Bishop K. H. Ting, 1915–2012 K. H. Ting, China’s foremost Christian leader over the nent leader of China’s Protestant Christians and headed both last four decades, died peacefully in Nanjing on November the newly organized China Christian Council (1981) and the 22, 2012. He had been hospitalized for several years and was reestablished TSPM. He promoted the reopening of churches 97 years of age. and other religious institutions, the printing of the and Born and raised in Shanghai, Ting (Ding Guangxun) was religious literature, and increasing contacts with churches in the third of four children. The greatest influence in his early other parts of the world. He was the leading spirit behind the life was his mother, a devout Anglican, who encouraged her Amity Foundation, which promoted Christian involvement son to enter the ministry. Ting received a B.A. in 1937 from in society. As China’s best-known Protestant theologian, St. John’s University, Shanghai, and a B.D. from its Ting’s central concerns were love as God’s pri- school of theology in 1942. In the same year, he was mary attribute and the importance for Christians ordained to the Anglican diaconate and priesthood to practice love in society. After his retirement, and married Siu-may Kuo (d. 1995). He worked for Ting promoted “theological reconstruction” in the the church in wartime Shanghai, and he was one of Chinese church, which involved a broadening of the many YMCA student workers inspired by Y. T. theology and an opening of Christian faith to the Wu (1893–1979). In 1946 the Tings went to Canada, changes taking place in society. His theological where K.H. had been appointed mission secretary views and emphasis on working in concert with for the Student Christian Movement. The follow- the government continue to be criticized in some ing year they moved to New York to continue their conservative church circles, but his views have studies. In 1948 Ting received an M.A. in religious also been commended by theologians in China education from Union Theological Seminary, New K. H. Ting and abroad. York. He then moved to Geneva to assume the Under Ting’s leadership, Christianity position of executive secretary (responsible for mission) with assumed a higher profile in Chinese society and culture than the World Student Christian Federation. In this capacity, he at any previous time in its history. He was among the most traveled widely and got to know many men and women in important figures in world Christianity in the late twenti- the then-flourishing ecumenical movement. eth century. K. H. Ting worked for reconciliation between The Tings returned to China in 1951, committed to the church and society, Christian and non-Christian, China and newly established People’s Republic of China. Ting served the world. This is his enduring legacy to Christians in China for a brief time as general secretary of the Christian Litera- and to the church universal. ture Society (1952–53) in Shanghai before moving to Nanjing, A simple funeral was held for Bishop Ting in Nanjing on where he became principal of Nanjing Union Theological November 27, 2012, and on December 8 the China Christian Seminary, a position he held until 2010. Ting joined in the Council held a memorial service for him at the Mochou Road work of the Chinese Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement Church, a short distance from his home of almost sixty years. (TSPM) and became a well-known interpreter of the Chinese K. H. Ting is survived by two sons and their families, includ- revolution to the West. In 1955 he was consecrated bishop of ing two grandchildren. the of Chekiang (Zhejiang). With the intensification —Philip L. Wickeri of radical political movements in China beginning in the late 1950s, Ting’s position became increasingly difficult. He was Philip L. Wickeri is Advisor to the on Theological removed from all his church and political posts at the start of and Historical Studies, Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican), the Cultural Revolution in 1966. and visiting professor at Ming Hua Theological College and Shang- With the beginning of the period of “openness and hai University. He is the author of Reconstructing Christianity reform” in the late 1970s, K. H. Ting emerged as the preemi- in China: K. H. Ting and the Chinese Church (Orbis, 2007).

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