Another Unpeaceful Christmas for Chengdu House Church Members

12/26/2021 China (International Christian Concern) – The heavily targeted Chengdu-based Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) was again harassed by the authorities during Christmas time.

On Christmas Eve, ERCC elder Li Yingqiang was detained by the police in Deyang city before his scheduled Christmas Eve sermon over Zoom at 7:30 pm. He was accused of “disturbing social order with other methods.”

While the Zoom service continued as planned, elder Li was only released and returned home after midnight of Christmas.

Meanwhile, other ERCC members were followed by government-appointed minders once they left their houses; some were even banned from leaving their home.

Another church that is closely associated with ERCC also had two of its members formally arrested by the police. The wife of elder Hao Ming from Qingcaodi Church (who has been helping ERCC since March), taken away for “fraud” last month, received his arrest notification on Christmas Eve.

Similarly, the family of elder Wu Jiannan from the same church also received the arrest notification on the same day for the same charge.

While Christmas is supposed to be joyful and merry, ERCC and Qingcaodi Church continue to suffer at the hands of the Communist Party.