Chinese house church

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinese house churches are unregistered Christian churches in the People's Republic of China, which operate independently of the government-run Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC) for Protestant groups and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA) and the Chinese Catholic Bishops Council (CCBC) for Catholics. They are also known as the "Underground" Church or the "Unofficial" Church, although this is somewhat of a misnomer as they are collections of unrelated individual churches rather than a single unified church.

They developed as a result of the PRC government policy which requires the registration of all religious organisations. This registration policy requires churches to become part of the TSPM/CCC set-up, which may involve interference in the church's internal affairs either by government officials or by TSPM/CCC officials, who are approved by the Communist Party of China's United Front Work Department. The name house church comes from the fact that, not being officially registered organizations, they cannot independently own property and hence they meet in people's houses.

Because house churches operate outside government regulations and restrictions, their members and leaders are sometimes harassed by local government officials. This persecution may take the form of a prison sentence or, more commonly, reeducation through labour. Heavy fines also are not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated in lieu of payment if this is refused or unavailable. Unlike Falungong, however, house churches have not officially been outlawed, and since the 1990s, there has been increasing official tolerance of house churches. Most observers believe that the harassment of house churches by government officials arises less from an ideological opposition to religion and support of atheism than out of fears of a center of popular mobilization outside the control of the Communist Party of China.

Protestant house churches are indigenous to mainland China and are usually not under foreign control; some groups welcome help from abroad as long as it does not compromise their independence. This assertion of native roots is important in the PRC political discourse, since Christian churches and missionaries have sometimes historically been seen as tools of imperialism. They have indigenous forms of worship and usually use their own songs. One collection of Chinese house church worship songs, Jiānán Shīxuăn (迦南诗选; "Songs from Canaan") has been made into a book, with a VCD and tape of some of the songs available. In addition, at least with the Protestant churches there is no central church hierarchy, a fact that is commonly cited as a reason why house churches are seen as less threatening and subject to less overt harassment by the Communist Party of China than Falungong.

Catholic house churches generally recognize the authority of the Pope in contrast to the official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association which does not. The role of Catholic house churches is one of the major barriers to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China.

In the past two decades, a number of house church networks have developed, headquartered mainly in Henan and Zhejiang provinces. These networks have sent missionaries all over the country and have even started sending them abroad to neighbouring states. The book by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway entitled The Heavenly Man outlines many of the amazing events that have unfolded during these 20+ years.