Chinese house church begins meeting online, members arrested anyway

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The online Easter meeting of an unregistered house church in China was disrupted and six of its members arrested, with the government warning the church of severer measures if it continued to meet.

Members of Early Rain Covenant Church, whose pastor Wang Yi was sentenced recently with “inciting subversion of state power,” were meeting on Zoom Easter morning when they started experiencing internet problems.

“At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing,” an ERCC church member told International Christian Concern. “I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt.”

Agents afterwards took six of ERCC’s members from their homes, shutting off the electricity of one believer, before severely warning member Zhang Jianking of graver consequences should the church continue to defy government orders.

Before his arrest, ERCC pastor Wang Yi released an open letter to the Chinese government calling Chinese Christians to “faithful disobedience” to any laws “violating human consciences that belong to God alone.”

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