CHINA

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says he believes that in some regions in China the percentage of the population attending church on Sundays is as large as or even larger than that in most western European countries. “The astonishing and quite unpredictable explosion in Christian numbers in recent years is clearly connected to a widespread sense that the equally extraordinary explosion in the economic life has left many huge questions about personal and social values unanswered,” Williams said at the end of his two-week visit to the county. Williams, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, which numbers around seventy million people, said that if China was to develop the kind of civil society that will guarantee both stability and harmony, the Church is a vital partner. (Ecumenical News International)