Paris Church: Chronology of Events
Onglets principaux
Questions (reasons for the turbulence):
- Why were privately compiled files on YM Yang brought to the UK and Paris in December 2006 and circulated, thus causing the disintegration of mutual trust between co-workers?
- Why is it that, after December 2006, based solely on the complaints of Minh Ly and Stephane, IA immediately sent out official letters, involving themselves in the affairs of Paris church, without first asking Paris church board members if the complaints were true? The letters from Paris church board and its Religious Affairs officer were completely ignored! As a result, the Religious Affairs officer of Paris church, Dn Simeon, was no longer able to endure the interference from IA and decided to resign from his position as deacon in 2008.
- Why did YJ Lin issue fake resolutions in October 2008, six months after the conference in April 2008? And why were these letters sent to Paris church, which had not been involved in the conference at all? (That very night, YM Yang immediately wrote to FM Che pointing out that the documents were false, and that deliberately sending such false documents to Paris would be catastrophic for Paris church.)
- Why is it that, after October 2008, when none of the deacons had been elected into the Paris church board and when the IA was therefore no longer able to involve itself for no good reason, Paris recovered and obtained God’s mercy? God lifted the church up from its ruins and it regained the laughter and joy of its former days.
- Why is it that the divine work in Paris and French-speaking Africa has been blessed even more abundantly by God without the care and concern of the IA?
2006.09 | In order that the members of the Committee for French-speaking Africa (CFA) might be able to conduct the sacraments during their pioneering work in Africa, YM Yang proposed to the IA that Soung (Simeon) and Stephane be ordained as deacons. It cannot be said that YM Yang’s relationship with the deacons was tense during that time. If it had been so, why would Yang have proposed that Stephane become a deacon? (Around this time) Elder Hou came to Paris to conduct a seminar and everyone gladly participated in it. |
2006.10 | During an IA EXCO meeting, the chairman of Indonesia’s GA invited YM Yang to go to Indonesia at the end of 2006 to help out with the work there. Upon seeing this (taking the opportunity presented by the absence of YM Yang), the IA administrators immediately arranged for YJ Lin to travel to Paris to conduct the ordination (originally it was Derren Liang who was supposed to go). YM Yang instantly had a premonition that something unexpected was about to happen. |
2006.11.30 | YM Yang was worried and so wrote a letter from Bogor church, Indonesia, to YJ Lin, telling him to be mindful of the weaknesses of Paris church. |
2006.12.xx | YJ Lin passed through the UK on his way to Paris. A UK preacher telephoned YM and lamented that YJ Lin had been maligning YM Yang in the UK. What was he trying to achieve by doing this? YJ Lin had brought with him privately compiled files discrediting YM Yang and had distributed them in Paris. This caused great turmoil and a complete breakdown of trust between the preacher and church board members in Paris.(Reason: One of the newly-ordained deacons, who had been baptized in Paris and who was unaware of the church’s history and the condition of its organization, later explained: “In a company, we have no choice but to listen to the chairman. Since the chairman had said that the manager was terrible, we had to believe him.”) It can be seen from the correspondence between the deacons and board members at the time that YJ Lin had also encouraged the deacons by saying that if any conflicts between themselves and the resident preacher YM Yang arose, the IA would side with the deacons. |
2007.01.07 | YM Yang returned from Indonesia and saw that Paris had been thrown into chaos. With a heavy heart, he wrote a letter to YJ Lin, questioning the chairman: “I am filled with regret upon returning to Paris after a trip to Indonesia that was so full of grace.Was your purpose in coming here to strengthen the church and help with the divine work? Or to spread rumors and to use your administrative resources to attack your fellow worker? Are you aware that your conduct in Paris was even more scandalous than that of those involved in the Watergate scandal? At least they took responsibility for their actions and resigned! Just think, if I were to openly refute your assertions, would the IA still be able to hold its head high in public? May the Lord look upon this matter!” |
2007- | From then on, there arose great confusion in the French-speaking regions (Africa and Paris); the divine work stagnated, the African churches suffered greatly, and Paris church lost the joy and vitality it once had. |
2007.03 | YJ Lin personally used his position of authority to secretly submit the topics of “The self-existence of satan” and “The book of Romans” to the Truth Research Committee in the name of YM Yang. |
2007.03 | When the resolution document of the Truth Research Committee was submitted to the World Delegates Conference for approval, it was discovered that the Chinese version of the resolution on “The self-existence of satan” had been altered and was significantly different from the English version. As a result, the World Delegates Conference had to be adjourned. |
