• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

Three-Self Churches in Changchun Ordered to Remove Crosses

07/26/2018Piao Junying |

Many government-controlled Protestant Three-Self churches have been shut down or ordered to remove their crosses in the city of Changchun.

 

a cross removed
The cross removed from a village church in Wanjinta township

An administrative village in Wanjinta township, Nong’an county, Changchun city is home to a small Three-Self church with over 50 believers. In late April 2018, the local authorities, on the excuse that the church did not have a permit, forbade the congregation to hold meetings and ordered them to remove the church’s cross, threatening with sanctions if the believers refused to comply. The church’s leader, Wan, removed the cross.

Pastor Kim Myung-ju (pseudonym), a member of China’s Korean ethnic group, founded the house church named “True Love” seven years ago in the city of Changchun. In April this year, a community secretary and city-level official ordered the church to stop holding gatherings, on the ground that it did not have a “Religious Public Place Activity Permit” and a “Pastor Qualification Certificate.” They also demanded that pastor Kim Myung-ju dismantle the church’s cross and remove all faith-related signage, which they did under threats.

In early May, the local government ordered the dismantling of the cross on a Three-Self church in Helong town, Nong’an county, Changchun city. On May 30, local government officials forcibly removed an iron cross embedded in the church’s gatepost and demanded to remove all faith-related symbols.

A senior pastor at a local house church remarked, “Xi Jinping has ordered to regulate religion and ban house churches; many of them have now been shut down throughout China. Some churches were forced to apply for government accreditation, and now, government-appointed pastors give sermons, and the government manages church donations and finances.”

In 2014, the Chinese Communist Party government began dismantling crosses across Zhejiang Province, and soon this campaign spread throughout the country. Since President Xi Jinping took office, many churches have been demolished, even the places of worship that belong to the government-controlled Protestant Three-Self Church, which, being approved by the state, should have escaped this campaign.

Reported by Piao Junying

 

cross removed from the “True Love” church
The cross removed from the “True Love” church

Tagged With: Three-Self Church

Piao Junying profile picture
Piao Junying

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Numerous Protestant Venues Shut Down Across China

    Numerous Protestant Venues Shut Down Across China

  • The CCP Cuts the Number of Churches Through Mergers

    The CCP Cuts the Number of Churches Through Mergers

  • Clergy Ordered to Promote the Communist Party in Sermons

    Clergy Ordered to Promote the Communist Party in Sermons

  • Facial Recognition Cameras Installed in State-Run Religious Venues

    Facial Recognition Cameras Installed in State-Run Religious Venues

Keep Reading

  • Christians Coerced into Removing Crosses from Churches
    Christians Coerced into Removing Crosses from Churches

    The CCP comes up with new pretexts to suppress people of faith. In Zhejiang Province, believers’ businesses are threatened if they disobey government orders.

  • Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou
    Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou

    Officially, Adventist congregations in China are part of the Three-Self Church. Those who kept their distinctiveness are now persecuted.

  • Christian Pastors Told to Preach in Sermons Confidence in the Party and Xi Jinping
    Christian Pastors Told to Preach in Sermons Confidence in the Party and Xi Jinping

    Christian Churches should implement the conclusions of the recent National Conference on Religion “immediately.”

  • Churches Told to Worship the CCP or Face Closure
    Churches Told to Worship the CCP or Face Closure

    Government propaganda continues to invade China’s places of worship, as they are turned into publicity centers to promote the Communist Party and its leaders.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • France Joins China and Russia by Introducing Special Police Techniques Against “Cults” by Massimo Introvigne
  • “Socialist Spiritual Civilization”: The Great Comeback of an Old CCP Concept by Hu Zimo
  • The Fate of Tibet After the Inevitable: A Tibetan Opinion by Ugyen Gyalpo
  • Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan: Massive Re-Education to Prevent Tibetan Self-Immolations by Lopsang Gurung
  • Wang Hai: Miao Christian Pastor Still Harassed and Investigated by Mo Yuan
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 7. The Scientologist as Artist by Massimo Introvigne
  • Mark Fino: No Asylum in Japan for Evangelist Threatened in Bangladesh by Tom Eskildsen

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY