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Yesterday we remembered Bishop Polycarp who would not give up in the face of persecution and death. Today we remember two modern day bishops who, facing persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ, did not give up.

Bishop Philip Lindel Tsen became Bishop of Honan in 1929 and helped to sustain the work of the Anglican Church in China. During those years China engaged in a bitter civil war and also was invaded in 1937. At the end of the Second World War Tsen was recognized as a leader of the Chinese Anglican Church. After returning to China from the Lambeth Conference of 1948, the new Communist government placed him under house arrest until he died in 1954.

Bishop Paul Shinji Sasaki in 1935 became Bishop of Mid-Japan, a missionary area of the Anglican Church of Canada.. During World War II when the Japanese government tried to force all non-Roman Catholic churches to become one organization in support of the war effort, Sasaki resisted. In 1944 he was arrested and tortured. Released five months later, his shattered health did not stop him from launching a reconciliation program to bring back those churches which had submitted to the government program. He died in December 1946.

Bible Reading: Matthew 7: 7-8, 12, 24-27