Holy Family and Good Shepherd Church, Ping'an

Ping’an Church (平安天主堂, Píng’ān Tiānzhǔtáng) in Fengxian (奉贤, Fèngxián) is unusual among the suburban churches near it: it has no old predecessor. It was built from scratch in 1995 for Catholics of the Ping’an area, many of them linked to a state farm.

A congregation without a church

The Fengxian gazetteer gives the starting point. In 1990, Bishop Jin Luxian (金鲁贤, Jīn Lǔxián) visited Catholics in Ping’an township and the Wusi state farm area and found them squeezed into three single-storey rooms of one believer’s house. He decided a church should be built.

How was it built?

Approval came in 1995, and the Shanghai diocese put up a church with a bell tower, a priest’s house and seven annex rooms on 0.31 hectare. The total floor area is 672 square metres, of which 299 square metres is the church and tower. The cost was 900,000 yuan. Bishop Jin presided at the opening ceremony on 31 December 1995, and by 2001 the gazetteer counts 2,120 Catholics.

What to look for

Look at the proportions: a small church and bell tower of about 299 square metres on a compound that also holds a priest’s house and annex rooms, all from one build in 1995. Few Shanghai churches can be dated so exactly to a single project. The church stands at 89 Pinglu Road.