Dongtang Cathedral
Sunday afternoon I received a few text messages from one of my friends from Shenzhen. She was going to be in Beijing that evening and wondered if I had free time Monday to hang out with her. Of course, the answer was yes.
In the few hours that we had we did the sorts of things that we used to do in Shenzhen, watch her shop and get Starbucks. Very close to the hotel where she was staying I saw the church referred to locally as Dongtang Cathedral. It was a great surprise to me so she indulged me by interrupting her shoppong to go in for a few minutes (which really isn't enough). My friend grew up in Jiangxi Province and had never been inside a church of any kind before. I know, what kind of friend am I if I never invited her to come to church with me? One of my greatest shortcomings is that I really don't know how to approach that subject with the un-curious. If someone has a curiosity about Jesus and asks me about Him or the Church, I'm more than happy to engage them. However, for someone who is truly unchurched and uninterested, I don't even know how or where to start.
Anyway, I was really happy to get to see this beautiful church if only for a few minutes. I am planning to get back there again. It won't be difficult because I know how to find it easily now. It was really awesome to see that the church was open in the middle of the day for visitors, either the praying kind or the tourist kind. They had several volunteers from the parish staffing the door (with pamphlets titled "Who is Jesus" in Chinese) and their gift stand. I showed my friend different physical features of the church and then talked to one of the volunteers about their Mass times.
On the way out we passed by a statue of St. Joseph, to whom the church is consecrated, with the Child Jesus. My friend asked if this was where you made your wishes. Umm, not quite.
In the few hours that we had we did the sorts of things that we used to do in Shenzhen, watch her shop and get Starbucks. Very close to the hotel where she was staying I saw the church referred to locally as Dongtang Cathedral. It was a great surprise to me so she indulged me by interrupting her shoppong to go in for a few minutes (which really isn't enough). My friend grew up in Jiangxi Province and had never been inside a church of any kind before. I know, what kind of friend am I if I never invited her to come to church with me? One of my greatest shortcomings is that I really don't know how to approach that subject with the un-curious. If someone has a curiosity about Jesus and asks me about Him or the Church, I'm more than happy to engage them. However, for someone who is truly unchurched and uninterested, I don't even know how or where to start.
Anyway, I was really happy to get to see this beautiful church if only for a few minutes. I am planning to get back there again. It won't be difficult because I know how to find it easily now. It was really awesome to see that the church was open in the middle of the day for visitors, either the praying kind or the tourist kind. They had several volunteers from the parish staffing the door (with pamphlets titled "Who is Jesus" in Chinese) and their gift stand. I showed my friend different physical features of the church and then talked to one of the volunteers about their Mass times.
On the way out we passed by a statue of St. Joseph, to whom the church is consecrated, with the Child Jesus. My friend asked if this was where you made your wishes. Umm, not quite.
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