History of Baptist Christianity in Sichuan

The history of Baptist Christianity in Sichuan (or "West China") began in 1890 when missionaries began arriving from the United States. Baptist missionaries in Sichuan were organized under the American Baptist Missionary Union, later renamed American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Missionary activity in China generated controversy among many native Chinese and faced armed opposition during both the Boxer Rebellion and the later Communist movement in China. Although the former did not affect Sichuan so much as some other parts of China, the province was one of the hotbeds of anti-missionary riots throughout its ecclesiastical history.

Numerous mission properties and native church leaders in Sichuan were respectively destroyed and killed by communists in the mid-1930s. Missionary activity ceased after the communist take over of China in 1949. Under government oppression in the 1950s, Baptist congregations and other Protestant churches across China severed their ties with overseas churches, and their congregations subsequently merged into the Three-Self Patriotic Church. Since 1980, their services have been provided by the China Christian Council.

History

Baptist Christianity was introduced into Sichuan by the American Baptist Missionary Union (ABMU, belonging to the American Baptist Churches USA). The first missionaries to reach the province were Rev.