Chinese Christians face tense Easter in Beijing

BEIJING  Choir members gathered to rehearse for the Easter service at the Fengtai Christian church in south Beijing on Thursday, while other visitors brought colored eggs decorated with crosses and the Chinese characters for Jesus. We will have over 2,000 worshipers on Sunday, come and join us, church worker Duan Xiuping said, smiling.

On the other side of Chinas capital, in the northwests university district, Pastor Jin Tianming cant even leave his home, let alone prepare for Easter. There have been four policemen outside my door for the past 12 days, he said by telephone Thursday.

Jins house arrest wont stop his embattled Shouwang church  denied access to the property it purchased  from trying to worship outdoors on Sunday.

We have our faith, and we are willing to endure this kind of treatment, said Jin of the temporary detention by police of more than 100 members of his 900-strong congregation during the past two Sundays. Every house church wants its own place of worship.

The dispute highlights the difficulties facing millions of Chinese Christians who spurn state-controlled churches such as Fengtai, and prefer to meet in independent house churches like Shouwang.

The Peoples Republic, still run by its founding Communist Party, has transformed in recent years into one of the worlds largest Christian countries, with estimates running from 45 million to more than 100 million believers, of which perhaps two-thirds gather in house churches.

Im very concerned about Sunday, as its likely there will be an escalation of the conflict, said Bob Fu, president of China Aid, a Texas-based Christian group. The government seems to have no hesitation to use violence against peaceful worshipers, he said. China Aid reports that persecution against house churches has recently increased in at least eight Chinese provinces.

Despite being denied the keys to the $4 million property, bought with their donations, some Shouwang regulars are proud of the churchs defiance. Shouwang has always emphasized openness, and the right to have ones own place of worship, without government interference, said Dai Jinbo, a Christian since 2005. Many churches across China now look at our example, and wonder if we will be a breakthrough for religious freedom.

Its white-collar, prosperous congregation marks Shouwang as a leading example of the way Chinas house churches have moved from the margins to the mainstream in the past decade, says Wang Yi, founder of the Early Rain Reformed Church in Chengdu, a major city in southwestern China.

God has prepared me for this with my speciality, said Wang, 38, a former legal scholar who used the courts to defeat two government attempts to ban his church.

We are determined to be more and more open and public, although the government would prefer we stayed scattered and underground, said Wang, whose church is renting office space in central Chengdu.

Fengtai choir member Chen Yiqin, 60, praises the states investment in approved religious groups, but attends a private house church twice a week.

It is closer to my home, but we have good relations with the local neighborhood committee, and do not oppose the government in any way, Chen stressed.

Housekeeper Xie Xiaoyu, 21, has attended a house church for the past two years.

In big churches, pastors have little time to explain the Bible, and just say things like be good to others. But I want to know why Jesus died, she said, and here, there is more time for understanding.