Mochou Lu Church
The gospel was brought to Nanjing early in 1867 the China Inland Mission. Later, Albert Whiting and Charles Leaman of the Presbyterian Church USA came to preach the good news in 1873 and 1874. They successfully built the first church in 1876, called "Four Poles', with a capacity of 100 people. They also helped found the famous Nanking Girl's Boarding School (Also called Mingde School) in 1884. Leaman build a formal church opposite to Mingde School in 1888, called 'Jesus Church,' which had a larger capacity of 400 people. The first Chinese pastor of the church was Rev. Sun Xisheng, who came from the Shandong Presbyterian Church in 1910. He served the church for 17 years. Jesus Church was renamed Hanzhong Church in 1927.
Rev. Paul Abbott who arrived in Nanjing in 1936 rebuilt Hanzhong Church in the Gothic style we see today, with a capacity of 1000 people. The church was designed by Elder. Chen Yuhua, the younger brother of Mr. Chen Yuguang, the president at that time ofJinling University [theUniversityofNanking]. The famous Christian general Feng Yuxiang inscribed the words on the corner stone, 'The foundation is Jesus Christ', while the calligraphy for 'Hanzhong Church' was written by another general, Zhang Zhijiang. The church building foundation was laid on August 4th, 1936 and the building was completed in 1942. During that period, the church served as a refugee center to protect many people from the invading Japanese Army. Rev. Paul was head of the church till 1949.
Hanzhong church was renamed Mochou Road Church in 1954. Multi-denominational services began in the four main churches in Nanjing, including Mochou Road Church, in 1958.
The church now has 4,000 members, attending nine different services and gatherings during the week. About 2,000 people regularly attend Sunday services. Baptism is held twice a year, once before Christmas and one before Easter. Holy Communion is held every two months, as well as at Christmas and Easter. 30 teams have been set up to take care of the daily affairs organized by the four departments mentioned above.
Add: No.390, Mochou Rd. Baixia Dis., Nanjing, Jiangsu
Tel: +86 25 84461835