Letter from Wuhan: Waiting for church doors to reopen

Closed church

As I walked up the steps to St Columban's Church yesterday afternoon in the Hanyang area of Wuhan, I noticed that a white sheet of paper still formed a seal on the main door as it has done since early January. The printed details on this sheet of paper indicate that the church is closed as a precautionary measure due to some small Covid-19 outbreaks elsewhere in China, the timing of which resulted in the temporary closure of many churches over the lunar new year period. In case there were any doubt about the validity of the notice, the page is stamped with red ink from the seal of one of the civil departments, the red seal in China being the indisputable mark of authenticity, whether it be in offices that exercise authority or famous artists who seek to ensure that their work carries the signature of genuineness.

The main door of this church will remain shut until the day arrives when news of a change is received. Until that day anyone who goes up the steps to the main door will see clearly that the door is well and truly shut. Any newcomer who reads the brief and blunt notice might also avail of the opportunity to read about the historical details of the church that are contained on plaques that are mounted on either side of the main door, the arrival of the plaques in recent years being part of the city's initiative to highlight places of special interest. While St. Columban's Church is not the oldest place of worship in the city, its renovation and extension in the mid-1930s have made it worthy of being included in the city's list of heritage buildings.

Further to the left of the main door is a display board containing information that might also be of interest to a newcomer to the church. That information is a mixture of text and photographs, the most interesting photograph showing Albert Einstein and Fr Georges Lemaitre during one of just three meetings that they ever had. The display board explains that people in the scientific community can advance to the level of insight achieved by Einstein and Lemaitre while still believing in God. Albert Einstein proposed the theory of general relativity and also provided revolutionary insights into the curvature of time and space, all groundbreaking developments of the past century. Fr Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest and cosmologist, made observations of the expanding nature of the universe and was therefore the first to propose that such expansion implied that far back in time the universe must have emerged from a single point, the original tiny point of origin referred to by him as the primeval atom. Later this understanding became known as the Big Bang Theory and is now referred to by some people as the Primordial Flaring Forth.

In a country where science is often held up as the alternative to faith, the effort by some faith communities in China to redress the balance is one that seeks to keep the dialogue open between faith and science.

The sight of the main door being locked at St Columban's Church is now quite a contrast to the rest of the city where life has returned to near normality since the middle of last year. Without needing to get involved in endless discussion, the local faith community accepts that the door at the top of the steps will remain closed until such time as news to the contrary arrives. The accumulation of wisdom in China lends itself to the avoidance of futile arguments with people in authority and a general willingness to accept what is said by those entrusted with responsibility.

Another feature of the long development of Chinese culture is the way short phrases can hold a world of meaning, the possibility of three or four words expressing a widely understood view. One popular phrase in the Chinese language is "walk in the back door", an expression that proposes alternative approaches when official channels claim that there is no way to resolve an issue. A favourable interpretation of this short phrase could see it as a way for people at a local level to make decisions, with the obvious understanding that they should not cause problems for others.

Following a conversation yesterday with friends at the convent beside the church, I am wondering if Albert Einstein and Fr Georges Lemaitre would be puzzled if they were to stand by the main door of the church for a week to try to understand what is happening. Their professional commitment to focusing on facts would lead them to continually affirm that the main door of the church remained firmly closed and that nobody came up the steps and entered the building. Such observations would then be challenged by their perception that vibrations were emerging from the church early each morning for a specific period of time. A familiarity with Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation might lead them to suggest that the echoes of the beginnings of the universe from 13 billion years ago could have their equivalent in churches with faint echoes of familiar sounds still circulating a few weeks after the church doors actually closed.

Perhaps some mysteries, even when engaged with by the finest scientific minds, eventually lead us to conceding that we do not understand everything about the universe as created by God, needing to accept that it is unique in its vastness, diversity and complexities.

In the meantime, a Catholic community in one part of Wuhan quietly waits for its church doors to be reopened.