China Cracks Down on Illegal Church

The AP reports:

Chinese police detained at least 30 Christians belonging to an unregistered Beijing church as the congregation gathered Sunday for an Easter service, a church member said.

Police stopped the worshippers from the unregistered Shouwang church as they gathered near a public plaza in the city's university district, then bused them to a local police station. The Associated Press saw about a dozen people taken away but a church member said at least 30 were detained.

Shouwang members have been trying to meet at the plaza in Beijing's Haidian district every Sunday since the congregation was evicted from its usual rented place of worship three weeks ago, but they have been detained or put under house arrest each time.

Lu Jia, a Shouwang member who was under house arrest from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon, said by telephone that he and his wife held a half-hour service at home using a sermon their pastor uploaded to the Internet.

"Before hand, I went out and told the men guarding my door that I didn't want to argue with them but I had to tell them that what they were doing was illegal, that it violated my right to believe, to practice my faith," Lu said. "Then we had a short service reading the sermon together and selections from the Bible."

Lu said all of the church's pastors and leaders were under house arrest and 30 Shouwang members were detained when they arrived at the designated meeting place. Lu and others were planning to go to the police station to try to negotiate their release, he said.