Early Rain Covenant Church

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Early Rain Covenant Church
秋雨聖約教會
ERCC logo
AbbreviationERCC
ClassificationChristianity
OrientationProtestant
ScriptureProtestant Bible
TheologyCalvinist
PolityPresbyterian
PastorWang Yi
EldersZhou Maojian
Chen Zhongdong
EldersLi Yingqiang
Tan Defu
RegionChengdu
LanguageSichuanese
Modern Standard Mandarin
HeadquartersChengdu
FounderWang Yi
Jiang Rong
Origin2005 (fellowship group)
2008 (house church)
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Other name(s)Early Rain Blessings Church
Early Rain Reformed Church
Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church

Early Rain Covenant Church (traditional Chinese: 秋雨聖約教會; simplified Chinese: 秋雨圣约教会; pinyin: Qiūyǔ Shèngyuē Jiàohuì; Sichuanese romanization: Tsiu-ü Shen-io Chiao-hue; lit. 'Autumn Rain Covenant Church') is a house church within the Reformed Presbyterian tradition based in the Sichuanese provincial capital city of Chengdu, southwestern China. It was established as Early Rain Blessings Fellowship by Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong, in their own home in Chengdu, in April 2005. The small congregation has evolved into a house church three years later, and since then it had been variously known as Early Rain Blessings Church, Early Rain Reformed Church and Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church before adopting its current name.[1][2]

Name[edit]

According to a pastoral letter from Elder Li Yingqiang, the native name of the church, "Autumn Rain", comes from Psalm 84:6: "When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings."[3]

Historical background[edit]

Further information: Protestantism in Sichuan

The first Protestant missionaries to reach Sichuan were Griffith John of the London Missionary Society and Alexander Wylie of the British and Foreign Bible Society, when the two, in 1868, visited many of the most important towns and markets, including the capital, Chengdu. However, this journey was a "prospecting trip" without establishing mission stations. The first settled mission work had not been opened up until 1877.[4]

Among the twenty or so missionary societies working in this province before 1950, the London Missionary Society was the only one of a Reformed background. Griffith John, a member of the Congregational church, returned in 1888 to take up permanent work in Sichuan.[4] Thomas Torrance, a Scottish Presbyterian minister serving under the American Bible Society, was a missionary in Chengdu from 1910 to 1934.[5][6]

History[edit]

In 2005, three years before the establishment of what would become Early Rain Blessings Church, a Bible study group was received at Wang Yi's home in Chengdu. This small group, later known as Early Rain Blessings Fellowship, has evolved into a house church and was formally established as Early Rain Blessings Church on May 25, 2008, just thirteen days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.[7][8]

In late May 2008, the Fellowship invited Peng Qiang, pastor of Chengdu Enfu Reformed Gospel Church, to ordain Wang Yi, Zhou Maojian and Chen Zhongdong as elders. In July, an office space was leased to the church as their first public sanctuary. This was followed by the distribution of self-printed Sunday bulletins. According to Meng, a former Three-Self Church member, who joined Early Rain Church in December 2008, "they were a very different group from a Three-Self church", they prayed for the June Fourth victims and repented on behalf of the country.[9]

On July 14, 2009, 63 church members were forbidden to enter Early Rain's leased apartment by the subdistrict office at West Wenmiao Street. A second obstruction of their worship occurred the next Sunday, the service had to be moved into a nearby hotel conference room, where fifty church members voted to elect Chen, Wang and Zhou as their first board of three elders, and several deacons. In September 2009, with the help of a few resourceful members, the church purchased a commercial space on the 19th floor of Jiangxin Building, in the district of Qingyang. The same year, Wang Huasheng joined Early Rain as one of its full-time ministers. By May 2010, the church had 190 attendees; membership grew to over 250 at the end of July.[9]

As the church grew larger, several other house churches in Chengdu have joined Early Rain over time to form the Presbytery of West China Reformed Churches. This has led to other institutional extensions such as a kindergarten, a day school, a seminary (Western China Covenant Theological Seminary), and a liberal arts college for classical Christian education (Western China Covenant College).[2][10] As of December 2018, the membership of Early Rain Covenant Church was over 500.[1] An ABC News report on December 15, 2018 stated that the original church had 600 to 700 members, with approximately 200 attending its "branch" churches. These numbers did not include catechumens.[11]

Belief[edit]

During an interview with Wang Yi conducted by Yu Jie in 2011, the interviewee stated that, Early Rain Covenant Church acknowledges the four formal creeds: Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Chalcedonian Creed and Athanasian Creed, and follows the Belgic Confession and the Westminster Confession of Faith.[8]

Persecution[edit]

Early Rain Covenant Church has been subjected to repeated persecution,[12][13] which culminated in December 2018 with a massive crackdown by Chengdu police. 100 church members, including Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong, were detained.[14] The church has been banned and its properties were confiscated by the government.[13] In December 2019, Wang Yi, who challenged the government's sinicization of the gospel in his 95 Thesis,[15] was sentenced to nine years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" and "illegal business activity".[16]

