NANJING, China (ABP) — One of China's most prominent modern-day Christian leaders has died at the age of 83.
Wenzao Han died Feb. 3 in Nanjing. He served from 1996 to 2002 as president of the China Christian Council, and in other capacities with the organization, which is the officially state-sanctioned Protestant denomination in China.
China's communist government placed severe restrictions on religious freedom during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. However, it allowed some Christian churches to re-open beginning in 1979. The China Christian Council was established the next year, combining several different Protestant traditions. According to the group's website, it is a “post-denominational movement” where, “In the spirit of mutual respect, Christians with different faith and liturgical backgrounds worship God together.”
However, human-rights groups continue to criticize the Chinese government for periodic attempts to repress unofficial Protestant “house churches” not affiliated with the CCC, as well as Chinese Catholic bishops and churches that continue to be loyal to the pope's authority.
Han was head of the CCC when, in 1997, it complained about a Southern Baptist Convention agency's practice of sending clandestine missionaries to work in China as humanitarian workers, circumventing the involvement of the CCC or the government.
According to Don Sewell, a missions-partnership with the Baptist General Convention of Texas official who knew Han from his travels to China, “Chinese Christians have lost a great man in Dr. Wenzao Han.”
Sewell said that, despite being forced as a young Christian to work in labor camps, Han “never lost his joy, optimism, or faith” and that Han “related to the new regimes in the Chinese government with aplomb. His message harbored no bitterness, nor revenge; he acted like Jesus.”
Han's funeral was held Feb. 9 at a Nanjing funeral home, followed by a memorial service at Mouchou Church in Nanjing. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three grandchildren.
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