Religious Organizations
Source: showchina [11:41 July 15 2009]
There are seven national religious organizations in China. They are the Buddhist Association of China, China Taoist Association, Islamic Association of China, Patriotic Association of the Catholic Church in China, Chinese Catholic Bishops College, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China and the China Christian Council. All the religious organizations elect leaders and leading bodies according to their own articles of association.
Name
Buddhist Association of China
Honorary President:
Paghalha Geleg Namgyai
(Tibetan)
Islamic Association of China
Chen Guangyuan
(Hui)
Church of China
Chinese Catholic Bishops College
(deceased)
The Three-Self&sup* Patriotic Movement
Committee of the Protestant Churches
of China
Honorary Chairman:
K.H.Ting
Cao Shengjie (female)
Honorary President:
K.H.Ting
All the religious organizations independently organize religious activities, conduct religious services, run religious schools, and train young religious staff under the protection of the Constitution and the law. Currently, there are 74 religious schools in China, the most popular being the Chinese Institute of Buddhist Studies, the Institute of Islamic Theology, the Chinese Institute of Taoist Studies, the Jinling Union Theological Seminary in Nanjing and the Chinese Catholic Seminary. Chinese religious organizations maintain contacts and exchanges with other religious organizations in more than 70 countries and regions in the world. Religious personnel also play an extensive role in political affairs, with 17,000 of them being deputies to people's congresses and members of the committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at various levels.
On August 14, 2005, Chairman of the China Religion and Peace Committee Ding Guangxun read an announcement to the country's religious cirle, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. In the announcement, he appealed to all religious groups to include prayer for peace among main content of regular religious ceremonies, set the week between August 14 and 20 as the Week of Prayer for World Peace, and make joint efforts to maintain peace for human kinds.
On December 30, 2005, China Religious Culture Communication Association was founded in Beijing. The organization was organized by people from all walks of life who are devoted to the exchange of religious culture from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau special administration regions and overseas. It is a national non-profit social organization with independent artificial person. The association, with its representative meeting, council, standing council and secretariat for daily business, mainly deals with religious exchange and cooperation among the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau special administration regions, as well as all other countries and regions, promotion of favorable content among the religious culture, introduction of China's religious situation and religious freedom policy to the world, and construction of a platform for religious exchange and cooperation and related services.
Fu Tieshan, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Chairman of Patriotic Association of the Catholic Church of China and Acting Chairman of the Bishops Conference of Catholic of China, Pagbalha Geleg Namgyae, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Honorary Chairman Buddhist Association of China and K.H.Ting, Honorary Chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China and Honorary President of China Christian Council, were elected as honorary presidents. Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs of China, was invited to preside the association
