China appears to be persecuting a government-sanctioned church that is part of the Three-Self Church.
ChinaAid has been following the situation with Changchunli Church in Shandong Province since June 2009. Spokesperson Tracy Oliver tells OneNewsNow the director of the municipal council church pushed through a resolution to demolish the church and take away a sizeable part of its land.
“What we believe is going on is that this particular Three-Self Church is not exactly what China wants to portray,” Oliver comments. “So even though the church [has] upheld truth, opposed evil-doing, and they do their best to adhere to China’s policies, what it looks like is that Shandong Province is taking over this church and their rights.”
Word has leaked to the United States that province officials intend to arrest seven church officials. OneNewsNow asked Oliver if those arrests have taken place yet.
“No, we have not received word of the arrests taking place,” she replies, “but we have received word not only for the seven leaders but also that there may be others who may be targeted for arrest from this church.”
Oliver says the actions by the authorities may be a matter of Changchunli’s leaders taking the lead from the Holy Spirit rather than the government. She urges people to go to the ChinaAid website to find out how they can contact the Chinese Embassy in Washington to politely protest actions against the church.
(Source: OneNewsNow.com)