Released on = November 25, 2005, 2:10 pm

Press Release Author = Old Catholic Church of Great Britain

Industry = Government

Press Release Summary = The Old Catholic Church of Great Britain project "Doing Hard
Time for God!" led by Archbishop Gary Beaver, has been lobbying world governments in
an attempt to raise awareness of the escalating human rights abuse that has outlawed
freedom of religion in China.

Press Release Body = A letter from the elders of the South China Church addressed to
\"to all the seniors within the Lord, elders, servants of the Lord, pastors, saints
and friends from various circles of life" called for support and recognition of the
situation of churches in China. The SCC wish for the Chinese government to open a
third court session and allow people to experience the pure faith of Christianity
and be permitted freedom of religious belief.\"

The Old Catholic Church of Great Britain project "Doing Hard Time for God!" led by
Archbishop Gary Beaver, has been lobbying world governments in an attempt to raise
awareness of the escalating human rights abuse that has outlawed freedom of religion
in China.

Full text of the open letter

November 12, 2005
Dear respectable President Bush,

We are the members of South China Church (SCC) in China. Thank God for giving us the
opportunity to write this letter to you. We are also grateful to you and the
American people for your concern on the SCC case. May grace, peace and blessing go
to you and all the people who revere Him. Amen!

South China Church was founded by Pastor Gong Shengliang with the inspiration and
leadership of God of Trinity and in accordance with the truth in the Bible. We are
his pupils. Teacher Gong became a devout believer in Jesus Christ as a child. His
grandmother on mother\'s side was baptized a Christian in the 1930s by an American
missionary and a pastor from a Baptist church.

Since 1986, Pastor Gong was preaching in the South of China the Gospel of atonement
by Christ. In the meantime, he established churches in Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing,
Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other places in China. Guided by God, we preach
the Gospel mainly in the South of China. That\'s why our name is South China
Church---just like the light out of the darkness that makes people under Satan,
Death and Evil \"turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God\" (1
Thessalonians-9). This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and is the God the
American people believe in. However, in China, an atheist country and also a country
with many gods, it is so difficult to worship God.

Throughout its history, SCC has been serving God amid persecution. Many of our
brothers and sisters have been turned to the authorities, fined and their houses
have been searched when they get together to worship Jesus Christ. So many of our
missionaries have been arrested and sentenced in prison (even capital sentence).
However, we still raise our hands and pray for our own country and its people. We
implore God to bless China, make the Gospel prosper here and bestow peace and
prosperity to this land.

However, our rights of faith and life are restricted or even deprived. Since 2001,
SCC has suffered unprecedented persecution. About a thousand Gospel ambassadors are
hunted down and arrested. In this circumstance, members of the church cannot go back
home, cannot till their fields and cannot worship God and they have become \"the
people where the world was not worthy of them\" (Hebrew 11:38), let alone their human
rights.

The Chinese authorities crack down and abolish SCC under the charge of \"cult\" and
they extort confessions from members of the church and its missionaries by torture,
seduction and deception so that they can build up their \"blueprint of an unjust
case\" on groundless charges. Sister Yu Zhongju, a member of SCC was beaten to death
by Zhongxiang Public Security Bureau of Hubei Province merely because she refused to
confess. On August 8, 2001, Pastor Gong Shengliang, leader of SCC, was arrested and
he had to wear shackles for 411 days designed for a convict sentenced to death. In
the meantime, 63 other missionaries and members of the church were arrested and were
sentenced to \"Education through Labor and Reformation through Labor.\" The first
trial lasted from December 19-21, 2001 and on the charge of \"organizing and using a
cult organization to undermine the implementation of law,\" they sentenced Pastor
Gong and other co-workers respectively to death, death on probation, life in prison
an
d term imprisonment.

Shackles, electric batons, cigarette butts, Guanjia and other instruments of torture
have left marks of injuries that they got for their faith. Some of them still have
not recovered from these injuries. Later, under the pressure of the international
public opinions and with concerns from peace-loving people from all circles of life,
the government conducted a re-trial on the grounds of \"unclear facts,\" \"insufficient
evidence\" and \"illegal proceedings.\" The court opened for the second time on October
9, 2002 and lasted for two days. Now the death sentence was changed to life in
prison and the death sentence on probation was changed to term sentences. Some of
them had their sentences commuted by various degrees. Four sisters of ours were at
first released right at the court, but were later sentenced to three years of the
so-called \"Education through Labor.\" (Because there were marks of torture on their
bodies when the authorities tried to extort a confession from them).

