Source: Asia News
Date: June 6, 2018
On Monday, the police in Chengdu, Sichuan closed the Early Rain Covenant Church and detained its pastor Wang Yi, his wife, and a dozen preachers and worshipers. The church planned to hold a special prayer service that evening commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, but at around 3 p.m., the police stormed and raided the church premises, reports AsiaNews.
On the day of the arrests, the church received a notice issued by the Qingyang ethnic and religious affairs office saying that it had violated the newly revised Regulations on Religious Affairs. Officially, only state-controlled religious organizations are allowed to operate in China.
The Early Rain Covenant Church is a house church founded by human right activist Wang Yi whose persecution was criticized by the U.S. State Department on May 15.
Bitter Winter reported in May that the police raided the church and arrested over 100 people, the night before a planned service to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake. Pastor Wang was taken away by the police and released after 24 hours in detention.
Bitter Winter reports on how religions are allowed, or not allowed, to operate in China and how some are severely persecuted after they are labeled as “xie jiao,” or heterodox teachings. We publish news difficult to find elsewhere, analyses, and debates.
Placed under the editorship of Massimo Introvigne, one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally, “Bitter Winter” is a cooperative enterprise by scholars, human rights activists, and members of religious organizations persecuted in China (some of them have elected, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous).
