China sees religion as stabilizing force
By Joe McDonald
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 24, 2006

BEIJING -- Chinese officials have expressed interest in the role of religion in improving society, the archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday at the end of the first trip to China in 12 years by a leader of the Church of England.

The Anglican Communion will expand efforts to help the state-sanctioned Protestant church train clergy, as communist leaders look to religion to help stabilize society during a time of wrenching change and explosive growth in Christianity in China, Archbishop Rowan Williams said.

His two-week visit also highlighted Anglicans' limited but longtime ties to China, in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church's lack of relations with Beijing. the rest