Holy Trinity Hall

Holy Trinity Hall

Shanghai Holy Trinity Church (Shanghai) is located in Huangpu District of Shanghai, the central area of the former Shanghai public concession. The church is adjacent to Jiangxi Road in the East, Jiujiang Road in the north and Hankou Road in the south, which is the building of Shanghai public concession Industry Bureau. Because of its red appearance, the church is commonly known as "red chapel".

Trinity Church is a church dedicated to Anglicans among British Expatriates. A small church was first built in 1847. After the original church was in disrepair, the chapel was rebuilt from 1866 to 1869 with reference to the design of architect George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878). The appearance of the chapel is Neo Gothic. It is also the largest and most magnificent Christian Church in Shanghai. In 1875, the church was upgraded to the Episcopal Church of North China Diocese of the Anglican Church. In 1893, a towering bell tower was built on the left side of the church. During the cultural revolution, the church was seriously damaged.

Holy Trinity Church was the English Episcopal Church of the Church of England in the Far East of Shanghai, and the international Episcopal Church under the former Episcopal Church of China. Since 2006, Holy Trinity Church has become the headquarters affiliated Church of the three self Patriotic Movement and the Christian Association of China. The restored Trinity Church is only open to believers on Sundays.

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Church History

1847-1866

The predecessor of Shanghai Holy Trinity Church is the Holy Trinity church built in 1847. Before that, the British Expatriates in Shanghai held a service at the British Consulate.

Thomas Chaye Beale, a Scottish businessman of dent Co., bought the site of the church and donated it to the church. Because the church is close to c.m.s., Church Missionary Society, the street in front of the church is also called Church Street. It was not changed to Jiangxi road until 1865. In 1850 and 1851, the temple was overhauled. During this period, a series of misfortunes occurred one after another: Luther, the first pastor, drowned and died; Hobson, the second pastor, tumbled down from the roof. In 1862, the church was destroyed by a strong typhoon and collapsed, unable to continue to use and forced to demolish.

After the demolition of the original church, the British architect George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) designed a new church in the New Gothic style. Because Scott's original design was too gorgeous, which exceeded the affordability of the British in Shanghai, and the new hall needed to accommodate more believers, William kindlner, the only designer in Shanghai with the membership of the Royal Society of architecture, was invited to revise the architectural drawings.

1866-1949

On May 24, 1866, the foundation of Trinity hall was laid. In 1869, the church, which consumed 70000 liang of silver, was officially opened after three years of construction. Saint Trinity hall is still designed in Neo Gothic style, but its design also reflects the integration of various architectural styles. In 1893, on the left side of the Trinity Church, another towering bell tower was built, which greatly enhanced the Neo Gothic flavor of the church. The bell tower is a square plane with a pointed cone-shaped roof and four small spires at the four corners. There are eight tone bells in the bell tower, which can be struck according to the rhyme of the hymn. In 1901, a spire was added to the top of the bell tower (the spire was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution). In 1908, the Trinity Church began to use electric lighting. In 1914, the largest electric blower organ from the Far East was installed in the Church of Trinity. Before the appearance of high-rise buildings with more than 10 storeys in Shanghai in 1930s, the bell tower of Trinity hall used to be the commanding height and the most eye-catching landmark of Shanghai for a long time, especially for the passengers going in and out of Shanghai by ship.

1949-1966

After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, most of the British Expatriates did not withdraw from Shanghai at first, and the Trinity hall still maintains the characteristics of the British expatriate seat. From 1951 to 1952, the chaplain group of Holy Trinity and its British members left Shanghai one after another. The very reverend A. C. S. Trivett, the last Minister of the church, left Shanghai.

In 1953, the British owners of Holy Trinity Church were informed that they had owed a large amount of real estate tax, so they handed the Holy Trinity Church over to the Shanghai Municipal People's government. The Shanghai Municipal People's government presented the Holy Trinity Cathedral Church to the national three self funding Committee, and the national three self funding Committee handed over the church to the Anglican Church of China with the same religious background. After taking over the Trinity Church, the general assembly of the Chinese episcopal church carried out a renovation. Many donations came from the members of St. Paul's church, where they had worshiped. After the completion of the church renovation project in 1955, the church held Thanksgiving and consecration services, and the Trinity Church became the main seat of the Anglican Church of China. The Episcopal Church of the Anglican Church of China decided to position the church as the local international Anglican Episcopal Church in Shanghai, under the jurisdiction of Allah Chen Jian, chairman of the Episcopal Church.

