Christ the King Church, Zhangyan

Baijia Village Church (百家村天主堂, Bǎijiācūn Tiānzhǔtáng) stands in the countryside of Zhangyan (张堰, Zhāngyàn), in the southwest of Jinshan District. It is the church that Jinshan’s Catholics treated as their centre through the twentieth century, and it still carries that role in the county gazetteers.

A parish church rebuilt in 1933

The building you see dates to a rebuilding in April 1933. The Jinshan gazetteer puts the cost at 10,000 yuan and counts 31 single-storey tiled rooms, six rooms in a two-storey block and a bell tower, on a site of 1,321 square metres. At that time the church belonged to the Nanqiao deanery (南桥总铎区), the regional unit set up in 1922 for the south of the Huangpu, and it served thirteen outstations with about 2,000 Catholics. Its priests over the years included Zhang Yuelou, Zhang Anbo and Li Zaide.

How was it reopened in 1984?

Religious activity here stopped in the late 1950s, and a production brigade took over the buildings. In October 1982 the county government approved their return. The Shanghai diocese paid for repairs, and the church reopened on 25 December 1984; about 1,200 Catholics came to the thanksgiving Mass. It was the first Catholic church in Jinshan to reopen.

Why did it become the county centre?

Because its priest was the head priest for the whole county. By 1996 the county had more than 8,500 Catholics. The big annual feasts were fixed at Baijia, drawing up to about 1,200 people at Christmas, against 100 to 400 on an ordinary day.

What to look for

When the compound was registered in 1995 it covered 1,943 square metres, with 1,105.9 square metres of buildings: the church, the bell tower, a dormitory, offices and a canteen. The gazetteer calls the church and tower Gothic in style. Stand in the yard in front of the church to see the tower and the church front together, then notice how much of the compound is service buildings; this was a working parish centre as much as a place of worship.