2007.09.01 | Elder Hou came to visit Paris. Because the circle of deacons in Paris had received “insider information” from the IA that Elder Hou had secretly altered the resolution document of the Truth Research Committee (in actual fact, Elder Hou had nothing to do with this!), Elder Hou was unable to conduct any classes in Paris. The scene compared to a year ago was as different as night from day. |
2007.11.04 | Yang wrote a letter to the IA’s Financial Affairs officer, FM Che, detailing the chaos that had ensued after YJ Lin had ordained the deacons and spread the rumors: not only were these deacons unwilling to participate in the work in Congo and Rwanda, they obstructed this work! |
2008.02 | Dn Simeon went with YM Yang to perform pioneering work in Congo. Upon returning to France, he reported during a service how the churches in Congo had been blessed. This exposed the slander and perversion of truth concerning the Congolese ministry that the circle of deacons had for a long time been presenting to the IA and everyone else. As a result, Dn. Simeon was looked upon by the other deacons as someone who “belonged to YM Yang”. Following this, the circle of deacons disbanded. Thank the Lord. |
2007-2008.08 | Without seeking confirmation from or making inquiries of the Paris church board or the resident preacher YM Yang, the IA continually used Minh Ly’s and Stephane’s defamatory letters and audio recordings to “deal with” YM Yang and Paris church. The Paris church board repeatedly wrote letters to the IA asking them to handle this matter impartially, but the IA ignored them. This led to an unprecedented straining of relations between Paris church and the IA. |
2008.08 | As the church board was not operating normally, an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was held and the proposal to enhance and extend the Sabbath morning services and the fellowship activities after the afternoon service was put forward. Minh Ly, Stephane and Marc strongly opposed this proposal. They threatened to report the Chinese brethren who did not have the right of abode in France to the police, and further threatened not to give them the right to vote! YM Yang wrote to the government agency in charge of legal matters. He and Dn. Simeon, Chih-Hua, Yuan-Fen and other church board members did their best to protect the French government’s conferment of the right to vote upon all members of the community, whether they had the right of abode or not. The proposal to enhance and extend the Sabbath day was approved at the EGM. |
2008.09 | Minh Ly and Stephane sent YM Yang’s sermon (delivered in Paris) “Simeon and Anna” to the IA, falsely alleging that YM Yang had denied that speaking in tongues was evidence of the receiving of the Holy Spirit. They further accused him of wanting to select people who had not yet received the Holy Spirit to be Paris church board members! |
10.04 | Paris church’s Religious Affairs officer, Dn. Simeon, could no longer tolerate the IA’s longstanding unreasonable and biased meddling in the affairs of Paris church which had resulted in uncontrollable confusion in the church. Dn. Simeon therefore decided to resign from his positions as Religious Affairs officer and church deacon. (Apart from Minh Ly and Stephane, everyone else tried to persuade him to stay on.) |
10.07 | The Standing Committee held a meeting in Hong Kong and telephoned Paris church’s Religious Affairs officer, Sis. Chih-Hua Kuo. However, the contents of the official document subsequently issued did not correspond with what Sis. Kuo had actually said! |
2008.10.18 | AGM in Paris church. Election of church board members. Marc was in China, Dn. Simeon had tired of participating in church affairs and did not participate as a potential candidate in the election. Minh Ly and Stephane were not voted in. Thank the Lord, after this, the church board resumed normal operations, the brethren recovered their former good spirits and the Parisian ministry was greatly blessed by God. |
10.23 | The IA sent a false document to Paris church stating that it had been decided during a conference held in April 2008 that it had been impossible to reconcile YM Yang’s view of the truth with that of the conference attendees. This document was sent to Paris church even though the church had not been involved in the conference at all! (During an IA EXCO meeting held in March 2009, Elders HT Chen and EY Hou pointed out that this document described a resolution that had not been made during the conference! Even YM Yang, who had himself attended this conference had not been informed of the existence of such a resolution!). The IA’s intention of stirring up trouble in Paris was thus revealed. |
10.24 | Upon receiving the false document, YM Yang immediately wrote two letters, to:
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10.24 | Paris’s “Deacon” Stephane had tried in private to amend the sacraments timetable that the Religious Affairs officer had drawn up for the spiritual convocation, but had failed, so he removed his daughter’s name from the list of baptismal candidates. Incidentally, can a “deacon” who has continually refused to have his two children baptized in Paris church still expect to have his status as “deacon” recognized there? |
