Chinese officials detained multiple members of a congregation on Easter for participating in an online Zoom worship service and even shut off the electricity of one of the church members, according to a new report.
The members of Early Rain Covenant Church were gathering on Zoom on Easter morning when Chinese security officials blocked the meeting on the Internet and took six members into custody from their homes, according to International Christian Concern.
Early Rain is an illegal unregistered church that was shut down by Chinese officials in 2018. Its members have stopped gathering in-person.
Early Rain’s pastor, Wang Yi, last year was sentenced to nine years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations,” although his only crime was to preach the gospel in an unregistered church, supporters say.
A church member told ICC of the Easter meeting, “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. I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our coworker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”
Church members Wang, Guo Haigang, Wu Wuqing, Jia Xuewei, Zhang Jianqing and Zhang Xudong were detained and later released, ICC reported.
Zhang Jiangqing reportedly was warned by police, “Don’t…
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