Officials raided a branch of Early Rain Covenant Church Sunday morning, the same day the church received an order to cancel all subsequent events at one of its campuses.
The Pidu District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau issued Early Rain Covenant Church an ordering change notice, stating that one of its units had violated Article 69 of the Regulations on Religious Affairs by holding religious events at an unregistered location. It required that the church cancel all following religious activities, threatening to shut it down if it refused.
Early Rain Covenant Church’s clergy said an estimated 40 personnel from Pi County’s ethnic and religious affairs bureau and police station forcibly entered one of the church’s satellite locations, called Early Rain Canaan Church, at 10:00 a.m. on the same day, interrupting a service. The officers issued a penalty notice to the church and confiscated Bibles and books the church had possessed. Cheng Zhangchuan, a minister at the church, was taken away, and the authorities took down information from all attending the service.
ChinaAid openly condemns the Chinese government’s treatment of Early Rain Covenant Church and exposes the abuses enacted against them in order to promoter religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.
