Are there mormons in china

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have hit a bump in the road — somewhere between a pebble and a boulder — with its temple plans in Shanghai. Nelson stunned believers with the news that among its new temples would be one in China. Nelson, who has long-standing ties to Shanghai, was careful in how he described the holy space to be established there.

It was prompted in part by the closure of the Hong Kong Temple for renovation. Any negotiations between Americans and Chinese can be tricky, said Stephen Markscheid, a business consultant in Chicago and a China expert. Marco Marazzi, an Italy-based attorney who has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years, has spent his career helping companies across the world do business in China.

He points out that cultural differences and varied expectations often present problems in trying to make agreements. On Tuesday, the U. The Chinese government recognizes only five religious groups: Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Muslim and Taoists the only native Chinese faith, the others all were imported. Are they going to create a new category? Chinese nationals, who joined the LDS Church elsewhere, have formed branches smaller versions of Mormon wards throughout the country.

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Meet the woman who hopes to bring healing to Catholic sex abuse victims in France. Contribute Get Rewarded. Contact Us: [email protected]. Steimle said that it was "difficult to express how big of a deal this is for me, personally, other members of the Church who have ties to China, and really to the entire Church membership worldwide. It's going to be a very small temple, but it's a huge thing for the Church.

Temples are where the most important and sacred Mormon ceremonies are carried out , including baptisms and "celestial marriages. If established, the temple would not be the first active place of worship in Shanghai for an unofficial religion. In recent years, limited services have been held at the Ohel Rachel Synagogue , a historic building that predates the establishment of the Communist state. Most Jews in China however continue to practice behind closed doors, in arrangements similar to Mormon meeting houses.

Whether Mormons in China will be able to get nearer to that presence remains to be seen. In a statement issued two days after the Church's announcement, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs said that "according to the relevant laws and regulations of China, foreigners are not allowed to set up religious organizations or venues for religious activities in China. The bureau denied any knowledge of plans for a temple in Shanghai, saying they were the "wishful thinking of the Mormon Church in the United States.

When CNN asked the Church about the current status of the project, a spokesman would only provide a link to the Church's website detailing plans for the temple and how it would operate.

Church representatives would neither confirm nor deny the veracity of the original statement announcing the temple. However, since reporting on this story began, reference to the Shanghai temple has been removed from the Church's website, though it is still available on an archived version of the page.

Vendassi, the expert on religion in China, said that despite this apparent denial by the authorities, a temple may still end up opening at some point in the near future. Nee, the Amnesty researcher, said that while there was no reason on paper for the Chinese authorities to object to a temple, he doubted whether officials "would be willing to understand the nuances of religions and their theologies" in order to permit such an institution.

As a uniquely American religion, Mormonism's hopes in China may also be hurt by worsening relations between Washington and Beijing. In the same month the Shanghai temple was announced, Senator Mitt Romney said the coronavirus pandemic had exposed China's "grand strategy for economic, military and geopolitical domination.

Romney is by no means alone in criticizing Beijing, but as the country's highest-ranking elected Mormon, his words may carry more weight with China's leaders when they are considering the Church's position there.

China change. If the Mormon Church does have to exercise more patience before they open a temple in mainland China, what are a few more years or decades after a century and a half? Responding to a question of when China would be open to missionaries in , Elder Dallin Oaks -- a senior Church leader -- said that "I state my belief that China is already 'open' -- it is we who are closed We must understand their way of thinking Quoting Mormon scripture, Oaks added that God "will bring His purposes to pass in that great nation 'in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will'.

Mormons who lived in China spoke of the country with great fondness, despite the restrictions placed on how they worshipped there. Both Jason and Sarah keep in contact with Chinese friends over WeChat, and hope to visit again in future. Sarah saw many parallels between China and the Mormon people, pointing in particular to the importance of venerating ancestors in Chinese culture.