Hi! This is Mary.
The other day I had the chance to visit the Yanjing Theological Seminary, the only Protestant seminary in Beijing.
A seminary by the river, in relative isolation, framed by roads and dust.
Once Fan (my translator) and I arrived at the gates of the seminary, the security guard pointed out the office building. As we approached the building I heard a voice calling from above; it was the seminary dean, Pastor Wang, calling us from the second-story window. We climbed up the stairs to a room which walls were decorated with photographs of famous visitors, gifts of goodwill from churches around the world, and cloth scrolls of characters I didn’t understand. There was a photograph of Hillary Clinton shaking hands with a pastor, and a few triangular banners with names of churches in the southern U.S., which reminded me of those banners sold at college bookstores, you know, SWARTHMORE, AMHERST, and the like. The floor was clean tile, the chairs wooden and straight-backed. Pastor Wang spoke with me for about an hour and a half, a conversation mediated of course by Fan, probably riddled with misunderstandings but illuminating nonetheless. It was noon when Fan and I left the seminary, taking with us a few issues of theological journals and an invitation from Pastor Wang to return anytime. We made sure to check out the statues on the lawn as we left.
A statue outside the seminary which integrates the traditional symbolic uses of fish in Chinese culture and in Christianity, and look, the Olympic sign, too!
Another statue on the seminary lawn, between trees, before the gate.