China's famous house church leader, Rev. Allen Yuan, passed away at the age of 92 on August 16, 2005, 4:20p.m. in Beijing.
The memorial church service of Yuan will be held on Friday, August 19, at 2pm on Eight Treasure Mountain in Beijing.
Yuan was born in 1912 and was converted to Christianity on December 29, 1932, and he was baptized by Wang Ming Dao. He received theological training and spent a long period of time in the countryside of China evangelizing and preaching without fearing the war fights, challenges, and difficulties of life.
In 1957, Yuan was labeled as rightist because he had refused to participate in the "Three-Self-Patriotic Movement". He was imprisoned on April 19, 1958 until he was released on Dec 20, 1979, which was a period of 21 years and 8 months.
In the spring of 1980, Yuan began to hold church meetings in his house. That same year, the China government began to loosen its religious policies, and Yuan's house church gathering was one of the first among the Beijing house churches.
After several years, the crowd gathered numbered 200 to 300 and it became the largest attending house church in Beijing with visitors from inland and overseas.
In 1994, when Dr. Billy Graham visited China, he delivered a sermon at Yuan's home and in 1995, the government of the United States invited Rev. Allen Yuan to attend the White House Morning Prayer Fellowship.
Yuan's life was recorded in the form of a biography by a journalist, Lydia Lee. Lee, also Rev. Yuan's friend, spent almost one year researching in China before she wrote "A Living Sacrifice : The Biography of Allen Yuan." She also interviewed Rev. Yuan, his wife, co-workers, and church members for original materials, including photographs and written materials of Yuan.
