China plans campaign to promote Christian theology

The China Christian Council (CCC) and the National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China on Tuesday announced a theological exchange campaign to strengthen theological thinking.

At Tuesday's announcement ceremony, members of an evangelical group for theological theory were awarded certificates, with 16 members delivering sermons on a variety of topics.

The campaign, which will run from 2013 to 2017, aims to guide the country's church rostrums and promote the spirit of the times with positive and correct theological thinking through the use of publishing, exchanges, discussions and evangelism, according to the campaign's guidelines.

"(The campaign) aims to increase a sense of identification for both pastors and believers and encourage priests and church volunteers to extract morals that are consistent with the times from the Bible, religious doctrines and the traditions of churches in order to encourage believers to make more contributions to the country's economic development, social harmony and cultural prosperity," said CCC president Gao Feng.

Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, described the campaign as a "major event" in the construction of Chinese Christian theology.

Stressing that Christianity should be compatible with the country's socialist society, Wang urged the campaign to make concrete efforts to boost Chinese Christians' qualities concerning politics, belief, law and society.