| Unprecedented progress has been made in China’s policies on religious administration since the reform and opening up policy was introduced. The states has been putting forward more updated and higher requirements in this regard, especially after the concept of harmonious society being proposed, which also brought about some positive responses from religious communities nationwide. By summarizing the characteristics of the changes of Chinese government’s polices on religious administration over the past30years of reform and opening-up as the basis, in accordance with the theory of constructing harmonious society, from the prospective of government’s function in public administrations, and through theoretical discussions, the study is to understand and comprehend the administrative relationships between Chinese government and religious organizations, religious organizations (members) and non-religious community members, as well as the relationships between religious schools and denominations, with the expectation of providing a theoretical foundation for improving the government’s religious administrative capabilities, rising the managerial abilities within religious organizations and improving the relationship between religious groups and the social as a whole theory, in order to promote the harmonious development of the society.By interpreting the theory of harmonious society, as well as describing the characteristics of religious administration changes in the context of China’s reform and opening up, the study is an effort to discover the meaning of religious administration and various elements that have been affecting it in the construction of harmonious society, and is an attempt to explore the mode of religious administration from the harmonious society point of view. Based on combining the understandings for the theoretical research related to above-mentioned religious administration, the study set Kunming Trinity International Church of Yunnan province (hereafter referred to as the "Trinity Church") as the subject for this study, in order to understand administrative relationship between Chinese government and religious organizations, religious organizations (members) and non-religious community members, as well as the relationship between religious schools and denominations, to reflect the government’s religious policies and managing achievements, as well as to illustrate the positive role that Christianity has played in social harmony.Trinity Church is a directly affiliated religious activity venue (a religious activity venue refers to a venue where religious believers gather for religious activities, or for meeting the needs of religious life; it is where the clergies practice their duties, conduct spiritual practices and religious studies, as well as serve the faith communities) under the Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council (hereinafter referred to as the " Christian lianghui, or "two organizations"). With a long history, the Trinity Church has both presented the basic features of a religious organization and the general characteristics of the development of China’s urban Christian churches in terms of the development and the status quo of their internal and external management. It reflects the primary image of the development of Christianity in Kunming, and is an important platform and window that a local church takes to serve both religious believers and the society.In the course of the study, the authors has based the study on the requirements posed by the theories of constructing a harmonious society, obtained related first-hand information while utilizing methods like observation, interviews and questionnaires among church members of Trinity Church, and consequently had following major conclusions by statistical analyzing and studying the survey data:Firstly, the changes of political attitudes and administrative policies that have been done by Chinese government with regard to religious issues in the course of30years’of reform and opening up, has suggested and mirrored the proactive efforts that government’s made on the ideas and policies on religious administration in order to construct a "harmonious society".Secondly, as an objective requirement for the development of society civilization, the government’s ideas and policies on religious administration have been constantly improving, the dominant force of harmony is growing, all of these have led to the changes of balancing conflicts and tolerating forces among religious organizations and the government, society as well as within religious organizations themselves, and all of these have resulted in religious freedom expansion, and inter-religious relations improvements. These changes have promoted advancement and development in various relationships, and have become an important component in building a harmonious society.Thirdly, the degree of adapting religions to socialist society has continued to increase. The content and purposes of religious (taking Christianity as an example) organization activities have shown growing convergence with the requirements of government guided social development. The continuous evolving harmonious idea in religious belief is both a positive spiritual basis in social construction for the faith communities, also an important spiritual force to build a harmonious society. By investigating the religious believers’ values on wealth, career, social ethics, and marriage, etc., it is reflected that they generally have a positive and hard-working social mentality as well as a strong sense of morality, and they are of a social group that is willing to actively contribute to the construction of a harmonious society.Fourthly, there are still needs for the religious organizations to strengthen their internal management, to continue enhancing the overall knowledge structures among the pastoral staff, while at the same time to continue making efforts combining religious sanctity and social secularity and to prevent religious fanaticism.Fifthly, religious organizations hope that while the government has guided them to play an active role in the construction of a harmonious society, it can also make some appropriate policies to encourage and support them, such as to increase lawful gathering places, to give more supports facilitating religious organizations’ attempt to develop social and welfare services, to help religious organizations enhancing the overall knowledge structures among the pastoral staff, to provide necessary communication platforms for religions and their denominations, and to urge religious organizations to make a greater contribution in the construction of a harmonious society. |
