In May 2023, I visited a famous elderly pastor who is almost in his 100th year in Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture.
Pastor Paul Liang is a former member of the Standing Committee of the CCC&TSPM (China Christian Council and National Committee of the National Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China), the former chairman of Guangxi TSPM, and the former chairman of Nanning TSPM.
The pastor was born in 1924 when the Protestant Anglican Church first entered Guangxi. In 1939, he worked for the Xianggui parish of the Anglican Church in Guilin. In 1949, Liang returned to Nanning and began to be a trainee missionary in the Anglican Church there. He began to study at Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary in 1951 and was anointed as a pastor in 1956.
During this period, Pastor Liang fell in love with a sister in a church hospital and got married. He was going back to Nanning and asked his wife whether she was happy to go home with him. His wife said yes but had to go back to Hong Kong to visit her parents first before going to Nanning. Pastor Liang did not go to Hong Kong for fear that his return would affect his domestic work.
Pastor Liang was questioned: "Before you came back, your wife went back to Hong Kong. Did you collude with imperialism to manipulate and control the church in Guangxi?" He was labeled a "rightist" as early as 1958 and was sent to the countryside to be “reformed through labor farm” for almost six or seven years.
Pastor Liang recalled, "In that most difficult time, I didn’t spend it with my colleagues and compatriots, but on a farm. When I was young, I had a severe duodenal ulcer. On the farm, I had simple food and plain water. I got up early and worked hard every day. However, my illness was cured."
At that time, all young church workers went to factories to be “reformed”. There were only a few older pastors left in the church, which was the all-low era of the church.
At that time, the largest church in Nanning was the current Gonghe Road Church, which was established by the U.S. Christian Missionary Alliance in 1874. Also in 1913, the Chinese general assembly of the U.S. Seventh-Day Adventist Church sent its first missionary, Dr. Liu Jian (originally from Xinhui, Guangdong), to Guangxi. With the approval of the government at that time, a piece of wasteland was allocated to Liu Jian to start a hospital. Liu’s wife was an American, and when she heard the news, she traveled around the United States to raise money.
In 1917, Liu built a two-story hospital, which initiated the modern hospital in Nanning. Then there was Zhongshan Road Church, which became a printing house during the turmoil.
In 1979, the policy of religious freedom was reaffirmed, and the property on Zhongshan Road and Gonghe Road was gradually returned to the church.
Pastor Liang said that less than a month after they resumed their gathering, they almost had an accident that year. One day, when they were having a service, the tile roof of the church collapsed. It turned out that termites had eaten away the wooden structure of the old church. Fortunately, no one was hurt on the first floor.
Later, Pastor Liang went to the government and informed the leaders that the returned church houses could not be used and asked them for help. As a result, the government funded the removal of the wooden top to form a cement one. The church roof was repaired, and the gathering could continue.
An English missionary of the Anglican Church went to Nanning, Guangxi, in 1907 to work as a doctor in customs. Later, when he saw a house on Zhongshan Road for sale, he bought it, which became the current temporary gathering place of Zhongshan Church.
As the predecessor of the First People’s Hospital of Nanning was also a Christian hospital, the hospital invited Pastor Liang to attend and make a speech for its establishment at its grand ceremony.
Pastor Liang said that for nearly twenty years he had written the book Christianity in Guangxi, a local chronicle of Christian history. However, that was not all, and the next step is to write a sequel. It is a pity that the book is out of print, and Pastor Liang himself has only one original “copy”.
-Translated by Charlie Li
5月，我拜访在广西壮族自治区的首府南宁市的一位年近百岁的知名老牧者。
梁保罗牧师是原中国基督教全国两会常委、原广西壮族自治区基督教三自爱国运动委员会主席、原南宁市基督教三自爱国运动委员会主席。5月9日上午，我来到了老牧师的家。
梁保罗牧师生于1924年，此年，最早进入广西基督教新教是的圣公会。1939年老牧师到桂林圣公会湘桂教区做事工。1949年解放，就回到南宁了，开始在南宁的圣公会做见习传道。1951年就开始到广州协和神学院学习，1956年被按立。
期间，梁牧师和教会医院的一位姊妹相爱成家。他要回南宁，问妻子是否愿意跟他一起回家乡。妻子说愿意，但是要先回香港看望父母，再回南宁。梁牧师没有去香港，怕回来影响到国内工作。
有人质问梁牧师：你回来之前，妻子回香港了，是不是勾结帝国主义来掌握、控制广西的教会？在1958年就被打成打右派，后来梁牧师被下放到农村去“改造”，差不多有六、七年的时间。
回梁牧师说：在那个是最艰难的时候，我没有和我的同工同道和同胞一起度过，而是在农场里面。我年轻的时候，有严重的十二指肠溃疡。我在农场里面吃是粗茶淡饭，每天起早贪黑的劳动，然而我的疾病不治而愈。
在那个年代，所有的年轻同工都到企业里面去做工人，“改造”。教会就留下几个老传道人，这是教会的低潮时期。
