Li Songchen chose Trinity Church, on the one hand, because this church is large enough, on the other hand, because of the convenient transportation, although East China ** now occupies all the Shanghai area, but the main activities are still in the original East China ** Shanghai New District and concession area.

Shanghai New Area is the core of East China in Shanghai, and is still the location of Shanghai in East China, although East China is not operating for a long time in Shanghai New Area, only more than 4 years, but it has begun to become a gas image, by which it is the construction of roads, basically reflecting the overall appearance of urban planning,

The original concession area was originally the best and most complete area of infrastructure in Shanghai, although the construction of the road is still some distance from the requirements of East China, mainly because it is insufficient to take the car, but it is also free of strong use. The Shanghai New Area and the original concession area were originally connected, and after East China ** was recovered to the concession, the boundary wall was immediately demolished and the passage road was repaired, so that the Shanghai New Area and the original concession area were completely connected and unimpeded. And the roads in the original concession area have been renovated to a certain extent. Cars can travel directly from Shanghai New Area to Trinity Church.

For the original old city of Shanghai, that is, the county seat of Shanghai and the surrounding areas, East China has taken measures to maintain the status quo, and has not renovated the old city of Shanghai, because the old city houses are old, the roads are narrow, the houses are crowded, and the population is large. After the completion of the new development area, the population of the old city will be gradually relocated, and the old city will be gradually vacated, and then the old city of Shanghai will be renovated.

Of course, Li Songchen also made a preliminary plan for the transformation of the old city of Shanghai, and did not plan to tear down the old city and rebuild it, but to retain these old-fashioned buildings in the old city as much as possible, and use them as the cultural landscape of Shanghai in the future. The patriarchs are well aware of this, and before crossing over, if the city still retains a complete group of ancient buildings, it is definitely the most famous business card of the city. Although Li Songchen could not sit in the position of mayor of Shanghai until these old buildings played a role, he could leave a precious legacy for his successor.

When the motorcade arrived at the entrance of the church, the staff of the Holy Trinity Church had already been informed that the German mission had arrived at the entrance of the church under the leadership of the priest. After Prince Heinrich and his wife got out of the car, they immediately greeted them and said, "Welcome Your Excellency, Lady Princess." ”

Prince Heinrich looked at the priest and saw that he was about 40 years old, although he was dressed in a priest's black robe, he had black hair and black eyes, yellow skin, and although he spoke English, he obviously had an Asian accent, and was obviously a Chinese.

Although Prince Heinrich was a little surprised, although the church had gained a foothold in China at this time, and also attracted a group of devout Chinese believers, the leaders of the church were basically foreigners, and the Chinese Christians served as the priests of the church, and Prince Heinrich was also the first time to see him, of course, Prince Heinrich has been active in Qingdao for more than a year, and occasionally went to Jinan and Dengzhou, and it was the first time to come to Shanghai, and he did not know the rules here. However, this is in East China**, and his group came to the church to worship, and he didn't say anything, and after a few polite words, he took everyone into the church together.

However, this Chinese priest is obviously very proficient in business, whether it is language, gestures, or demeanor, he is obviously a professional who has been practiced for a long time, and he is not a temporary one. Therefore, the Germans forgot about the race of the Chinese priests and devoted themselves to the worship of the body and mind.

In fact, when East China was in Shandong, Tianjin and other regions, it was still relatively tolerant of the European church, not only allowing the church to continue to exist in East China, but still being able to preach and develop believers, and there were also some patriarchs who often went to the church, participated in services, Masses and other activities, and even received baptism, and several patriarchs held weddings in the church.

Of course, this is not the same as letting the church go, but because in this era, the problem of the church is very complicated, not only in the scope of religion, but also involves politics, society, etc., and the European church has now developed millions of believers in China, including some Chinese with social identity and status, and officials from various countries, Merchants have extensive connections, and the slightest inappropriateness will cause major social incidents, and the Geng Kuo National Revolution was caused by the church problem, so it cannot be simply and rudely banned.

East China allows the church to exist and act religious activities at the same time, the management of the church is also very strict, and set up a special agency to manage the church, the main management idea is to limit the church's activities to the scope of religion, never allow the church to involve political activities, but where it is found that there are churches or priests engaged in political activities, will be severely punished, East China ** is merciless. However, it is the individual clergy who will be punished, and the church will not be closed, even if all the clergy in a church are served in one pot, another group of people will preside over it, and the activities of worship and mass will be carried out as usual, so that other believers can still carry out activities in the church, and they do not care whether they are replaced or not.

