Elder Fu Xianwei (傅先伟长老), the chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (三自爱国运动) and one of the highest-ranking officials of the state-approved Protestant church, is now home from last week's conference of anti-gay Anglican bishops in Singapore. At the conference, Archbishop John Chew of Southeast Asia took over leadership of the 55 million strong Anglican Global South from the Nigerian Archbishop Peter J Aikinola, and the grouping was encouraged to reconsider their communion with The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada for their pro-gay stance "until it becomes clear that there is genuine repentance."

According to the Christian Post, one of the major Christian organisations wishing to seek closer ties with the Anglican Global South is the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which Elder Fu leads:

“I hope that the Chinese Church and the Anglican Global South can expand their cooperation,” said Elder Fu Xianwei.

The Chairman of the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) was making his parting speech before leaving earlier today.

Opportunities for dialogue at the summit have benefited him, Elder Fu expressed.

“The Bible studies, talks and discussions have been helpful for my spiritual growth and for church management,” he said.

Elder Fu told Anglican leaders that he had increased confidence in building his Church. He had attended all the public talks and most of the discussion groups.

Both the Anglican Communion and the Chinese Church face similar challenges of serving God in a multi-religious, globalised and secularised context.

Because of this, dialogue has increased understanding and counsel between the two church bodies...

The TSPM, together with the China Christian Council, gathers over 20 million Christians in 55,000 churches.

As China opens up, the TSPM movement has gradually moved away from its "Three-Self" doctrine, which refers to 'self-governance, self-support, self-propagation' (自治、自养、自传). The doctrine was used by Christian leaders to assure the CCP of the 1950s that they would remain loyal to the newly established People's Republic and be free from foreign influences. Today, state-approved churches in China regularly send students for training in theological colleges overseas and TSPM leaders frequently attend Christian conferences in other parts of the world.