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25-527: 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." The first Protestant missionaries to reach Sichuan were Griffith John of the London Missionary Society and Alexander Wylie of

50-767: 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 . 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

75-612: A "banned organization". In addition to Wang Yi , other notable members of Early Rain Covenant Church include: Pastoral letter A pastoral letter , often simply called a pastoral , is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of a diocese or to both, containing general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circumstances. In most episcopal church bodies, clerics are often required to read out pastoral letters of superior bishops to their congregations. In

100-708: A Chinese House Church Movement (Intervarsity Academic, December 6 2022) In 2010 Wang Yi compiled a collection of writings about the house church and their relationship to the Chinese government, including prominent voices such as Jin Tianming, Jin Mingri, and Sun Yi. In this English edition, the editors have provided introductions, notes, and a glossary, and included some documents from the time of Wang Yi’s arrest in December 2018. 2. "My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience" This statement

125-535: 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). As of December 2018, the membership of Early Rain Covenant Church was over 500. 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 . During an interview with Wang Yi conducted by Yu Jie in 2011,

150-536: A statement, saying "This is yet another example of Beijing's intensification of repression of Chinese Christians and members of other religious groups". On 1 January 2020, the embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing posted a message on Chinese social network Sina Weibo , which emphasized the importance of freedom of religion, with a screenshot of the Chinese court document about the sentence of Wang Yi. Wang Yi argues that

175-482: A transcendent power – namely, a sovereign God. Furthermore, he claims that the nation cannot interfere with church affairs, on one hand, and should be obliged to protect the religious freedom out of the divine duty, on the other. Wang wants to promote the transparency and publicity of the Chinese house church . Wang argues that churches ought to not only listen for God's voice, but also engage in public affairs. For him,

200-537: Is the founding pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church , a Calvinist house church in Chengdu . He is also a productive writer, editor, and social activist, and was a legal scholar at Chengdu University before he resigned to take up the pastorate. Wang Yi is a native of Santai County located in the city of Mianyang , which lies to the northeast of Chengdu. In 1996, he graduated from Sichuan University and began teaching law at Chengdu University. He

225-534: 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. Among the twenty or so missionary societies working in this province before 1950, the London Missionary Society

250-458: The Catholic Church , such letters are also sent out regularly at particular ecclesiastical seasons, particularly at the beginning of fasts . In the non- episcopal Protestant churches a pastoral letter is any open letter addressed by a pastor to his congregation, more especially to one customarily issued at certain seasons, for example, by the moderator of a Presbyterian assembly or

275-933: The White House in 2006, together with Yu Jie , a democracy activist from Sichuan , and Li Boguang , a human rights attorney from Hunan , to discuss religious freedom in China. He returned to Washington, D.C. in 2008, to attend the Conference for Global Christians in Law and was awarded "Prize for the Contribution to Promoting Religious Freedom." In 2008, he resigned from Chengdu University and founded Early Rain Reformed Church ( 秋雨之福归正教会 ; Qiūyǔ Zhīfú Guīzhèng Jiàohuì ) in Chengdu (later renamed Early Rain Covenant Church ). In October 2011, he

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300-406: 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

325-559: 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. 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

350-632: The Reformed church in China should have a pastoral mission for the Chinese church and a prophetic mission for Chinese society. According to Fredrik Fällman, Wang Yi sees this as the mechanism by which "New Genevas" are established throughout China, akin to John Calvin 's reforms in Geneva . Wang Yi is a prolific writer, preacher and blogger. Many of his works have been compiled at wangyilibrary.org . The following works have been translated into English: 1. Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from

375-492: The chairman of a Congregational or Baptist union. The Armenian term for pastoral letter is kondak , also translated as encyclical, statement, or decree. This Christianity -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Wang Yi (pastor) Wang Yi ( Chinese : 王怡 ; pinyin : Wáng Yí ; born June 1, 1973), pen name Wang Shuya ( simplified Chinese : 王书亚 ; traditional Chinese : 王書亞 ; pinyin : Wáng Shūyà ),

400-498: The government. In December 2019, Wang Yi, who challenged the government's sinicization of the gospel in his 95 Thesis , was sentenced to nine years in prison for " inciting subversion of state power " and "illegal business activity". 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

425-604: The idea of the separation of church and state originated from the Calvinist tradition. He criticizes the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China as emphasizing nationalism , which he claims results in a worship of secular authorities at the cost of valuing the local community. Instead, he argues for the separation of church and state in the United States which he suggests is a constitutional polity legitimized by

450-679: 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 . Early Rain Covenant Church has been subjected to repeated persecution, 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. The church has been banned and its properties were confiscated by

475-699: The noble aspiration that people be allowed to think, speak, worship and assemble freely". On 9 December 2018, he and over 100 other members of the church were arrested by Chinese authorities, who simultaneously banned any reporting of the crackdown. This action is being objected to by the US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. After he had been detained for 48 hours, the Early Rain Covenant Church released Wang's "My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience" written two months earlier in anticipation of his arrest. On 30 December 2019, Wang

500-464: Was a vocal human rights advocate and his cultural and political commentary brought Wang Yi national attention. In 2004, he was included in the list of "50 Most Influential Public Intellectuals of China" by Southern People Weekly  [ zh ] . In 2005, he was converted, baptized, and started to serve in the house church . He was among the few pioneering Christian human-rights attorneys in China. Wang Yi met with President George W. Bush at

525-424: Was given a prison sentence of nine years by Chengdu Intermediate People's Court for " inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations." The sentence also included the stripping of his political rights for three years and the confiscation of his personal assets of RMB 50,000 ( US$ 7,000). On 31 December 2019, U.S. State Department called China for Wang's immediate and unconditional release in

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550-571: 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. On July 14, 2009, 63 church members were forbidden to enter Early Rain's leased apartment by

575-584: Was ordained and became the senior pastor of the church. The church had a membership of about 700 before it was closed down in late 2018. Wang Yi was one of China's best-known pastors in the West. He and Early Rain have been profiled in The Atlantic and New York Times , and the subject of a number of journalist and academic works. A review by the editorial board of the Washington Post called Wang "a paragon of

600-570: 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. Thomas Torrance , a Scottish Presbyterian minister serving under the American Bible Society , was a missionary in Chengdu from 1910 to 1934. In 2005, three years before the establishment of what would become Early Rain Blessings Church,

625-563: Was written in 2018 in anticipation of his arrest. Shortly after his arrest it was posted online in English and shared many times around the world. 3. "Ninety-Five Theses: The Reaffirmation of Our Stance on the House Church" In August 2015, Wang Yi posted a document titled "Reaffirming our Stance on the House Churches: 95 theses" in an attempt to reaffirm the Chinese house church's position in

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