The second is to abolish the privileges of missionaries and believers, because the church is from Europe, so in the process of missionary work in China, it will more or less borrow some foreign forces, enjoy certain privileges, and also maintain a lot of support for the believers, and some of these missionaries of a bad nature even openly shelter the evildoers, and a considerable number of Chinese believers are also entering the church for these privileges of the church, and use the power of the church to do evil. However, within the jurisdiction of East China, the church, missionaries, and believers will not have the slightest privilege, exactly the same as other religions, and it is impossible to use the power of the church to do anything wrong.

Another trick in East China is to control the financial power of the church. Although the church is a religious institution, it is not completely free from human fireworks, the church needs to be maintained, repaired, the clergy also have to eat, and there are regular services and masses, all of which cost money. The income of the church mainly comes from two aspects, one is the donation of religious believers, and the other is the income of other properties, such as real estate and land, and some churches also run schools and collect tuition fees, as well as the sale of some religious items.

However, East China prohibits all other income of the church, except for the church, confiscates all other real estate and real estate, and what the religious institution wants to do with so much property; and the living expenses of the priests and the daily maintenance of the church are paid by the church; and prohibits the church from running a school concurrently, and the missionary can also serve as a teacher, but he must teach in a professional school.

As for the church's donation income, of course, East China ** cannot be prohibited, but East China ** requires the church to account for all donations and expenses, and designate a special person to be responsible for it, and report it regularly, and at the same time, the church's organizational activities must also be declared, so that the church's financial power and organizational activities can be understood and controlled, and the church can be firmly controlled.

The last point is that Huadong** only recognizes the existing foreign missionaries who preside over the church, and does not recognize the new presiding priests at all, even if there is an appointment from the upper church, it is useless, so as soon as the existing presiding priest dies, is transferred, or is arrested for a crime, Huadong** will appoint a new presiding priest on its own, all of course, all of whom are Chinese Catholics. Although there are no lack of true devout believers among Chinese believers, Bi Jing is Chinese, and the vast majority of people will still stand on the side of their motherland, not to mention that it is now the ** head of East China, foreigners can no longer be superior here, and those who flatter foreigners have naturally lost their space for survival, and the new Chinese presiding priest can basically be consistent with East China **.

In this way, not only can we gradually replace the control of foreign clergy over the church with Chinese and return the church to the religious level, but also enable the church under the rule of East China ** to completely get rid of the control of foreign churches, and eventually become a system of its own, and maintain a religion with East China **. Although such churches are not recognized by the headquarters of foreign churches, ordinary believers do not care about these things. Because China is a multi-religious country, Chinese is quite tolerant of religion, and even has a very broad foundation for believing in multiple religions, as long as it is not controlled by foreign forces, nothing serious will happen.

After the resumption of the Shanghai Concession, East China completely transplanted this set of management systems for the church to Shanghai. Moreover, when East China ** recovered the Shanghai Concession, Zhengcheng declared war with the British and French, so the British and French people in the concession were restricted from freedom, including all British and French missionaries, so a considerable number of churches lost their presiding officers. After stabilizing the situation in Shanghai, East China immediately transferred a group of believers from Tianjin to Shanghai, some took over the church, and some served as deacons in charge of finance in other churches, while the ordinary congregants saw that the church was still open, and the priests and priests were also complete, so they didn't care about the change of presiding officers. He was not soft on such people, and he was quickly suppressed, so the church in Shanghai was quickly stabilized.

The original presiding priest of the Holy Trinity Church turned out to be an Englishman, and when East China** recovered the Shanghai Concession, he, like other Britons, was restricted in his freedom, so Huadong ** appointed a Chinese priest from Tianjin to be the presiding priest of the Holy Trinity Church.

This Chinese priest is called Huang Hanwen, originally an orphan adopted by the church, has been in the church for more than 20 years, not only is he very familiar with all the affairs of the church, but also learned a lot of modern knowledge, and is proficient in English and French languages, but although this person has been in the church for more than 20 years, because he was 16 years old when he joined the church, and received some traditional education, so in addition to learning knowledge in the church, he also insisted on learning traditional Chinese culture, so he still thinks that he is Chinese in his thoughts, and he has a deep understanding of East China ** is also very supportive, believing that only East China is China's hope, and of course it is also valued by East China, so this time he is also entrusted with a heavy responsibility.

After the end of the negotiations between East China ** and the United Kingdom, the British priest who originally presided over the Holy Trinity Church regained his freedom, but the presiding position was not returned to him, and he could only return to the Holy Trinity Church as a deacon. Of course, not only him, but also other English and French priests who presided over the church lost their position.

After the end of the naval battle in the Taiwan Strait, the expeditionary force was completely defeated, and the missionaries were completely dead, and some missionaries could only succumb to the facts and become a deacon with peace of mind, while some felt faceless, so they simply gave up the church and went to other places.

Happy New Year to all book friends!

I wish the people of Wuhan an early victory over the disease!