当时南宁最大的教堂就是现在的共和路教堂，是美国宣道差传会于1874年建立的。还有一个就是1913年，美国复临安息日会中华总会派出本会第一位传教士美籍华人刘俭医生(原籍广东新会人)到广西。经当时政府批准将一块荒地划拨给刘俭开办医院。刘俭的夫人是美国人，闻讯即在美国四方奔走筹集经费。
1917年刘俭建成一座2层楼的医院，并由此开创了南宁近代医院的先河。再就是中山路教堂，这里在动乱时期是印刷厂。
1979年拨乱反正，重申宗教信仰自由政策，中山路教堂和共和路的教产得以逐步退还给教会。
梁保罗牧师讲到，那年他们中山堂在恢复聚会不到一个月，险些出现事故。有一天他们在聚会的时候，教堂的瓦顶就坍塌了，原来白蚁把这木结构的老教堂的木头给蛀空了。幸亏大家在一楼没有受到伤害。
后来梁牧师找到政府，和领导说归还的教会现在不能用，请求政府帮助。结果，由政府出资，把上面木头拆下造成水泥的结构。教堂维修好了，可以继续聚会了。
圣公会的一个英国传道人，在1907年到广西南宁，在海关里面做医生。后来他看见中山路那里有个房子要卖了，就把它买下来了，这就是现在中山堂的临时聚会场所。
此外，南宁市第一人民医院的前身就是基督教的医院，该院在建院100周年的时候曾邀梁出席盛典，并做讲话。
梁牧师说《基督教在广西》这本基督教地方历史书他陆续的写了近二十年。这还不是全部，下一步还要续写。遗憾的是这本书已经“绝版”了，梁牧师自己手头也只有一本当初的“母本”。
拜访期颐之年梁保罗老牧师
In May 2023, I visited a famous elderly pastor who is almost in his 100th year in Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture.
Pastor Paul Liang is a former member of the Standing Committee of the CCC&TSPM (China Christian Council and National Committee of the National Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China), the former chairman of Guangxi TSPM, and the former chairman of Nanning TSPM.
The pastor was born in 1924 when the Protestant Anglican Church first entered Guangxi. In 1939, he worked for the Xianggui parish of the Anglican Church in Guilin. In 1949, Liang returned to Nanning and began to be a trainee missionary in the Anglican Church there. He began to study at Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary in 1951 and was anointed as a pastor in 1956.
During this period, Pastor Liang fell in love with a sister in a church hospital and got married. He was going back to Nanning and asked his wife whether she was happy to go home with him. His wife said yes but had to go back to Hong Kong to visit her parents first before going to Nanning. Pastor Liang did not go to Hong Kong for fear that his return would affect his domestic work.
Pastor Liang was questioned: "Before you came back, your wife went back to Hong Kong. Did you collude with imperialism to manipulate and control the church in Guangxi?" He was labeled a "rightist" as early as 1958 and was sent to the countryside to be “reformed through labor farm” for almost six or seven years.
Pastor Liang recalled, "In that most difficult time, I didn’t spend it with my colleagues and compatriots, but on a farm. When I was young, I had a severe duodenal ulcer. On the farm, I had simple food and plain water. I got up early and worked hard every day. However, my illness was cured."
At that time, all young church workers went to factories to be “reformed”. There were only a few older pastors left in the church, which was the all-low era of the church.
At that time, the largest church in Nanning was the current Gonghe Road Church, which was established by the U.S. Christian Missionary Alliance in 1874. Also in 1913, the Chinese general assembly of the U.S. Seventh-Day Adventist Church sent its first missionary, Dr. Liu Jian (originally from Xinhui, Guangdong), to Guangxi. With the approval of the government at that time, a piece of wasteland was allocated to Liu Jian to start a hospital. Liu’s wife was an American, and when she heard the news, she traveled around the United States to raise money.
In 1917, Liu built a two-story hospital, which initiated the modern hospital in Nanning. Then there was Zhongshan Road Church, which became a printing house during the turmoil.
In 1979, the policy of religious freedom was reaffirmed, and the property on Zhongshan Road and Gonghe Road was gradually returned to the church.
Pastor Liang said that less than a month after they resumed their gathering, they almost had an accident that year. One day, when they were having a service, the tile roof of the church collapsed. It turned out that termites had eaten away the wooden structure of the old church. Fortunately, no one was hurt on the first floor.
Later, Pastor Liang went to the government and informed the leaders that the returned church houses could not be used and asked them for help. As a result, the government funded the removal of the wooden top to form a cement one. The church roof was repaired, and the gathering could continue.
An English missionary of the Anglican Church went to Nanning, Guangxi, in 1907 to work as a doctor in customs. Later, when he saw a house on Zhongshan Road for sale, he bought it, which became the current temporary gathering place of Zhongshan Church.
As the predecessor of the First People’s Hospital of Nanning was also a Christian hospital, the hospital invited Pastor Liang to attend and make a speech for its establishment at its grand ceremony.
Pastor Liang said that for nearly twenty years he had written the book Christianity in Guangxi, a local chronicle of Christian history. However, that was not all, and the next step is to write a sequel. It is a pity that the book is out of print, and Pastor Liang himself has only one original “copy”.
-Translated by Charlie Li
Visiting Pastor Paul Liang in His 100th Year
