Chinese Presbyterian Church - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Chinese Presbyterian Church, also commonly known as CPC, is the oldest surviving Chinese church in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Australia

Presbyterian Church of Australia

The Presbyterian Church of Australia is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. .-Beginnings:...

. As at 2011, the church has a congregation of just under six hundred people meeting in worship services catering to languages of English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Cantonese

Standard Cantonese

Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....

, and Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

, and primarily seeks to reach out to the Chinese community of Sydney.

History

The first Chinese churches arose out of the gold rush of the 1860s

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, to where numbers of migrants travelled to make their fortune. The Chinese Presbyterian Church can trace its foundation to the Presbyterian Chinese Mission formed by the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales as Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

became an increasingly important centre for Chinese immigrants.

Location

The Chinese Presbyterian Church officially began in 1893, opening its first church building on Foster Street in Surry Hills

Surry Hills, New South Wales

Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is located immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney...

. The church moved to Campbell Street in 1910, then moved to its current location at the Fullerton Memorial Church in 1957, located at the corner of Crown

Crown Street, Sydney

Crown Street is a street in the Sydney suburbs of Woolloomooloo, East Sydney and Surry Hills. The Surry Hills section is lined with restaurants and shops, as well as the former Crown Street Women's Hospital.-History:...

and Albion Streets. Today the church continues to worship at the Fullerton Memorial Church building and owns and uses various adjoining properties for ministry.

Related churches and initiatives

Chinese Christian Church (CCC) and Western Sydney Chinese Christian Church (WSCCC)

In 1964, four elders of the church left to form the Chinese Christian Church (or CCC) at Milsons Point. CCC has been responsible for several church plants, including the West Sydney Chinese Christian Church or WSCCC, which in turn has also been responsible for numerous other Chinese church plants. Today, there is an amicable relationship between members of these three major Chinese churches.

Notable church plants of CPC include the Cornerstone Presbyterian Community Churches and the Burwood Chinese Presbyterian Church.

Challenges for the Future

CPC faces challenges in considering and redefining its place as a Sydney Chinese church as at 2011 due to a slow but inevitable trend over the last several years for church members with growing young families to seek local Chinese churches as closer and more viable alternatives for Christian community. In addition, the presence of increasing numbers of local Chinese churches, of which some are not related to CPC in origin, mean that the Chinese christian community is becoming more locally defined and decentralised from what was once a few large Chinese church communities. Increase in local outreach focus in the Surry Hills area is one such solution, including a focus on international ex-patriates and young working professionals working and living in the Surry Hills area.

Rice Inter-Church Evangelism (RICE)

"RICE", or Rice Inter-Church Evangelism, is an annual Chinese church event, aimed at reaching out to friends of youth who attend various Chinese churches in Sydney and Brisbane.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.