Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

• Our acknowledgement of the Apostles‟ Creed as expressing the fundamental doctrines
of our common evangelical faith.
This three-fold basis for unity, replacing the Apostles’ Creed with the Nicene Creed to
accommodate Eastern Orthodox Christians, is the model for unity I wish to commend in
this book.
(c) The Three-Self Patriotic Movement, China (1954)
In China in 1954 the Three-Self Patriotic Movement came into being, „self-governing, selfsupporting,
self-propagating‟. This was at a time of strong Government opposition to
Christianity. Today it exists alongside „unofficial‟ churches. The China Christian Council
was formed in 1980 as a parallel body to the TSPM „to unite all Chinese Christians who
believe in the heavenly Father and who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.‟ The Catholic
Patriotic Association (1957) is the Roman Catholic counterpart of these bodies.
(d) The Reformed Church of France (1938)
By 1905 Protestantism had become severely fragmented. Eight divisions of French
Protestantism, most of them using the description „Evangelical„ in their titles, came together
into a Federation of French Protestant Churches. „Pastors of different tendencies met for joint
study and prayer.‟ 146
Further discussion on unity followed and, interestingly, a compromise was made. This was
to accommodate both the smaller „free‟ churches which stressed a „gathered church‟ concept,
in which members were those who had experienced a personal affirmation of faith, and the
churches of a multitudinous tradition who regarded all those who had been baptized as
members of the church. A distinction was made between „membership‟ and „responsible
membership‟. Some Evangelical Reformed churches, especially in the south of France,
refused to join the new body.
(e) The Church of Christ in Japan (1941)
This Church was formed under Government pressure by 34 denominational groups agreeing
to form a union (Kyodan), originally with a very orthodox statement of faith. Created during
the Second World War, it needed to free itself from Government control after the War. It did
this with some denominations defecting, as it claimed to be a Church rather than a federation
of churches, so unity as such was not achieved. The Kyodan is now one denomination among
many.
146 Rouse, Ruth and Neill, Stephen C, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948, SPCK,
London, 1954, p 464.
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