November 11, 2009
HUBEI–At 8:00 AM on October 23, the director of the Wuhan RAB and 70 officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau, Public Safety Department, residence committee, and a local Three-Self Church broke into Jiangxia Enguang Christian Church while church members were meeting. Without permission, they broke the lock and barged in, taking members by surprise. They first installed and nominated several pro-Three Self Movement leaders and fake Christians among the group of believers, then held a summary “church member representative conference” with these new additions.
The perfunctory “conference” ruled Jiangxia Enguang Church’s 72-year-old Pastor Wu Qixi unfit to pastor, and authorities later informed the members that Pastor Wu had retired and would no longer be leading the church. They then appointed a new church administration to lead, one that aligned with the Three-Self People’s Movement.
The Jiangxia Enguang Christian Church is a “registered” church. Pastor Wu Qixi has been a faithful servant of God and preached to glory God and bless the people for many years. An insider said that Enguang Church had worked with missionaries from a Taiwan Church and had accepted their donation. The fake Christian who infiltrated the church as spies monitored these ministries and reported them to the local officials.
Pastor Fu Xiqiu, President of China Aid, pointed that there are faithful people of God in both “unregistered” and “registered” churches: “Religious freedom and church administration are independent from the government and should be protected by law. The Lord is not delighted in those who seized leadership of the church by any means and oppressed the church. Unfortunately, the three-self patriotic church lends hand to persecute the church. We pray that the Lord will be with Pastor Wu and the church workers to fight for justice. The church that is built upon Christ the rock shall not be moved. Only Christ is head of the church. We pray that God will give the persecutors a heart of repentance.”
ChinaAid denounces the Chinese government’s systematic crackdown on house churches, and the removal of church life from the public square. The central government campaign to hunt down believers and persecute them is inexcusable, and we call on Chinese officials to repent of their actions, and return the right to assemble for worship freely to the members of Jiangxia Enguang Church.
