Church as Women's Community: Exploring and Constructing of Ecclesiology of Chinese Women

The Protestant church in mainland China presents a striking and impressive phenomenon: women represent approximately 70% of its believers. These women have played pivotal roles in shaping the history of Christianity in China. However, they find themselves marginalized within the church's power dynamics and theological discourse. In this paper, by drawing inspiration from the ecclesiological understandings of Letty Russel and Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, and exploring  why and how these Chinese women stayed in the feminized church with male-centric ecclesiology and made their own contributions to the church, my aim is to unravel the unique path of Chinese Christian women have approached the formation of new communities in which being church takes place in a way that is meaningful for them, endowed with spiritual gifts, advocating for partnership leadership and use this kind community as a way to  employ subtle resistance and subversion to the patriarchal and hierarchy in the church.