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{{Short description|New religious movement from China}}
'''Spirit Church''' ({{Zh|p=Línglíngjiào|s=灵灵教}}), also known as '''Efficacious Spirit Teachings''', is a [[new religious movement]] from [[China]]. It was founded in the 1980s, in [[Hunan]] by Hua Xuehe ({{Lang|zh-cn|华雪和}}), a primary school teacher with high school education from [[Jiangsu]]. Hua was a member of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] who became a [[Protestant]] in 1978 and joined the [[True Jesus Church]] in 1979. In 1982, he left the True Jesus Church and established his own movement.<ref name="Dunn2015">{{cite book|title=Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China|last=Dunn|first=Emily|publisher=Brill|year=2015|isbn=978-90-04-29724-1|pages=43–44}}</ref>

Its areas of presence include [[Jiangsu]], [[Jiangxi]], [[Anhui]], [[Hunan]], [[Hubei]], [[Henan]] and [[Shandong]].<ref name="chinapolitik.de">{{cite web |url=http://www.chinapolitik.de/studien/china_analysis/china_geheimgesellschaften.pdf |title=China Analysis No. 8 |publisher=Chinapolitik.de |access-date=2015-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012024333/http://www.chinapolitik.de/studien/china_analysis/china_geheimgesellschaften.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-12 }}</ref> It has Pentecostal features and may be regarded as a break-away group from the Chinese Pentecostal group, the [[True Jesus Church]].<ref name="McLeod2006">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ms_SyCLNpuAC&pg=PA123|title=The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 9, World Christianities C.1914-c.2000|last2=Tang|first2=Edmond|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-521-81500-0|pages=123–124|chapter=Independency in Africa and Asia|last1=Anderson|first1=Allan|editor=Hugh McLeod}}</ref>

Hua claims to be the second incarnation of Christ and teaches that we live in a new era when Christians should pray in his name rather than in the name of Christ. His followers celebrate Hua's birth date, January 19, instead of Christmas. They regard as evidence of Hua's divine nature the fact that his name ({{Zh|p=Huá Xuěhé|s=华雪和|labels=no}}) differs by just one syllable from the Chinese word for Jehovah ({{Zh|p=Yēhéhuá|s=耶和华|labels=no}}).<ref name="Dunn2015">{{cite book|title=Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China|last=Dunn|first=Emily|publisher=Brill|year=2015|isbn=978-90-04-29724-1|pages=43–44}}</ref>

Spirit Church is illegal in [[China]] and labelled heretical.<ref>{{cite book |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=v20J18hL1MAC |page=183 }} |title=Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice Or "evil Cult"?: a ... |author=Danny Schechter |access-date=2015-03-08}}</ref><ref name="Yang2011">{{cite book|author=Fenggang Yang|title=Religion in China: Survival and Revival Under Communist Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8QZVL2EUekC&pg=PA102|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-973564-8|page=103}}</ref> Hua was arrested in 1990, and sent to a labor camp. He has reportedly since been released. In 2015, scholar Emily Dunn reported that "his whereabouts and fate are unknown," while the movement reportedly had some 15,000 followers.<ref name="Dunn2015">{{cite book|title=Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China|last=Dunn|first=Emily|publisher=Brill|year=2015|isbn=978-90-04-29724-1|pages=43–44}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Heterodox teachings (Chinese law)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Religion in China}}
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Christian denominations founded in China]]
[[Category:1980s establishments in China]]

[[Category:Organizations designated as cults by China]]

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Spirit Church (China) - Revision history

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