizations with a plot of land and a building in which to meet. Key word: registered. more ›

Was it the intense media spotlight? Or did someone just have a change of heart? Whatever the case, the prayers of the Seventh Day Adventists in Jinan that we told you about earlier have paid off because on May 1st the local congregation held its first indoor meeting since they were forcibly evicted from their premises on 27th February. more ›

Christian Post via Compass Direct News, reports that Alimjan Yimit, an ethnic Uyghur pastor of a house church who was sentenced last year to 15 years prison for "leaking state secrets", has been allowed to see his family for the first time in over two years:

Authorities in Xinjiang Province recently moved Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit from a prison in Kashgar to a prison in the provincial capital Urumqi and allowed the first visit from family members since his arrest in January 2008, sources told Compass. more ›

A lively debate is going on over at ChinaDivide, where Charles Custer (who also edits the amazing ChinaGeeks blog) has followed up on our recent reports on religious developments within China and added in his own opinion. The comment section is well worth a read if you have the time but here's a money quote from Custer: "Look, I like a story about bigots being bigoted in the name of Jesus as much as the next guy (i.e., not at all), but if this sort of stuff has to happen, can’t we keep it confined to the crazies in America? China has enough social problems, it doesn’t need to import America’s." more ›