Two settings at Bishop Ding Guangxun's funeral reflect his life

The complex life of Bishop Ding Guangxun, who died last week aged 97, was perfectly illustrated at his funeral on Tuesday.

A controversial figure with both religious and political roles, he was the head of the mainland's state-sanctioned Protestant church and also "a close friend of the Communist Party".

Photographs of the funeral showed two settings. There was a non-religious one, attended by officials, with Ding's body covered by a national flag, a portrait of him in a suit, and a banner reading "Mourning Bishop Ding Guangxun". And then there was a religious one, with his body covered by a white sheet with a cross, a portrait of him in a bishop's robe, and a banner reading "Bishop Ding Guangxun rest in peace in the Lord's arms".

The central government's representative, Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the party's supreme Politburo Standing Committee, attended the funeral in the non-religious setting.

Ding's critics had accused him of collaborating with the atheist Communist regime by advocating a theological campaign that advanced the party's interests. But others paid tribute to his efforts to push for greater religious freedom within the confines of the Communist system.

Apart from being the face of the state-sanctioned church as head of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council, he was also a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference vice-chairman for nearly 20 years and a member of the National People's Congress.

Born into a Christian family in 1915, Ding graduated from Shanghai's prestigious St John's University with a theology degree in 1942 and was ordained as an Anglican vicar that same year.