In 1958, the last meeting of the Chinese Episcopal Church was held in the Holy Trinity hall. Later, in the climax of offering churches and temples, the believers of other nearby churches, such as Tianan church on Shandong Road (belonging to the Chinese Christian Church, originally opened by the London church), were also incorporated into Holy Trinity Church. At the same time, Holy Trinity Church continued to use the traditional book of public prayer.

1966 to present

In August 1966, when the Cultural Revolution began, all religious activities were banned in the great upsurge of breaking the four olds. The Holy Trinity hall, together with all religious institutions in Shanghai, was closed as the "four olds". Some red guards of Peicheng junior high school on Jiangxi middle road nearby were ordered to connive and occupied the Holy Trinity hall. Shengpin people were ordered to accept criticism, and then sent to factories and rural areas for manual labor. As a symbol of imperialist aggression, the spire of the Victorian Gothic octave bell tower, which has the most religious characteristics on the northeast side of the seat hall, was dragged down by hundreds of red guards with ropes. It took a whole day, which was deeply impressed by the residents who watched it. A few days later, unidentified people entered and took over the living areas of the church, library, archives building and all the clergy's office buildings. A series of raids were carried out and all of them were confiscated. In the next few months, the 14-year-old and 5-year-old red guards occupied the inner sanctuary area of the chapel, wantonly destroyed the church facilities in the chapel, and the rare and precious ancient organ in the chapel was also damaged. Not far from the altar, there is a secret door leading to the basement. Dozens of ashtrays of British Expatriates are stored in the main basement, and they have also been damaged.

For nearly 40 years after the end of the cultural revolution, the church was expropriated by the Huangpu District government for a long time.

On June 6, 2005, Shanghai Holy Trinity Church was returned to Christian institutions. The national "two churches" of China moved from No. 169 Yuanmingyuan Road to No. 219 Jiujiang Road, a 4-storey affiliated office building on the north side of Holy Trinity Church. Ji Jianhong and Cao Shengjie, the leaders of the two churches, moved to their offices. The church is scheduled to reopen after restoration.

The church has been renovated, but it is only open to believers during church hours.

architectural style

building structure

The appearance of St. Trinity hall designed by Scott belongs to Neo Gothic style (also known as Gothic Renaissance style), and many Gothic elements are designed, such as sharp coupons all over the church, but semicircle coupons are used in the entrance porch. The interior and exterior walls of the whole church are made of fair faced red brick, so the Trinity hall is also commonly known as "red chapel" and "English Church". On both sides of the church, there is a portico with pointed columns; however, instead of using the beam columns commonly used in Gothic churches, a single low column with a prominent cap is used, which supports the continuous portico. The architectural plan of Saint Trinity Church is in line with the specifications of the church. It is Latin cross type, about 47 meters long, 18 meters wide, and 19 meters high. The sanctuary in the rear is in accordance with the Anglican norms and is a semi dome structure of ancient Anglican style. The Trinity church faces the west, that is, Jerusalem, the holy land of Christianity.

In Shanghai, which is located in the impact zone of the Yangtze River Delta and has soft geology, the problem of avoiding building settlement must be solved first. Therefore, during the construction of the Holy Trinity hall, more than 8000 wooden piles were laid on the foundation of 1000 square meters.

Building interior

The hall of Holy Trinity has a mosaic marble floor, with Latin sacrificial altar, ladder preaching platform, Eagle shaped Scripture reading platform and baptism plate (in the northeast corner), all decorated with exquisite relief. The seat is a bench with rattan on the back, and the name plate of the donor is nailed on the back. In 1914, J. W. walke, the London organ manufacturer

Chinese PinYin : Sheng San Yi Tang