Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: July 19, 2021
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CCP authorities forcibly interrupt Pastor Mao and Elder Chu as they preach on Zoom. (Photo: ChinaAid resource) |
(Shenzhen, Guangdong Province—July 19, 2021) Mid-morning July 11, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) security agents, police officers, and religious affairs bureau officials, accompanied by subdistrict office staff, raided Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church’s Zoom online worship service. Simultaneously during the raid, as authorities forced Pastor Mao Zhibin and Elder Chu Yanqing to stop preaching, other CCP officials surrounded the Church building.
In April, Shi Minglei [Hope], a Christian, and former dedicated service member of Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church fled to America. Hope reported that after CCP security agents, police officers, and religious affairs bureau officials forcibly stopped the Church’s Zoom online worship service, they left the Church at approximately 11 am.
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On April 25, police officers seized Pastor Cao Yuan as he preached. (Photo: ChinaAid resource) |
Because Shenzhen Trinity Gospel… strongly supports justice, many dissidents have joined this young church founded four years ago. In addition, as Pastor Mao and Elder Shen Ling joined other ministers to support and sign Pastor Wang Yi’s “A Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith,” CCP/Shenzhen municipal government authorities regularly target and persecute members.
In another incident on April 25, after authorities raided Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church’s Sunday service without showing any legal documents, they banned the Church and ordered those present to leave. Police officers transported Pastor Mao, Pastor Cao Yuan, and Elder Chu, with seven other Christians, to the Bantian police station. Later, Pastor Mao said:
Today, joint force officials from the religious affairs bureau, public security department personnel, and national security agency authorities banned our church. We have not faced such a serious situation as this since we founded our church four years ago.
A video posted on Twitter revealed conflict erupting while two plain-clothes CCP officials talked to Pastor Mao and Elder Chu during their July 11 raid. At the end of the recording, Pastor Mao and Eder Chu followed the two officials and left the room. Despite CCP authorities infringing on this church’s rights to worship, Pastor Mao and Elder Chu, as well as Christian Brothers and Sisters reportedly remain safe.
~ Yubing, ChinaAid Special Correspondent
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Fear not,
for I am with you;
Be not dismayed,
for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you
with My righteous right hand.
~ Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV)
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