Located at No. 59 Duolun Road (formerly Darroch Road) in Hongkou District, Shanghai, Fitch Memorial Church (Hongde Church) was constructed in 1928 to be a US-Presbyterian Mission (North) church. As one of the very few church buildings that adopted a Chinese classical style, it has been a witness to the contextualization of Christianity in China.
This famous Chinese-style church was named in memory of Rev. George F. Fitch (1845-1923, Fei Qihong in Chinese), a renowned missionary and an important leader of the American Presbyterian Mission Press. Its Chinese name, “Hongde Church”, similarly, commemorates Rev. Fitch’s contribution to Christianity and cultural efforts in China.
In the 1920s, the rising nationalism campaigns and Anti-Christianity Movement in China led to a movement of indigenization and contextualization among Christians. The movement highlighted integrating Christianity into Chinese traditional culture, seeking peace between the two in terms of theology, philosophy, and church arts.
Indigenous church buildings was one of the arguments of the movement. Therefore, the pastor of Fitch Memorial Church, Rev. Chen Jinyong, proposed in 1925 that a church based in a Chinese community serving Chinese Christians should assume a Chinese style. This view was widely accepted in the church.
Designed by Chinese architect Yang Xiliu, this edifice features a Chinese classical revival style with an overhanging roof of Dougong (a Chinese wooden-interlocked buttress) and cornice, which is common in Chinese palaces and temples. Looking in from the outside, the church is a three-story brick-and-concrete structure on a square plan, with a tall bell tower in the middle. The exterior walls are inlaid with dark-red concrete columns which mimic in form and color the wooden columns usually found in traditional Chinese temples, yet appear as double columns. This is a very common feature of French classical architecture.
The interior adopts a basilica form with a central nave flanked by two lower aisles, typical of a Western church building. The ground floor is a small chapel, which used to be Xiude Primary School, and the second floor is the main hall. The main building of the church covers an area of over 700 square meters and can host about 1,000 persons.
In 1932, Fitch Memorial Church’s pastor of the time, Jiang Shixu opened the church to shelter and provide for refugees amid the Japanese army’s attack on the northern part of Shanghai. A total of 10 believers, including four of Pastor Jiang’s family members, were killed by the Japanese army and church services were suspended for several months.
In 1934, the famous Chinese evangelist John Sung Shang Chieh preached in Fitch Memorial Church, leading 104 listeners to the Christian faith. Yet after the “8.13 Incident” in 1937, the church had to move away from Hongkou and could not resume its services in the original church building until the end of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the church reopened as one of the four combined Christian worship sites in the Hongkou District. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the church stopped all religious activities, but it was refurbished in 1990 and reopened to the public on August 30, 1992.
Fitch Memorial Church is now a TSPM (Three-Self Patriotic Movement) church. The church holds three services on Sundays and had nearly 2,500 attendees as of 2019, according to the website of CCC&TSPM.
- Translated by Grace Song
鸿德堂位于多伦路59号，鸿德堂始建于1925年，1928年10月落成，系长老会沪北堂的新堂。该堂为极少数采用中国古典式建筑风格的教堂。
这座著名的中式风格教堂是由美国北长老会资助与我国信徒捐资共同建造的，堂名就是为了纪念该会的著名传教士费启鸿（George F. Fitch, 1845-1923 ）。1923年费启鸿去世。1928年10月教堂建成，恰逢费启鸿逝世五周年，为了纪念费启鸿对中华基督教和中国文化事业的贡献，取中文名“鸿德堂”，即“费启鸿纪念堂”之意。
20世纪20年代，中国社会发起“非基运动”，正值国人的民族意识觉醒、爱国运动发展火热之际。当时中国的基督教界也开启了一场轰轰烈烈的本土化运动，他们强调基督宗教与传统文化相融合，在神学思想、教会艺术等方面寻求两者的和谐共处。而这场运动的内容之一，就是倡导基督教建筑中国化，所以1925年决议建造鸿德堂时，时任鸿德堂主任牧师的陈金镛就提出采用中国传统建筑风格。
教堂外部是中国传统的殿宇风格，中间一座方形钟楼，四角立着大红柱子，门口设有一对石狮，结构上看不出任何教堂的影子；而走进里面的礼拜大厅，罗马双柱构成拱形走廊，却是典型的古罗马巴西利卡式设计。
教堂平面呈长方形，两层，因上层中厅高出两边侧廊，故外观似3层。其底楼为小礼拜堂，曾办为修德小学, 二楼为主堂，是巴西利卡式大厅，两侧成对的罗马双柱构成拱形走廊，具有西式风格，三楼为楼厅。整幢建筑风格堪称中西合璧，建筑面积1137平方米，可同时容纳1000余人礼拜。入口处为方形钟楼，钟楼顶部为阁楼式，屋盖为四方攒尖屋顶，房屋外墙青砖砌筑，并有仿木构架的红色水泥圆柱，檐下绘重彩画。室内中厅、侧廊采用券柱、门洞口部分也采用半圆券。建筑外貌为中国宫殿风格，局部处理中西杂糅。
