This article by Fr Charles Rue about China ((The Far East, January/February 2008) helps us South Melbourne Catholics to reflect on 'What colour will South Melbourne Church be?' Rob Grogan leads a group of parishioners working on that very issue - and just in the nick of time.

'Fr Charles Rue explores the dialogue between Christianity and Taoism in the 7th century in China.
'Organisers of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing describe how they want to add Chinese colours to the event. They revealed their plans during an interview on the English speaking Chinese TV station. The lyric names they gave the colours they hope to emphasise was fascinating. Of course Chinese red came first. Then they named porcelain blue, scholar-tree green, ceramic tile yellow, jade white and great-wall grey. They want the Olympics to engage with Chinese culture.
'Recently I had the privilege of visiting the site of the first Christian monastery in China built between the 6-8th centuries. It sits in the foothills of the mountains at the Chinese end of the silk-road some 50kms south west of the ancient capital and modern city Xian. In 635 a Catholic delegation headed by the monk-bishop Aluoben from the Eastern Rite, sometimes wrongly named Nestorian, arrived from central Asia. Its members were invited by the Taoist priests to set up a Christian monastery in the midst of their own monasteries.
'Witness to the dialogue which took place between Christians and Taoists over two centuries is the seven storied, 25m pagoda Da Qin. One statue in the pagoda which has somewhat survived the ravages of time, but not open to the public, is a two by three meter depiction of the nativity. The pagoda is deep into the Lou-guan-tai Forest Park.'