The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: Various
Date: 16.10.2010
Category: Religious Liberty, Social Justice
(NOTE TO CAPE TOWN DELEGATES: Please, let’s not neglect prayer for our brothers and sisters in China. While my heart is thrilled to be here, it is also so heavy for them. What follows is text and links. I ask that if you have other helpful links with additional PUBLIC information that you post them in the comment section for the benefit of all. Blessings -- CL )
The sad news has been coming in that the Chinese delegation has for the most part been prevented from attending Cape Town 2010, the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, by the Chinese Government. In some cases, the government’s attempts to prevent the delegates from coming have reportedly involved detentions, house arrests, confiscation of passports, and even the forced closing of churches. This act of persecution is intolerable. I still hold out some hope that the God who can do all things will make a way. But if not, we have the confidence that God will use this to gain glory for himself. I am yet unclear as to whether or not any of the delegates from mainland China have made it through. I’m sure we’ll know more tomorrow. I have heard a rumor that there are some, but I can’t confirm it. For now, please pray for a miracle. Additionally, I believe it could be helpful to call attention to this gross injustice. I ask you to forward this on to those who care about human rights, religious liberty, and the like.
I’ve located a couple articles online that have been helpful to me. The Compass Direct article is fairly thorough. There is also a NY Times article.
The Chinese Lausanne Delegation has itself issued an Open Letter in response to these events. I’ll close with it:
The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization takes place in Cape Town, South Africa on 17-25 of October, 2010. This massive global evangelical gathering brings together more than 4,000 representatives from nearly 200 countries. The Lausanne organizers have invited over 200 members of house churches in China to attend the conference.
Recently, some relevant departments of the Chinese government has kept the Chinese delegates from joining the Lausanne Congress. They used a variety of means such as persuasion, surveillance, obstruction, detention and confiscation of passport at international airports. As a result, the vast majority of the Chinese delegation has not made it to the meeting.
In response to the event, we have decided to issue this open letter to expound our position and approach.
First, the house church is the main part of the Chinese church. It is a church with independence, self-governing and self-support.
In recent decades, the house church in China has abided by the principle of the separation of state and religion. It has witnessed continued growth. From villages to cities, from the coastal areas to the hinterlands, from the central plains to the frontier, the house church can be found across China.
And from a worship gathering of dozens of people at home, the house church has grown to considerable sizes of hundreds or even thousands of worshippers meeting at office buildings, convention centers of hotels and church buildings. The members of the house church has amounted to tens of millions of people from all walks of life. Now, it still keeps on rapid growth. The house church has already become the main body of the Chinese church.
Second, the co-workers of the house church in China have been yearning to attend the Lausanne Congress.
The Lausanne Congress is a worldwide Christian conference. It confronts the critical issues in promoting the evangelization all over the globe. As part of the global church, China’s house church wants very much to join all the other churches discussing how to be a witness of God’s love toward the world by spreading the gospel of Christ.
We believe to attend the Lausanne Congress will strengthen the friendship between Christians all across the world by giving testimony of God’s love toward China and sharing the huge changes of the Chinese church over the past decades.
Since receiving invitations, many people of the house church have devoted much to preparing for the conference. Numerous churches and their members have made substantial donations. The house church has prepared not only all the money needed for the Chinese delegates but the expenses for 100 representatives from some neighboring and African countries. This has shown the growth of the Chinese church.
Third, that the relevant government departments barred the Chinese delegates from participating in the Lausanne Congress has gravely violated the religious freedom of numerous believers entitled by China’s Constitution.
As the pastors and other members of the house church prepared to attend the Lausanne Congress with much enthusiasm, almost all the delegates were contacted by the relevant government agencies and were asked not to attend. As the delegates sticked to taking part in the conference, they faced even greater obstruction and pressure. Some delegates have been under surveillance. The passports of some delegates have been confiscated. Some delegates’ churches have been under crackdown. Even some delegates have been detained. Some delegates have been blocked to the airport. The vast majority of the delegates have been prevented from passing the passport control at airports. All these acts of obstruction have constituted a clear violation of the liberty of faith among the Chinese citizens entitled by China’s Constitution. They have deeply hurt both the dignity and the feelings of a great number of religious believers.
As Christians, we love God and we love our country. We earnestly long for a China with love, justice and peace. We hope every Chinese will love one another without considering the status. We look forward to a China where God’s sunlight of love shines everywhere. We are thirsty for a China where justice rolls on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream. We hope peace no longer just remains a hope but becomes a reality in this land. For this, we appeal to the relevant government departments to take away all the pressures and restrictions imposed on the delegates. This will serve to prevent the conflict between government and religious believers from worsening. We hope the government will improve its religious policy and build a harmonious relationship between state and religion so that the church will become an even greater blessing for the Chinese society.
