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 ReformedPresbyterian 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][3]
Name
According to a pastoral letter from Elder Li Yingqiang, the native name of the church, "Autumn Rain", comes from Psalm84:6: "When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings."[4]
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.[8][9]
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.[10]
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.[10]
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).[3][11] 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.[2]
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
In addition to Wang Yi, other notable members of Early Rain Covenant Church include:
Preacher Dai Zhichao, who has been constantly monitored and harassed.[20] He was jailed after a police raid on Sunday meeting on August 22, 2021.[21]
Ran Yunfei, a writer and a high-profile democracy activist from Chongqing, who was baptized by Pastor Wang Yi at Early Rain Covenant Church.[22] He was charged with "inciting subversion of state power" in 2011, and had been jailed for six months.[23]
Fu Hailu, an itinerant worker from Xuanhan County, northeastern Sichuan, who was detained on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" in 2016, for selling liquor with references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on the label (June 4th Liquor Bottle Case [zh]).[24] He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment.[25] His wife and son are also members of Early Rain Church.[26]
Ren Ruiting [zh], who, after the 2018 crackdown, first fled to Taiwan, and then to the United States.[27] She was invited to speak at the 2022 International Religious Freedom Summit.[28]
^ abXiao, 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.
^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.
^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.
^ abYu, 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.
^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.
Johnson, Ian (2017). The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN978-1-101-87005-1. — This book includes a 100-page profile of Early Rain Covenant Church.
