Holy Saviour Cathedral

Holy Saviour Cathedral

Holy Saviour Cathedral is a cultural relic protection unit of Anqing City.

Anqing Holy Saviour Cathedral, located at Xia’erlang Lane in Yingjiang District, Anqing City, is situated about 20 meters north of the old Anqing Dengyun School building. Facing east and set back to the west, the cathedral is constructed with brick, stone, and wood in a Western architectural style. Majestic and solemn, its flat blue brickwork showcases exquisite craftsmanship and holds high historical and cultural value.

In the 20th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1894), the American Episcopal Church sent Chinese missionary Huang Langzhai to Anqing to preach. He purchased property in Erlang Lane to establish Holy Saviour Cathedral, a school, a hospital, and a hospital ward. In the 26th year of the Guangxu reign (1900), American missionary Lin Xueru preached by renting a place on Shuangjing Street. With donations from wealthy locals such as Lu Qiguang, the church purchased property in Da’erlang Lane in the 27th year of the Guangxu reign (1901) and began constructing the “Holy Saviour Cathedral,” then known as Anqing’s “Holy Saviour Church.” At the 1909 General Council of Bishops of the American Episcopal Church in China, it was decided that in 1910, the Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese would split from the Hubei-Hunan-Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese, consisting of all of Anhui Province and the part of Jiangxi Province north of latitude 28 degrees. The cathedral was temporarily stationed in Wuhu, and the Anqing “Holy Saviour Church” was expanded into the Anqing “Holy Saviour Cathedral.” The diocesan assembly elected Francis Lister Hawks Pott (卜舫济) as bishop of the Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese. The diocese was divided into three regions: southern Anhui, western Anhui, and Jiangxi, with the “Grace Church” established at Tiefowan in the northeast of Anqing City. In 1911, Daniel Trumbull Huntington, whose Chinese name was Han Rendun, was elevated to bishop of the Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese (Anqing).

In April 1912, the first year of the Republic of China, a nationwide Episcopal Church organization in China called the “National Church of China” (中华圣公会) was established, and the newly completed “Holy Saviour Cathedral” became part of the “Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese of the National Church of China.” On November 10, the consecration ceremony for the cathedral, which served as the bishop’s seat, was held. It was one of the ten largest churches in the country at the time. Designed in the shape of a cross, the Western Gothic-style church covered an area of 700 square meters and could accommodate one thousand worshippers. A three-story bell tower was built at the northeast corner of the cathedral, topped with a Gothic-style spire adorned with decorations. Due to the elevated location of the Holy Saviour Cathedral, its bell tower was one of the ten tallest buildings in Anqing at the time. In 1913, the second year of the Republic of China, the “Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese of the National Church of China” was renamed the “Anqing Diocese of the National Church of China,” and the cathedral was accordingly named the “Holy Saviour Cathedral of the Anqing Diocese of the National Church of China.” After the establishment of the Republic, the National Church of China grew rapidly. By 1927, the Anqing (Anhui-Jiangxi) Diocese had 232 Chinese clergy, 52 foreign clergy, 5,172 parishioners, and 41 worship chapels.

On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor triggered the Pacific War. After Anqing fell, Holy Saviour Cathedral, Grace Church, Holy Spirit Church, Holy Trinity Church, and Chengren Church were all occupied by the Japanese invading forces. To prevent Americans from using the Holy Saviour Cathedral’s bell tower to observe Japanese military base activities, the Japanese dismantled the cathedral’s bell tower. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Anqing Diocese of the National Church of China was renamed the Wuhu (Anhui-Jiangxi) Diocese of the National Church of China, taking charge of the affairs of the Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese, and the bishop’s seat was moved from Anqing’s Holy Saviour Cathedral to Wuhu’s Mark Chapel. In 1949, Reverend Chen Jianzhen, who had previously worked in the Anqing Diocese of the National Church of China, became the fourth bishop of the Anhui-Jiangxi Diocese. He was also the vice president of the World Council for Christian Education, chairman of the National Church of China’s College of Bishops, and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Church of China’s General Synod. He was also one of the main initiators of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Chinese Christianity.

During the Cultural Revolution, Anqing Holy Saviour Cathedral was repurposed by enterprises such as the Anqing Shoe Factory into a two-story building, housing 38 employee families. In 1984, the municipal government implemented religious policy and returned the entire church, including its residential occupants, to the Anqing Christian Three-Self Patriotic Committee. In October 2004, Ding Guangxun, then Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, specifically urged the Anqing municipal government to renovate the “Holy Saviour Cathedral” during his inspection visit to Anqing, and personally inscribed the slogan: “Actively protect religious cultural heritage and strive to promote the construction of Anqing as a historic and cultural city.” On May 28, 2012, the “Holy Saviour Cathedral Restoration and Bell Tower Reconstruction Project” broke ground. On October 10, 2015, the main body restoration of the “Holy Saviour Cathedral” was completed.

On July 28, 1995, the “Holy Saviour Cathedral” was designated as an “Anqing Municipal Cultural Relic Protection Unit” by the Anqing Municipal People’s Government.