Extra-Mission Indigenous Sector
There was, however, an altogether different sector of Chinese Christianity which came into being in the 1900-1937 period, one which was to a high degree independent of foreign missions, autonomous in operations, and truly indigenous in ideas and leadership. This sector of Christianity has been sorely neglected by scholars of Chinese history and of the History of Christianity as well.
It is a diverse sector, made up of a combination of organized church groups (some nationwide with hundreds of congregations) and of individual congregations or even individual Christian workers who made their mark in a more local setting. Some of the these coexisted with and interacted with the mission churches; others were quite separatist and had almost no contacts with other Christians, Chinese or foreign.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Independent Churches
Famous quotes containing the word indigenous:
“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground,—and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as rustling leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)