This week in Christian history: First Chinese Methodist convert, Swiss Reformation leader born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 14, 2024

First Chinese Methodist convert baptized – July 14, 1857

Ting Ang, the first Chinese individual to convert to Methodist Christianity, being baptized in 1857. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Ting Ang, a 47-year-old husband and father of five, became the first Chinese individual to convert to Methodist Christianity.

Methodist missionary Robert S. Maclay baptized Ang at the Church of Heavenly Peace, Fuzhou, a congregation that would greatly influence Protestant Chinese Christianity in the region.

“After suitable introductory remarks, explanatory of the nature of both baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the candidate was requested to stand up and repeat, in an audible, voice, the Commandments and the Baptismal Covenant,” recounted Maclay in an article published in 1900.

“I then explained them, sentence by sentence, the candidate audibly expressing his cordial belief in them, and his determination faithfully to keep and obey them. I then proceeded to baptize him, sprinkling the water on his head, while he knelt at the altar.”