St. John's Church, Suzhou, Protestant church in Gusu District, Suzhou, China.
St. John's Church is a grey brick Protestant church on Shizi Street, outside the west gate of Soochow University. Its square tower has a stepped, gabled top and arched openings, and a gabled entrance with a triangular pediment sits to its left. The 1915 building seats 800 and covers 1,855 square metres.
The first church on this site was the East Soochow Methodist Church, built in 1881 by missionary Alvin Pierson Parker in Tiancizhuang and seating 400. In 1915 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South demolished it and erected the present 1,855-square-metre, 800-seat church, designed by John M. Moore and named after St. John's Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which had helped fund it. Seized for hospital use in 1959 and returned in 1995, it was restored from 1996 to 1998.
The name honours St. John's Church in St. Louis, Missouri, whose congregation funded the 1915 building. Services continue in Chinese Methodist tradition, with Sunday worship at 9 a.m. and communion on the first Sunday of each month. The first Chinese head pastor was Li Zhongtan (1870-1936), grandfather of Nobel laureate Tsung-Dao Lee.
The church stands at 18 Shizi Street, just outside the west gate of Soochow University's main campus. Sunday worship is held at 9 a.m., with Communion on the first Sunday of each month. Visitors should confirm access in advance, as the building is an active place of worship.
The physicist Tsung-Dao Lee, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957, was the grandson of Li Zhongtan (1870-1936), the church's first Chinese chief pastor. The building also has two twin churches abroad: one in St. Louis, Missouri, and one in Kobe, Japan, built to the same design by John M. Moore.
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