2008.10-12 | Minh Ly surreptitiously told a young newly-elected church board member, A, that he possessed a “secret document” that proved that YM Yang was not the good preacher they had thought he was, and that he was waiting for the “green light” from IA (Lin?) to publicize this information. Minh Ly also told another young newly-elected church board member, B, that as a preacher, YM Yang did not lead a wealthy life, so he could not have offered €1,500 for the purchase of the church piano; there must be some irregularities associated with his finances. Minh Ly further told the two church board members to keep their distance from YM Yang and not to work with him. (Thank the Lord, A reported this to the Religious Affairs officer, who told A that there was no such secret, and advised A to ask Minh Ly to openly announce his “secret” instead of being so mysterious about it. During a certain church board meeting, B questioned Minh Ly directly: “I think Pr. Yang is a good man, I’m not sure why you’ve been saying that he’s been mishandling funds? I don’t even know whether what you’ve said is true. Since Yang is here with us today, please could you repeat what you told me?!” Minh Ly’s whole demeanor changed instantly. From then on, he was no longer able to sow discord in this manner. The Paris church board became more aware of the destructive ploys of the evil one and became even more united. (In actual fact, Minh Ly had known a few board meetings ago that the €1,500 had been given to Yang by a Taiwanese member, W. Yang had not accepted the money and had instead offered it to Paris church. Moreover, Paris church had already issued a receipt to W.Over the past few years those out to attack Yang have consistently used the tactic of spreading rumors about him despite being cognizant of the true facts. The cases of HH Ko proclaiming throughout the world for the past few years that YM Yang has been preaching heresies and FM Che saying in November 2011 in Nanjing that YM Yang had deceived the IA by pretending to have a toothache in order to enter China are examples in a similar vein.) |
2008.11.11 | Paris church’s Religious Affairs officer, Sis. Chih-Hua Kuo, wrote a letter to the IA expressing her disappointment with them. She further pointed out that in order to attack YM Yang by asserting that he had denied that speaking in tongues was evidence of the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the IA had transcribed the audio recording that Minh Ly and Stephane had sent them of Yang’s sermon “Simeon and Anna”. However, they had omitted the segment where Yang had said, “Do not think that I am denying the importance of speaking in tongues! One must be careful when one sermonizes today, because many people pass audio recordings around. It seems we sometimes no longer listen to sermons, but instead focus on finding fault with others: ‘Ah! Look! He has denied that speaking in tongues is evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit!’” Was this omission accidental? |
2009.02.02 | Out of the blue, Banyanga wrote a letter to the IA accusing YM Yang of excommunicating him for no reason, and further claiming that there were irregularities in the funds he had brought over. (Banyanga was still a Congolese worker at the time and had not been excommunicated at all! In early August 2010, NZ revealed that Paris’s Minh Ly had sent Banyanga SMSes at the time in order to try to drive a wedge between the two.) |
02.03 | Minh Ly and YJ Lin received Banyanga’s letter of complaint against YM Yang. Minh Ly immediately involved himself in the matter and pressurized faithful worker Baraka by sending him SMSes and letters asking him to state his position. |
02.04 | Stephane’s wife sent out a letter of complaint against Paris church and YM Yang. |
02.05 | Baraka wrote a letter to the IA stating that Banyanga’s accusations against YM Yang were untrue. |
02.06 | Unable to withstand the harassment, Baraka forwarded Minh Ly’s letter to YM Yang. Yang wrote a letter to Minh Ly asking him not to add fuel to the fire. |
02.06 | Unbeknownst to the Western Hemisphere Department of World Missions and the CFA, Elder Lin, through Minh Ly (who was no longer part of the CFA), wrote to Banyanga, encouraging him to continue his accusations against YM Yang, further saying that the IA would hold a Standing Committee meeting to deal with the matter! Upon receiving copies of YJ Lin’s message to Banyanga, Minh Ly and Stephane sent letters containing false accusations against YM Yang and Paris church to the IA on 13 and 23 February. These letters were to be used as material for the IA meeting in March. |
2009.03 | The IA Standing Committee entered the letters containing the false accusations of Banyanga, Minh Ly and Stephane into the Standing Committee’s records and handed these over to the IA EXCO. However, the Paris church board’s letters to the IA were completely ignored. Such partiality is truly puzzling. |
2009.03.12 | (The IA used Banyanga’s, Minh Ly’s and Stephane’s letters of accusation to attack Yang.) Dn. Simeon wrote to the IA saying that he was resigning from his position due to the IA chairman YJ Lin’s unreasonable and destructive intervention in the affairs of Paris church. Paris church was just a battleground; it was being sacrificed just so that certain people could exact their revenge there. Things had been blown completely out of proportion! ... |
2009.05.06 | The Paris church board was shocked that the IA Standing Committee had included only the letters of accusation against YM Yang and Paris church in its records and had completely disregarded the letters from Paris church. The church board therefore wrote letter number 001 requesting that the IA handle the matter impartially. |
2010.09 | Minh Ly once again wrote to the Western Hemisphere Department of World Missions to complain about Paris church and YM Yang. |
