Name: Rev. Ying Gao

Nationality: Chinese

Church: China Christian Council

Function: Vice-president of CCC and president of Yanjing Theological Seminary, the second largest seminary in China.

Central Committee: Member since 1998

Age: 57

Family: Single

First encounter with ecumenical movement: In 1993 I attended the Fifth International conference on Faith and Order. My journey in the ecumenical movement started there.

Religious conflict is now a serious issue globally and the church can play a valuable role. In China, we’ve formed an organization, the China Conference on Religion and Peace, which is composed of five national religious bodies – Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic, Catholic and Protestant – working on peace. We followed the rubric of the World Conference on Religion and Peace – no talk about mission or evangelism, just peace. This is a good rubric to follow. Last year, representatives of all five traditions, which don’t usually get together, gathered together and offered prayers for peace. Despite our differences, we all long for peace.

Climate change is a frustrating and challenging issue for the church in China. Economic development, on the one hand is successful in China, but on the other hand the price we’ve paid is environmental protection. We have not done an effective job in that area and we should do more. In the past few years there have been growing voices in church advocating environmental protection. We should be involved because we have been called by God to be stewards of God’s creation.

For the church in China, the biggest challenge is the shortage of theologically educated leaders. For the WCC, the biggest challenge is determining the unique role the WCC can play as the leader of the ecumenical movement and family. The WCC has to demonstrate that it has a unique role that only the WCC can play, since other ecumenical organizations are now doing some of the same things as the WCC.