South China Church is an Evangelical denomination of China. In 1990 or 1991 it formed as an offshoot of Peter Xu's "All Ranges Church" which is also known as the Born Again Movement. Its former head Gong Shengliang was sentenced to a death penalty, but this sentence has since been commuted to life imprisonment. The South China Church is a banned church deemed a cult by authorities. The main criticism outside of that is that they are fundamentalist and charismatic. The official hostility to the church has garnered it support among several groups concerned with religious persecution. It is an "underground church" so membership figures are uncertain, but most estimates state it has tens of thousands of members.
Read more about South China Church: Imprisoned Members
Famous quotes containing the words south, china and/or church:
“A friend and I flew south with our children. During the week we spent together I took off my shoes, let down my hair, took apart my psyche, cleaned the pieces, and put them together again in much improved condition. I feel like a car that’s just had a tune-up. Only another woman could have acted as the mechanic.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls’ Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost’s right....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)