2010.09.23 | The Paris church board wrote a letter to YJ Lin and Derren Liang to once again remind them that without conducting proper investigations the IA should not minister to Paris church based solely on letters containing unfounded accusations, as this would only lead to more confusion. The letter also requested that, in dealing with the letters of accusation, the IA itself abide by the the administrative procedures that it required others to comply with. |
10.25 | The Paris church board requested that the Western Hemisphere Department of World Missions (WHDWM) adhere to protocol and send Minh Ly’s letter of accusation to Paris church board so that it could deal with the matter and put a conclusive end to the persistent malicious backbiting of certain individuals. The WHDWM did not respond. |
10.xx | Without consulting the European Coordination Centre nor seeking the opinion of continental European preacher YM Yang, the IA Standing Committee all of a sudden established a “Care Group for Pioneering Areas in Continental Europe”. This group would run into conflict with the European Coordination Centre, which had been registered with the IA for the past 30 years. Thus were the seeds of confusion sown. (During a meeting between the IA and the Paris church board in March 2011, a member of the Standing Committee clearly stated that this Continental European “Care Group” that had been established by the Standing Committee in such a hurry two months previously had been formed in order to prevent YM Yang from participating in the European ministry.) |
12.26-31 | During the European spiritual convocation, the committee for German-speaking areas (under the direction of Pr. Ko) made the proposal that YM Yang should not be allowed to participate in the European ministry. The proposal was rejected after a lengthy discussion. |
2011.01.01 | Paris church took over the chair of the European Coordination Centre. |
2011.05.16 | The Paris church board sent a notice to Minh Ly and Stephane informing them that their conduct over the past few years had become incompatible with their offices as deacons. They were asked to attend a church board meeting to be held on 28 May in order to defend themselves. |
05.28 | In a secret ballot held during a Paris church board meeting, it was unanimously decided that Minh Ly and Stephane should be suspended. They were informed that, according to regulations, they could convene an EGM before 24 June to try to overturn the decision of the church board. If not, the resolution for their suspension would come into effect on 24 June. |
06.22 | Once again, the IA involved itself in the matters of Paris church based solely on the letters of Minh Ly and Stephane! |
06.25 | Paris replied in a letter to the IA:
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07.15 | Seeing that it was being ignored by Paris, the IA turned to YM Yang and told him that according to the church’s regulations, he should submit a report on the suspension of the deacons. |
07.16 | As YM Yang was due to leave for Congo the next day, he wrote to the IA saying they would discuss it further upon his return. He also told his co-workers who had previously participated in the destruction of the Congolese ministry that they should pray for themselves; there was no need for them to pray for the divine work in Congo as it was enough that the Lord Jesus was interceding on behalf of the pioneering workers! |
08.17 | The IA office issued a reminder of the need to write the report concerning the supension of the deacons. |
08.19 | YM Yang wrote to the IA requesting that they first observe the church’s regulations and respect the absolute right of any IA EXCO member to inspect and copy any documents at any time, and to hand over to IA EXCO member YM Yang the secret documents leading to the chaos within Paris and the French-speaking areas in Africa. If the IA had fulfilled its obligations in accordance with church regulations in the first place, the reasons for the suspension of the deacons would have been self-explanatory. |
2011.06-09 | The European Coordination Centre contacted the brethren in Spain in order to prepare the itinerary for Elder HT Chen’s visit in December.The brethren in Spain expressed their joy and thanked the Lord upon hearing about the visit, and provided a list of possible service times. The Coordination Centre thus booked all the flights and accommodation for the visit. |
2011.10 | The brethren in Spain received instructions from a worker in China:”There is no need to receive them.” (referring to Elder HT Chen and those accompanying him). A member of the “Care Group” also instructed: “Receive them with caution”... as if they were about to face a great enemy! (Person in charge of the “Care Group”: HH Ko) |
2011.12.21-23 | Elder Chen and the chairperson of the European Coordination Centre left for Spain as scheduled, but not a single member came to see them, nor did anyone attend any services! All greetings were returned to their senders. Amen! |
Conclusion | In December 2006, the IA chairman YJ Lin went to Paris to ordain the two deacons; using his respected status as chairman, he brought with him privately collated files on YM Yang and circulated them. In addition, he fabricated “facts” which he presented to the deacons and board members of Paris with the intention of destroying YM Yang, thus causing a complete collapse of mutual trust amongst the workers of Paris and throwing Paris church and the French-speaking A |