K. H. Ting

Ting died on 22 November 2012, and his body was cremated on 27 November. Yu Zhengsheng attended his funeral on behalf of the central government. Several Chinese Anglican leaders, such as Peter Kwong and Paul Kwong, led Ting's funeral service on December 8 at Christianity Mochou Road Church.

Ting had also held a number of political posts. He was a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (1989–2008), and a member of the National People's Congress, China's legislature.

Ting's writings were mainly published after the 1980s. Ting formally started to construct his theological discourse aiming to deal with the relation of Christian faith with communism and other religions; meanwhile, he promoted "theological reconstruction" (simplified Chinese: 神学思想建设; traditional Chinese: 神學思想建設; pinyin: shénxué sīxiǎng jiànshè) in an attempt to construct indigenous theology on the basis of Chinese socio-political and religio-cultural context. It was also seen by some as an attempt to remove fundamentalist and evangelical forms of Christianity from the Chinese church.

In 1958, the Anglican Church in China was merged into the Chinese Christian Church and Ting lost his positions in the Anglican Church, but he remained a bishop in the eyes of many Chinese Christians and the wider Anglican Church. He returned to prominence in the 1970s. In 1980, he became President of the China Christian Council and leader of the TSPM, positions he held until 1997. In 1985, Ting helped found the Amity Foundation and remained its president as well as being principal of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary until his death. In 1988, Ting proclaimed that "the church should be in tune with socialism, but should not be a government department", proposing the end of the Three-Self Movement by 1991. This proposal was rejected after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Ting was trained in the Anglican tradition and, in 1955, was consecrated as Anglican Bishop of Chekiang. As he never renounced his ordination, he remained a bishop until his death. However, in 1958 the Anglican Church in China came to an end as an independent institution in mainland China, leaving Ting with no episcopal functions to perform.

In 1954, shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, 138 Chinese Christian leaders presented the Christian Manifesto to the country, pledging the support of Christians for anti-imperialism, anti-feudalism, and the struggle against bureaucratic capitalism. This manifesto would launch the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, of which Ting was elected to the standing committee in the same year. In 1955, he was consecrated as the Anglican bishop of Zhejiang. By 1957, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement claimed the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of Christians in China.

In 1951 the Tings returned to China with their young son Stephen Yenren Ting, born in November 1948. Their second son Heping Ting was born in July 1952. Ting went on to serve as general manager of the Shanghai-based Chinese Christian Literature Society from 1951 to 1953, when he became principal of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary.

After he returned the new China in 1951, he joined the Three-self movement which was led by Y. T. Wu and chose to cooperate with the CCP regime. Ting became one of most influential Christian leaders in the national Three-self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council since the 1980s.

Before the 1950s, influenced by his predecessor Y. T. Wu, Ting joined the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), attempting to devote himself to the national salvation and advocating that Christianity focuses not just individual salvation, but also social salvation. At that time, he also appreciated communism, although cautiously. In 1948 when he commented on the civil war in China, he wrote:

From 1942 to 1945, Ting worked in the administration of the YMCA. In 1946, he and his wife moved to Canada, where he became missions secretary of the Canadian Student Christian Movement. Ting studied at Columbia University and at Union Theological Seminary, both in New York City, from 1947 to 1948, gaining a master's degree in arts and theology. From 1948 to 1951, he worked in the administration of the World Student Christian Federation in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ting was educated at Shanghai's Saint John's University (1937–42), graduating B.A. in 1937 and B.D. in 1942. In the same year, he was ordained as an Anglican deacon and married Siu-May Kuo (1916–1995), both taken place at the Church of Our Savior on Wu Yuan Road, Shanghai.

K. H. Ting, Ting Kuang-hsun or Ding Guangxun (Chinese: 丁光訓; 20 September 1915 – 22 November 2012), was Chairperson emeritus of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and President emeritus of the China Christian Council, the government-approved Protestant church in China.