03/02/2021 China (International Christian Concern) – During Sunday service on February 28, a house church in China’s Chongqing city was raided by the police, before two Christian brothers were taken away.
According to a prayer request shared by a Chinese Christian, around 10:30 am, a few plainclothes and police officers descended at the Living Fountain Church. They confiscated the computers and took two Christians away, before demanding the church to stop gathering for reasons of epidemic prevention and the fact that “it has not registered itself.”
A week prior, the church already saw several officials from the district office, local united front department, and the police at their Sunday service. They asked the church to stop meeting for it lacks registration with the government.
The church was scolded by a plainclothes for having minors among them, saying “Do you not know that minors cannot enter religious venues?” The preacher was also interrogated at the police station. The authorities pressured the church’s landlord for the following week in an attempt to force the church to submit the list of congregants and financial report, to which they refused.
The church was founded more than 20 years ago, with most of the members being elderly and women. Its preacher Cheng Hairong was one of the Christian leaders who signed “A Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” in 2018, calling for religious freedom in China.
For interviews please contact Alison Garcia: press@persecution.org.
