This week marks Chinese New Year, but for many Christians in China the New Year is marked with growing concerns about their freedom. The situation has grown increasingly difficult for China’s religious minorities in the past year, as the crackdown on human rights has worsened. In our recent conversations with church leaders across China, it’s become clear that there’s growing alarm at the way religious minorities are being treated.

This week please:

• Give thanks for the growth of the Chinese Church and ask God to pour out his blessings on every part of the Church in the coming year;
• Pray for Pastor Zhang Shaojie, leader of Nanle County Church, whose 12-year prison sentence was upheld at appeal in 2014;
• Ask God to give wisdom and strength to the leaders of churches which in the past were able to operate relatively freely, but are coming under increasing pressure to join the state-sanctioned church;
• Pray for churches of all denominations in Zheijang Province where at least 250 religious symbols have been removed, hidden, modified or destroyed, or churches demolished in the past year;
• Pray for continued emotional, physical and mental healing for the Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng who was released from prison in August 2014;
• Ask God to give wisdom to CSW’s East Asia advocacy team as they seek new ways to engage with the Chinese government on religious freedom issues;
• Pray that the Chinese government would take appropriate steps to uphold and protect religious freedom for all China’s religious minorities.
• Get involved with CSW’s China week – email admin@csw.org.uk for more information