Shenzhen House Church closely monitored during anniversary trip
A house church in China’s Shenzhen recently celebrated its five-year anniversary by taking a trip together. Little did they expect that some members would be threatened by the police beforehand and ended up not going, while the remaining group had their accommodation reservation forcibly canceled last minute due to police pressure.
Trinity Gospel Harvest Church in Guangdong province has been on the radar of local authorities, for the leaders of this house church signed “A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” penned by well-known pastor Wang Yi, advocating for religious freedom. In addition, the church has attracted many activists which makes the government nervous. Cheng Yuan, a human rights defender, who was arrested for his NGO activities in 2019, also was a member of this church.
According to China Aid, in celebration of the church’s 5th anniversary on the 5th of September, the church had planned a trip in Huizhou beach and booked a hotel for that weekend. Yet before the trip took place, the state security personnel had warned a few members not to participate, thus reducing the group size.
Source: persecution.org