1932年一·二八事变”发生后，侵华日军猛烈进攻市北一带。无数走投无路的难民们只有两条出路，奔向租界或者躲进教堂。当时鸿德堂蒋时叙牧师开放教堂，分发粮食，救济了众多难民。不料穷凶极恶的日军竟悍然冲进教堂，以怀疑教堂内有“抗日分子”为由，将蒋牧师一家4口及数位教友共10人残忍杀害，唯有蒋牧师的4岁女儿因外出而幸免于难。
1934年，中国大布道家宋尚节来到鸿德堂布道，带领104人归向基督。而在1937年，“八一三事变”后，鸿德堂再次被迫迁出虹口，直到八年抗战胜利后复堂。
新中国成立后，修德小学改为多伦路小学，教堂于1958年成为上海宗教联合会的办事处。1958年，鸿德堂被定为虹口区4个基督教联合礼拜场所之一。
“文革”期间，鸿德堂停止宗教活动。1990年，鸿德堂进行修理整新。1992年8月30日，教堂正式复堂。鸿德堂现每星期日上午举行礼拜一次，此外每周有祷告会、唱诗班活动等。每逢主日礼拜，钟声悠扬，让多伦路有了不一样的文化气息。
一座具有浓郁中国传统风格的教堂建筑：上海基督教鸿德堂
Located at No. 59 Duolun Road (formerly Darroch Road) in Hongkou District, Shanghai, Fitch Memorial Church (Hongde Church) was constructed in 1928 to be a US-Presbyterian Mission (North) church. As one of the very few church buildings that adopted a Chinese classical style, it has been a witness to the contextualization of Christianity in China.
This famous Chinese-style church was named in memory of Rev. George F. Fitch (1845-1923, Fei Qihong in Chinese), a renowned missionary and an important leader of the American Presbyterian Mission Press. Its Chinese name, “Hongde Church”, similarly, commemorates Rev. Fitch’s contribution to Christianity and cultural efforts in China.
In the 1920s, the rising nationalism campaigns and Anti-Christianity Movement in China led to a movement of indigenization and contextualization among Christians. The movement highlighted integrating Christianity into Chinese traditional culture, seeking peace between the two in terms of theology, philosophy, and church arts.
Indigenous church buildings was one of the arguments of the movement. Therefore, the pastor of Fitch Memorial Church, Rev. Chen Jinyong, proposed in 1925 that a church based in a Chinese community serving Chinese Christians should assume a Chinese style. This view was widely accepted in the church.
Designed by Chinese architect Yang Xiliu, this edifice features a Chinese classical revival style with an overhanging roof of Dougong (a Chinese wooden-interlocked buttress) and cornice, which is common in Chinese palaces and temples. Looking in from the outside, the church is a three-story brick-and-concrete structure on a square plan, with a tall bell tower in the middle. The exterior walls are inlaid with dark-red concrete columns which mimic in form and color the wooden columns usually found in traditional Chinese temples, yet appear as double columns. This is a very common feature of French classical architecture.
The interior adopts a basilica form with a central nave flanked by two lower aisles, typical of a Western church building. The ground floor is a small chapel, which used to be Xiude Primary School, and the second floor is the main hall. The main building of the church covers an area of over 700 square meters and can host about 1,000 persons.
In 1932, Fitch Memorial Church’s pastor of the time, Jiang Shixu opened the church to shelter and provide for refugees amid the Japanese army’s attack on the northern part of Shanghai. A total of 10 believers, including four of Pastor Jiang’s family members, were killed by the Japanese army and church services were suspended for several months.
In 1934, the famous Chinese evangelist John Sung Shang Chieh preached in Fitch Memorial Church, leading 104 listeners to the Christian faith. Yet after the “8.13 Incident” in 1937, the church had to move away from Hongkou and could not resume its services in the original church building until the end of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the church reopened as one of the four combined Christian worship sites in the Hongkou District. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the church stopped all religious activities, but it was refurbished in 1990 and reopened to the public on August 30, 1992.
Fitch Memorial Church is now a TSPM (Three-Self Patriotic Movement) church. The church holds three services on Sundays and had nearly 2,500 attendees as of 2019, according to the website of CCC&TSPM.
- Translated by Grace Song
[Church Series] Fitch Memorial Church: The Only Church in Chinese Classical Revival Style in Shanghai
