History of Methodism in Sichuan

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The history of Methodism in Sichuan (or "West China")^[a] began in 1882 when missionaries began to arrive from the United States. Methodists founded or helped found several colleges, schools, and hospitals to aid in modernization and conversion efforts. Later, American Methodists were joined by missionaries from Canada. Methodism grew to become one of the two largest denominations of Protestant Christianity in the province by 1922, along with Anglicanism.^[1]

Nonetheless, missionary activity in China generated controversy among many native Chinese and faced armed opposition during both the Boxer Rebellion and the later Chinese Communist Revolution. Although the former did not affect Sichuan so much as some other parts of China, the province was one of the hotbeds of anti-missionary riots throughout its ecclesiastical history.^[2]

Numerous mission properties and native church leaders in Sichuan were respectively destroyed and killed by communists in the mid-1930s.^[3] After the communist take over of China in 1949, missionaries were expelled and activity ceased. Under government oppression in the 1950s, Methodists and other Protestants across China severed their ties with overseas churches and their congregations merged into the Three-Self Patriotic Church. Since 1980, services for Chinese Protestant churches have been provided by the China Christian Council.

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