This week Voice of the Martyrs received information from a China source about a situation that has developed in a church at Datong, Shanxi Province, about 300 kilometres west of Beijing.

Pastor Bian is the only pastor in the local official church. He is about 53 years of age and has been a Christian all his life.

A member of his congregation writes:

"They have been watching Pastor Bian very much and once they find an error they will throw him into custody of the Public Security Bureau. On the morning of December 24 the people from the Religious Affairs Bureau produced a piece pf paper on which they declared the new leadership of Datong church. The document had the chop (seal) of the RAB on it. In the document they said that in order to satisfy the request of all Christians in his church they decided to change the leadership. Pastor Bian thought it was a total lie and tore the document into pieces.

"Not all Christians made this request. Only three or four of all Christians in Datong church, which has about 4000 members, wanted him removed. Most members don't know this.

"On December 26 Pastor Bian was put into custody of the Public Security Bureau, and was held by them for 18 hours. A lot of Christians from the Datong church went to the PSB and asked the officers to set Pastor Bian free. They stayed there overnight. Eventually the PSB had to release him because the Datong church forced the Director of the Religious Affairs Bureau to stay in the church. The Christians told the officers that they will go to the Datong Government if they do not set Pastor Bian free. In this situation they had to set him free.

"But the battle is just beginning, as the enemies of Pastor Bian rely on the Religious Affairs Bureau, and want to dismiss him. The Datong church needs the prayers of all the Christians in the world. It's urgent now. I now understand why Pastor Bian was always afraid to do anything. His enemies have been watching him carefully to find any opportunity to attack him."

The writer's name is withheld for reasons of security, but Voice of the Martyrs encourages Christians around the world to be prayerful about this situation.