On August 14, 2022, Chengdu police raided a 50-member Early Rain Sunday gathering inside a teahouse in the district of Wuhou, and detained the leader. They were accused of holding an "illegal gathering" of a "banned organization".[17]

Notable members[edit]

In addition to Wang Yi, other notable members of Early Rain Covenant Church include:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "The Crackdown on Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church: A Backgrounder". chinachange.org. December 21, 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b Yang, Fenggang; Pettit, J. E. E. (2018). "Chapter 8 Southwest China: 23. Sichuan". Atlas of Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts. Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/9789004369900_011. ISBN 978-90-04-36990-0.
  3. ^ Li, Yingqiang (March 30, 2023). "【三月牧函】为什么秋雨圣约教会不改名字" [Pastoral Letter for March: Why doesn't Early Rain Covenant Church change its name?]. vocus.cc (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Broomhall, Marshall, ed. (1907). "The Province of Szechwan". The Chinese Empire: A General & Missionary Survey. London: Morgan & Scott. pp. 229–231.
  5. ^ Torrance, Thomas F. "Thomas Torrance". Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  6. ^ "Thomas Torrance papers". archives.yale.edu. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  7. ^ Ren, Ruiting (April 1, 2020). "長不大的中國家庭教會～紀念秋雨聖約教會成立滿十五周年" [The Chinese house church that has never grown mature: Commemorating the 15th anniversary of the founding of Early Rain Covenant Church]. insidechina.rti.org.tw (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Yu, Jie (January 10, 2019). "秋雨聖約教會牧師王怡專訪 (下)" [Interview with Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church (Part 2)]. Taiwan Church News (in Traditional Chinese). No. 3489. Tainan. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Ma, Li (2019). Religious Entrepreneurism in China's Urban House Churches: The Rise and Fall of Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church. Milton Park: Routledge. ISBN 9781000227925.
  10. ^ Xue, Max (2021). "Li Ma, Religious Entrepreneurism in China's Urban House Churches: The Rise and Fall of Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church". Studies in World Christianity. 27 (3): 326–327. doi:10.3366/swc.2021.0358. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  11. ^ Xiao, Bang (December 15, 2018). "成都秋雨圣约教会或遭正式'取缔'" [Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church may be officially "banned"]. abc.net.au (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  12. ^ "Early Rain Covenant Church". vomcanada.com. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Yu, Bing (March 14, 2023). "Nine days of persecution for Early Rain Covenant Church before Violent Raid". chinaaid.org. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  14. ^ Berlinger, Joshua (December 17, 2018). "Detention of 100 Christians raises concerns about religious crackdown in China". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  15. ^ "Pastor Wang Yi, Early Rain Covenant Church". persecution.org. April 2, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  16. ^ "IRFBA Statement on Chinese Religious Prisoner of Conscience, Wang Yi". state.gov. 20 October 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  17. ^ "Chinese police raid Christian gathering, arrest one". ucanews.com. August 17, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  18. ^ Xia, Yiping (August 20, 2016). "More than book reading: A case study on Liren Rural Library". Communication and the Public. 1 (3): 351–355. doi:10.1177/2057047316666085. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  19. ^ "Police Summon Elder Li Yingqiang and confiscated his computer". chinaaid.org. January 2, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  20. ^ Yu, Bing (February 22, 2023). "Police place Early Rain Pastor Dai Zhichao under home confinement again". chinaaid.org. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  21. ^ Qiao, Long; Lau, Siu Fung (August 24, 2021). "Two Jailed After Raid on Early Rain Church Meeting in China's Sichuan". rfa.org. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  22. ^ "Chinese Christian Summoned for Speaking on 'Christianity and Chinese Culture'". persecution.org. May 11, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  23. ^ "Chinese blogger released after six-month detention". The Guardian. London. August 10, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  24. ^ Buckley, Chris (May 30, 2016). "Chinese Worker Detained for Photos of Liquor Labels Marking Tiananmen Crackdown". The New York Times. Manhattan. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  25. ^ "June 4th Wine Bottle Case". nchrd.org. May 30, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  26. ^ Yang, Qi (October 11, 2019). "六四酒案符海陆缓刑获释后，一再被当局迫迁" [Fu Hailu, who was involved in the June 4th Liquor Bottle Case, was repeatedly forced out of his own home by the authorities after serving jail time]. chinaaid.net (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  27. ^ Klett, Leah MarieAnn (February 19, 2022). "Early Rain Church member recounts 'evil' persecution in China, dramatic escape to US". The Christian Post. Washington, D.C. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  28. ^ "2022 Speakers". irfsummit.org. 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2024.

Further reading[edit]

  • Johnson, Ian (2017). The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-1-101-87005-1. — This book includes a 100-page profile of Early Rain Covenant Church.

External links[edit]

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