May God bless China!
China Lausanne Delegation
Beijing, October 15, 2010
Additional News Articles: CBN News Religion News Blog Mission Network News Christian Persecution Blog AsiaNews Associated Baptist Press
Keywords: china, chinese, persecution, prayer, news
Views: 8788
Comments: 16
Recommendations: 0
Conversation Post Comment
China
Please extend your hand of fellowship to us as we press forward in the mission field in China and praying for all.
20.10.2010
United States
@ MISSIONS:
Amen and press on in the work!
21.10.2010
China
DECLARATION OF VOLUNTEERS FROM CHINA
2010.10.10 BEIJING
洛桑会议及中国教会志愿者声明
一、三届洛桑会议简介：
更多的信息请大家参考洛桑组委会的信息。我在这里只作简要介绍。
第一届基督教洛桑宣教会议在瑞士洛桑举行。150个国家的2700位基督徒领袖，包括其他人员总共有四千多人出席。中国教会没有代表参加。
第二届洛桑宣教大会于1989年7月在菲律宾的马尼拉召开，来自173个国家的4300名代表出席会议。会议头天晚上，会场前方专门为不能出席的中国教会空出二百个座位，期待中国教会加入普世教会的团契当中。
今年10月16-25日，也就是一周之后，在南非的开普敦举行的第三届洛桑福音大会。这次会议预计将有来自200多个国家的4,000 位代表参加会议，另外还有1,000 位其他人员。此次时隔16年之后召开了第三届福音大会，许多人相信，是上帝特别恩待中国并赐下了这个时间。耶稣基督交给基督徒的大使命就是要我们去使万民作他的门徒。我们中国基督徒也应当践行这一使命，感谢上帝，我们中国的教会经过多年的发展，逐步意识到自己的使命。所以中国教会的200多位牧者及同工被邀请后积极地响应来参加此次盛会。世界各地许多基督徒代表讲，单为了在开普敦见到中国的基督徒代表，也值得去参加！
二、本届洛桑会议的议题及目标：
本届会议的主题是“神在基督里，叫世人与自己和好”。会议的目标是使人更加经历在基督里的合一；更加清楚福音真理；更加明白摆在我们面前的优先问题。
会议的重要议题包括全球化、城市宣教、环境保护、成功神学、贫富差距、媒体、技术、职场服事、未得之民、人类未来、生化伦理等方面。
大会的主要讲员分别来自世界五大洲；汉语为大会的官方语言之一，但由于目前英语在全球的普及程度，相当多的参会者及发言会使用英语，故此，我们看到了中国牧者们在交流方面的这种需要，就发起了英语较好的志愿者来参加，为中国代表与普世教会的更好交流提供翻译的便利。
三、中国志愿者目前的挑战
目前中国教会的志愿者与正式代表一样面临比较大的挑战与压力，有关部门找到每一个志愿者明确告知他们不能参加洛桑会议，而参与拦阻的每位政府工作人员都不能出示正式的政府文件或公函，只是一律口称代表政府。也有参会者目前已受到所在地不明身份人员24小时不间断监视的。
我自己作为参会的志愿者也接到了电话，和我谈话的工作人员对目前中国宗教现状比较了解，其大意就是说参加此会议会影响国家利益，可能被反华势力利用，你们要明辨事非等等，我们也只是执行任务等。
四、问题的实质及我们的态度
很多政府工作人员用“反华势力”作为理由来阻止志愿者，但众所周知的是，创立洛桑大会的葛培理牧师曾多次来到中国进行友好访问，这样一个组织怎么就变成了“反华势力”呢？在这一点上我们相信政府的还是有判断的能力的。但是否存在政府与洛桑组委会中间沟通不畅的可能以致于影响政府作出恰当的政策呢？我们不知道。在此过程中“中国基督教两会”和宗教部门认为家庭教会受邀代表参加洛桑会议是在分裂中国教会，三自曾受邀参加洛桑，但由于不能签《洛桑信约》而放弃参会，最后却归咎于洛桑分裂中国教会，这是不恰当也是不负责任的。并且三自目前在中国的独家代理及其“三定政策”形成了对中国相当多基督徒的“圈养”而不是“牧养”的现状，使得福音受限在教堂里，这与主耶稣的教导明显是违背的。
作为洛桑中国志愿者，我们愿意世界看到一个开放的中国、和谐的中国。我们参加的只是基督教界的福音大会，目的是通过帮助中国代表与普世基督徒充分交流进而更好地践行耶稣基督的教导，共同面对信仰、公正、贫穷、健康等世界性难题。并没有任何政治目的。
我们希望政府相关部门在对待我们的态度上不要继续沿用过去那种将基督教当作帝国主义侵略工具的极左思潮，并用一些不合适的方式来行使权力，应当与时俱进地看问题，正确对待基督教在中国的积极作用与提升社会公正力的能力，也正确对待中国家庭教会的成长对国家的祝福。我们现在政府里很多人都到国外接触过基督教会，希望这些开明的政府人士能够还基督教在中国的一个本来面目，那就是透过耶稣基督在十字架上的救赎，使相信的人得永生，这样的人越多，国家越得祝福！这样的人越多，国家越得平安！也越得和谐！
我们尊重政府的权柄，我们也希望这种权柄不要被滥用，而是真正为提升政府形象来公正地使用，也使中国教会与基督徒得益处，并且最终使国家利益不致受损发挥其作用。
19.10.2010
United States
@ liuguanfrombeijing:
Thank you, Liu Guan. I’m going to try to find someone who can translate your statement and then post the result. Unless, of course, someone reading this post could do that for us.
