Jiangsu house church told to allow members to join Three-Self church

(Suqian, Jiangsu—June 3, 2014) The elder of a government-sanctioned church in China’s coastal Jiangsu contacted a house church on May 26, requesting, in what some church members said was more of a demand, that the church join any local Three-Self church; Chen, the house church’s leader, refused.

“There is a house church in Sihong County, Suqian, Jiangso, and its person in charge in Chen Zhenfu,” said Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, president of the Chinese House Church Alliance. “Just now, he called and said their government won’t allow them to get together, and he said all the house churches must join a TSPM church.”

Chen told China Aid that the elder called the church on May 26, asking that the church members to be allowed to join any local government-sanctioned church they saw fit. Chen also said that the church, which has 10-20 attendees, has been pressured to join a Three-Self church several times during its nine-year history and that each time, the church members have refused to abandon the house church. “We worship God here,” he said.

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