China: Church Forced Outdoors

A Beijing church has been forced to meet outdoors after repeatedly being denied access to meeting spaces.

On March 27, 2011, the Shouwang church published an open letter stating its intent to begin worshiping outdoors. The letter stated that while the congregation is aware that the action might be seen as a political move, they don’t believe the church should be a political organization. “To worship God, we are willing to take the risk of being framed with a political charge,” the letter stated.

The Shouwang Church began to look for a new space after it outgrew the space it had been renting for a year at a hotel. Because of pressure from local authorities, hotel management had asked the congregation to relocate several times before their contract expired. In March of this year, the church decided to start meeting in a conference room at the Xihua Business Hotel. But after signing a rental contract, hotel executives backed out of the agreement. They told church leaders the local police had intervened. In 2009, the church purchased space in an office building. But the developer, citing intervention by government agencies, refused to give them the key for more than a year after they had paid in full for the property.

“We know what every one of us will face once we have chosen to hold our worship service outdoors,” the letter continued. “Government agencies will probably act as they did in past. … They will mobilize local forces … to restrict the personal freedom of every religious citizen among us, making it impossible for us to gather together. Our life and work will be affected and we may even pay various other types of prices.”

The church began as a small congregation meeting in a home, but it had grown into a large congregation of more than 1,000 in recent years. Please pray for the Shouwang Church as it stands before man and God with clear consciences. “Pray for us in a loud voice, and raise up hands and pray vigilantly!” they ask.

Source: China Aid Association