Blessings to you!
19.10.2010
United Kingdom
Encouraged and humbled by your faithfulness. Praying for religious freedom in China.
19.10.2010
China
Our paster is back. while still some not... thanks for your pray.
18.10.2010
United States
@ Joeye:
Thank you for sharing this with us. Be assured that Lausanne is praying. We took a special time to pray for China tonight. God is faithful. We are so blessed to serve the same Lord Jesus as you.
18.10.2010
United States
@ Joeye:
You and your country are always in our prayers. We are honored to be a part of the same body of Christ as you! May God be glorified in this great disappointment for the Chinese Church and for every attendee at Lausanne!
19.10.2010
China
HI Brothers and sisters,
I am located in China. Please pray for some pastors and brothers/sisters who were sent to somewhere we don’t know yesterday. And cannot contact them.
On Oct 14, many pasters and brothters were blocked in airport. Since they cannot go Lausanne. Some delegations from north china lived in a hotel near airport, to communicate and have virtue meeting.
Yesterday Oct 17, sunday, when they were worshipping, many plainclothesmen came and dismissed the worship. Some organizers were sent to place that we don’t know. we cannot contact them via cellphone from yesterday.
Oct.18th.
Thanks.
17.10.2010
China
@ Joeye:
Thank you very much all for the pray for China. I am so moved that God loves China very much, and also brothers and sisters worldwide love China and pray for China. Though we are facing difficulty, but the situation is better than years ago. In God we believe and hope.
Thank you again dear body!
18.10.2010
United States
News links
Asianews.it
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Chinese-Christians-banned-from-attending-Protestant-World-Congress-19742.html
Washington Post
Global christians protest China for barring nationals from conference - http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5781/53/
Persecution Blog
http://www.persecutionblog.com/2010/10/chinese-christians-blocked-from-world-evangelization-conference.html
Mission Network news
http://mnnonline.org/article/14848
Religion News Blog
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ReligionNewsBlog/~3/Y9gfNclz1Ks/beijing-blocks-travelers-to-christian-conference
CBN News
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/October/China-Denies-Christians-Entry-to-South-Africa-Event/
16.10.2010
United States
@ justinlong:
Thank you, Justin, for including these links to help expose this injustice. Blessings to you!
16.10.2010
China
Dear Brother and sister in His love,
Thank you pray for China !
Even now , I still believe everything is in His hand and He has wonderful will in China.
16.10.2010
United States
@ hannahchang:
I am so happy for your faithfulness. We so wish to have you here.
16.10.2010
South Africa
It was said: "For evil men to succeed... is for good men to do nothing".
If Christians are supposed to be better than good men... the question remains... what will we do?
What can you do? My belief is that everyone has a voice... use it & be heard... let it thunder like the trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho.
Num 10:9 Whenever you go into battle against an enemy attacking your land, give a warning signal on the trumpets. Then I, the LORD, will hear it and rescue you.
Jos 6:5 Then the priests will blast on their trumpets, and everyone else will shout. The wall will fall down, and your soldiers can go straight in from every side.
Jos 6:20 The priests blew their trumpets again, and the soldiers shouted as loud as they could. The walls of Jericho fell flat. Then the soldiers rushed up the hill, went straight into the town, and captured it.
China as big as it is... will fall at God’s will... but we all need to play our part.
16.10.2010
United States
@ TonyHawk:
Amen, Tony.
16.10.2010
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