Free Republic

While fear and insecurity have gripped the 11 million residents of Wuhan...Christians there have been out on the streets giving out masks and sharing the love of Jesus and the hope the Gospel brings... Earlier during the week, a Chinese pastor living Wuhan, identified only as “A Wuhan Pastor,” wrote to the international faith community, urging them to pray and revealing that fellow pastors from around the world had been reaching out. “It is readily apparent that we are facing a test of our faith,” the pastor wrote. “The situation is so critical, yet we are trusting in the Lord’s...

The two are Mgr John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, bishop of Yan'an, and Mgr Joseph Guo Jincai, bishop of Chengde. The latter is one of the seven excommunicated bishops who reconciled with the Pope following the Sino-Vatican agreement, which Beijing leaked a few days ago.Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Two bishops from the People's Republic of China will take part in the Synod on Youth, which begins on 3 October. Speaking at a press conference today, the general secretary of the Synod, Card Lorenzo Baldisseri, said that the two “were invited by the Pope, as a result of the [Sino-Vatican] agreement, and...

Professor Ying Fuk-tsang, director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that during the early years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) some Christians became disappointed with church institutions. They thought God had taken away the power of Christianity to save humanity, so they joined the CCP as secret, or underground, members. He cited Yan Baohang, who was baptized when studying at the Fengtian (now Shenyang) Normal School and served as a trainee student secretary in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He was later sent to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland for further...

The Bible appears to have been removed from online marketplaces in China, as Beijing clamps down on how its citizens practice religion. China has always controlled sales of the Bible, only allowing it to be distributed and printed by state-sanctioned churches, but in recent years it had been available to buy online. That loophole now appears to be firmly closed. Searches for "Holy Bible" did not return results on JD.com, and results on Amazon.cn did not include the main text, but did include study guides and the Koran. On Taobao, China's biggest online marketplace, a search returned results for the...

Bible also to be reinterpreted and retranslated - my note. The removal of bibles from Chinese online bookstores sparks complaints from frustrated Christians on social media as China releases a white paper on protecting freedom of religious belief... Yesterday Chinese officials announced Beijing "has always made real efforts towards" establishing Vatican relations during a press conference to release a white paper which coincidentally outlined how religious beliefs and freedoms are protected under the country's socialist systems. The white paper — titled China's Policies and Practices on Protecting Freedom of Religious Belief — said Chinese religious communities "should adhere to the...

Two Chinese Christian pastors who are preparing to evangelize in North Korea say they are ready for whatever trials come, even death. According to ChristianToday.com, the two pastors are aware of the dangers they will face in North Korea, but they maintain committed to sharing the gospel with the North Koreans. North Korea is ranked as the number one worst country for Christian persecution by Open Doors World Watch List. One example of a Christian missionary facing horrendous violence in North Korea is the case of a Korean-Chinese church leader who evangelized in the country for 17 years before his...

Chinese officials issued warnings to hundreds of churches that no child is allowed to enter a church or attend religious services, even with their parents. Four regional governments began notifying churches of this new ban against children participating in religious activities as early as mid-August, according to Daily Mail. Hundreds of churches in China’s Zhejiang province received notices that not only banned children from entering churches, but also threatened that any believer caught taking a child to church “will be dealt with severely,” according to a report from Vision Times.

Church leaders asked to ensure the 'Sinicisation of religion'The Chinese Communist Party’s top leader in charge of religion has made it clear that Beijing intends to retain a tight grip on the Catholic Church. Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee and chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told members of the open church community “to ensure that the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Church is held firmly in the hands of those who love the nation and the religion”, reported ucanews.com. Yu spoke to about 100 bishops, priests, nuns and lay leaders at...

A Chinese Christian woman has been accused of belonging to a cult she has no association with and detained for nearly four months despite the pleas of her family. Persecution watchdog China Aid reports that in January, authorities detained Tu Yan and four other church goers. At the time, 2,400 pages of "evidence" were submitted by the prosecutors attempting to link her to a cult called the Three Grades of Servants despite her insistence that she had never participated in a cult. While the evidence was ruled insufficient, new evidence has just been filed against her. When her sister or...

Worshippers gather for a secret mass in a factory compound while Vatican and Beijing explore ways of healing fractured tiesIt was eerily quiet on Christmas Eve in a manufacturing hub city in Pearl River Delta, with machinery silent, except at one factory compound, the temporary gathering point for Catholics who were singing carols. About three hundred people came to the site to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Dazzling fireworks were set off within the plant at about 11pm. The crowd then went to a factory canteen for a quick meal and at midnight mass began in a prayer hall...

A religious organization is suing the city San Francisco to remove an open-air urinal it calls unsanitary and indecent from a popular park. The Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco filed a civil complaint last week demanding the city remove the concrete circular urinal from the iconic Dolores Park. The group says the urinal, which is out in the open and screened only through plants for privacy, “emanates offensive odors,” “has no hand-washing facilities” and “it’s offensive to manners and morals.” …

“It’s possible that Rome may betray us,” said Fr Dong, before he said Mass in the city of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. “If this happens, I will resign. I won’t join a Church which is controlled by the Communist Party. “We are suffering like Jesus on the cross. We fight for religious freedom and follow the Gospel – but we are not supported by either Rome or China.”

The state’s response to this resurgence of faith is an escalating campaign of repression As he stood in the hot sun and watched a dozen earth movers smash through the walls of the Sanjiang church, Mr Dai felt a great sadness and also fear – for himself and for the future of his fellow Christians. “There were so many police blocking the road and surrounding mountains. They had cut off power to the whole area and blacked out mobile phone coverage and they were trying to stop anybody coming near,” he says. By pretending to be part of the demolition...

China will establish its own Christian theology compatible with the Communist country's socialist principles, state media has reported, adding that the government will promote it in a correct manner through mass programmes. The number of Christians in China is rising rapidly but so is, according to rights groups, the simmering tension with the government. In April, one of the largest churches was demolished in the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province ending a standoff between members and authorities. Authorities said the 85000 square foot church was demolished because of permission issues and had nothing to do with religious persecution.The Communist...

China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of believers and tensions with the authorities are on the rise. China has between 23 million and 40 million Protestants, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9 per cent of the total population, the state-run China Daily said, citing figures given at a seminar in Shanghai. About 500,000 people are baptised as Protestants every year, it added. "Over the past decades, the Protestant churches in China have developed very quickly with the implementation of the country's religious policy," the paper quoted Wang...

On May 30, 2014, The New York Times published a story by Ian Johnson about what seems to be a concerted government effort to clamp down on Christian churches in Wenzhou, the city with the highest percentage of Christians in China. It has long been known that there are regional differences in official attitudes toward religion, not always reflecting the views of the central government. It is conceivable that the events in Wenzhou could be a relatively local matter. But at any rate one aspect of the story makes one wonder: The provincial head of the Communist party who initiated...

Deep in China’s heartland is a region known as “The Bethlehem of China,” where, more than a thousand years ago, Western missionaries first brought Christianity to the area. It is here, in a series of caves hidden in the hills, where members of China’s underground Christian Church tell FRONTLINE/World and Chicago Tribune reporter Evan Osnos how they have kept the religion alive. For years, they moved from place to place to avoid government detection, until they found safety in these hills. “When we were in an underground state, we would gather here to meet,” Zhang Yinan, a pastor who’s chronicling...

Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism? It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding. The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe. The new converts can be found from...

Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism?It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding. The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe. The new converts can be found from peasants...

More people go to church on Sunday in China than in the whole of Europe. Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism? It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding. The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on...