As For England

[FresnoJoe]

As For Merry Old England

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. Psalms 25:25

Today there are over 466,000 ethnic Chinese in the U.K., according to official U.K. population statistics. A good proportion of them have settled well in the U.K., with a sizeable second and third generation now integrated into mainstream society and represented in nearly every sector of British life.

Thanks to the outreach efforts of the last 50 years pioneered by Pastor Wang of the Chinese church in London in the 1950s and 1960s, there has been a remarkable growth in the number of Chinese Christians in the U.K. From a few Chinese believers in the 1950s, the number of Chinese Christians has grown to around 56,400 worshipping regularly in the U.K. every Sunday, either in mainstream churches or in a number of Chinese churches and fellowships around the U.K. This probably comprises 12 percent of the total Chinese population, more than double the percentage of the native population who regularly attend church of any kind. Although many denominations, such as Anglican, Methodist, Pentecostal etc. have their own Chinese fellowships, most Chinese Christians are only loosely tied to a particular denomination. The original Chinese church, which has grown into COCM (Chinese Overseas Christian Mission), has many churches all over Britain; it has remained faithful to core evangelical truth and to a vision for practical evangelism. Theological liberalism, which has devastated so many churches in the U.K., has hardly blighted the Chinese Christian community as a result.

In the last 40 years the number of Chinese churches and fellowships has grown to well over 100. Most of them are located in the heart of U.K. cities and towns, close to other unreached peoples who have come to Britain. However, some small towns now have Chinese fellowships. OMF and other missions, as well as many churches and concerned individuals, have been in the forefront of outreach to Chinese in the U.K. and have seen much spiritual fruit.

For years the Chinese churches have concentrated on outreach to local Chinese in the catering industry, and more recently to more than 100,000 Chinese students studying in British universities and colleges. Outreach is also happening among many professional people and new immigrants from Mainland China. Originally, because of the U.K. connection with Hong Kong, church services were largely in Cantonese, but since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, although there are still many Cantonese speakers, Mandarin has come increasingly to the forefront. A good number of churches now hold meetings in Cantonese, Mandarin and English; however, for smaller fellowships this can present problems. Many of the younger generation are brought up physically and spiritually in an interdenominational, multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment. They are therefore poised to become the next generation of cross-cultural missionaries to multi-ethnic Britain and its largely secularized and materialistic native population. https://omf.org/us/remarkable-growth-in-the-u-k/