As Korea Moves to Deport ‘Mayflower’ Church, Chinese Christians Debate Dodging the Cross

Author - Umn ministry

February 09, 2022

Mainland believers sympathize with congregation’s concerns but disagree theologically over decision to flee China for Jeju Island.

In late 2019 and early 2020, 60 Chinese Christians left their homes in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, seeking religious asylum on Jeju Island, a popular tourist spot in South Korea.

The group of 28 adults and 32 children hailed from Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church (SHRC), following the lead of their pastor Pan Yongguang who went to Korea before them. At the end of January, the Gwangju High Court denied the church’s final asylum appeal. They now face imminent deportation to China unless another country grants them refuge.

Pan’s church began considering emigration after the 2018 persecution of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, whose head pastor, Wang Yi, knew Pan. Wang was arrested in December of that year and sentenced the following year to nine years in prison. Wang, Pan, and several of Pan’s church elders were represented among the more than 400 house church congregations whose leaders signed a statement criticizing the tightening religious regulations that went into effect in 2018.

After Wang’s arrest, Pan believed that house churches could no longer exist openly in Chinese society. “The church had to leave, unless we scattered or renounced our faith,” he later said.

In mid-October 2019, SHRC held a congregational meeting and voted to move to Jeju. If the church (at that time a group of about 120) remained in Shenzhen, they believed they had only two options: to disperse or to “bend the knee” to the government-sanctioned Chinese Three-Self church.

Additionally, many church members’ children had been attending the congregation’s school, which authorities later shut down. Concerned that their children would be taught material that violated their faith, SHRC ...