Before the trial opened, the court invited the defense counsel to a banquet and
requested the counsel to cooperate in the trial. They also forced the counsel to
sign on the \"Notice of Court Session\" and moved up the time by one day ahead of
schedule. During the court trial, the counsels were not allowed to defend their
clients and the defendants were not allowed to make their statements. From the time
Pastor Gong was imprisoned (August 8, 2001) to the time of re-trial on November 29,
2002, he was allowed only one meeting with his family on the video telephone. In the
re-trial, the \"criminal clique\" accused Pastor Gong of \"rape\" and \"intentional
injury\" and he was sentenced to life in prison. He was taken to serve his sentence
in Jingzhou Prison in Hubei. In the prison, Teacher Gong is not allowed to have
contact with any other prisoners, nor is he allowed to talk or answer the questions
of other prisoners. Pastor Gong is not allowed to appeal or go to public restrooms.

Two prisoners are assigned to conduct a 24-hour surveillance on him and to report
their findings. Once, because he didn\'t answer the question of a prisoner (as the
rules of the prison forbid him to talk with other people), he was so beaten that
blood appeared in his urine and stool. He has lost his hearing in one of his ears
and he still has not received treatment for it. With concerns and urging from his
friends both in China and abroad, Pastor Gong was finally allowed to see a doctor
for his injuries. Later, he was transferred to Hongshan Prison in Wuhan, Hubei
Province. In April 2004, Pastor Gong who was severely tortured both physically and
emotionally, fell down while cleaning the windows of the prison and not even single
soul came to ask about his condition. When his family learned this during a prison
visit, they requested that he be given medical treatment, the prison officials not
only wouldn\'t hear it, they claimed that he fell down onto the floor because he read
the Bible,
prayed every day and worshipped Jesus, so much so that his mind became clouded.
Pastor Gong had a relapse of stomach problems in November 2004. For half a month,
he couldn\'t drink and was very weak. When he was in such a critical condition, the
prison officials refused to let him seek medical treatment.

Pastor Gong wrote statements of appeal on many occasions, but the prison authorities
not only did not submit them, they searched and confiscated Teacher Gong\'s home
letters and his statements of appeal. What is worse is that they refuse to let
lawyers see him on the ground that Pastor Gong never submitted statements of appeal
and that he never mentioned appeal. Director of the prison Sun Wenquan, Director Xie
from Prison Political Section and other people talked with Pastor Gong on many
occasions and wanted him to renounce his belief and admit that what he believes in
is a cult. If these demands were met, they would commute his sentence. They told his
family that he wouldn\'t plead guilty and wouldn\'t obey the law. In this situation,
they will not commute his sentence. During visits, no talk is allowed that is about
faith or the church. Otherwise, the meeting would be stopped.

In the last visit, Pastor Gong told his family who came to visit him that the prison
added a few more prisoners who conduct surveillance on his conduct and then report
it to the authorities. His stomach problem is getting worse and worse and he often
feels dull abdominal pains. We are worried that if this is not treated in time, it
may endanger his life. Though he did not die at the gunpoint of the court\'s
sentence, he may die in the prison due to the unfair treatment.. Now, not only is
the situation in the prison for Pastor Gong very difficult, the situation for other
16 brothers and sisters of SCC detained in Jingzhou Prison in Hubei Province,
Jiangbei Prison, Women Prison of Wuhan, Three Gorges Prison in Wanzhou, Chongqing,
Yongchuan Women\'s Prison in Chongqing and other prisons is also very bad.

The leading cadres in these prisons not only treat them as members of a cult, they
also force them to write statements of repentance and to admit what they believe in
is a cult. Some of them are suffering a worse fate. For example, Lu Yumei, Xiang
Shuangyu and other sisters Yongchuan Women\'s Prison in Chongqing are denied the
rights to see visitors, write letters or receive daily necessities. Besides praying
to our Lord Jesus Christ, we also urge President Bush, God\'s ambassador who has
always been concerned about the SCC case in China, to give us support and help SCC
who shares the same belief with you and to \"contend for the faith that was once for
all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3) so that China can become a country of our Lord
Jesus Christ as soon as possible. Let us raise our hands and may God lend His hands
of grace to help you.


We appeal to all the seniors within the Lord, elders, servants of the Lord, pastors,
saints and friends from various circles of life to show concern toward the situation
of Gospel churches in China, to give your support to the SCC case and to condescend
to the lower level of SCC and learn the truth of SCC. We hope the Chinese government
can open a third court session and let people know the true identity of South China
Church so that the pure faith of Christianity can gain a true name and a space for
freedom and belief. May God\'s benevolence, the grace of Christ and the touching of
the Holy Spirit be always with you and with us. Amen!

South China Church


Web Site = http://www.oldcatholic.co.uk

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