By Ningmeng —
On Sunday afternoon, the Fuyang Reformed Church in Anhui Province issued an urgent prayer letter, revealing that during the church’s Sunday worship service earlier that morning, both the church and its affiliated Covenant Chapel were once again raided by police.
Nineteen members from two groups, including four children, were taken away by police to an unknown location. At the same time, the home of Pastor Zhang Sen was forcibly entered by police, and his wife was taken from their residence. Reports indicate that plainclothes officers have been deployed throughout their residential complex. Preacher Chang Shun and Elder Ma Tao are also among those detained.
The Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church is calling on churches everywhere to urgently pray for them.
Background of the Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church
The Fuyang Reformed Church is a congregation affiliated with the Presbyterian Church under the China Reformed Fellowship in Anhui. It is a house church that upholds orthodox Christian beliefs and is committed to evangelism and discipleship. The church has consistently maintained its house church identity, openly rejecting membership in the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement. In 2018, the church participated in Pastor Wang Yi’s “Joint Declaration of Pastors: A Statement for the Sake of Christian Faith,” which led to continuous persecution. In 2023, the church was officially banned by the government.
Escalating Persecution
Despite the ban, church members have continued to gather in small groups for prayer and study. These gatherings have frequently been raided, with pastors, preachers, and lay Christians often detained at police stations. Over the past two years, the Fuyang Civil Affairs Bureau has intensified its suppression and defamation of the Reformed churches. Some police have openly stated that Reformed churches are a priority target, threatening that even gatherings of just two or three people will result in detention.
Pastors, elders, and lay Christians have repeatedly been detained. Surveillance equipment has been installed outside Pastor Zhang Sen’s residence, and Preacher Chang Shun has been detained three times in the span of six months. Church members also regularly face harassment, including forced lock-picking and entries by community officials, as well as landlords threatening to evict them from their homes.
In March of this year, two Christians from the church were subjected to 15 days of administrative detention by the Economic and Technological Development Zone Branch of the Fuyang Public Security Bureau on charges of “using cult organizations to endanger society.” This marked the first time since the implementation of the Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018 that public security authorities formally classified a Reformed Christian church as a “cult” and imposed administrative punishment.
Subsequently, the two Christians hired lawyers and filed for administrative reconsideration. Although the Fuyang city government received the materials, it neither filed the case nor issued a notice of non-acceptance, effectively ignoring the law. The lawyers stated that such a situation was unprecedented and have reported it to the People’s Government of Anhui Province.
On April 29, while five Christians and over a dozen children aged five to six were eating and chatting, police broke in using lock-picking tools. All five Christians and the children were forcibly taken away, their phones confiscated, and their residences searched.
Isolation Tactics And Church Unity
Christians from other regions who came to support the church in Fuyang were also taken in for questioning by the police. For example, in May 2024, after Pastor Zhang Sen and Preacher Chang Shun were released from administrative detention, Wang Xiaofei, the wife of Minister Yang Xibo of Xunsiding Church in Xiamen, and Li Shanshan, the wife of Preacher Li Jie from Covenant House Church in Linfen, Shanxi Province, brought their children to Fuyang. Li Shanshan and her two children, along with Pastor Zhang Sen and Elder Chang Shun, were taken for questioning by officers from the Yingdong Branch of the Fuyang Public Security Bureau. Li Shanshan returned to her hotel at 8:30 p.m., while Pastor Zhang Sen and Elder Chang Shun were questioned at the police station and did not return home until after 9 p.m.
In recent years, the Chinese government’s persecution of house churches has involved not only fabricating various charges but also spreading rumors to smear pastors and evangelists. At the same time, Christians from other churches who visit or maintain contact with the persecuted congregations have also been subjected to summonses, intimidation, and other tactics aimed at isolating these churches. This strategy of isolation and atomization has long been a standard tool of authoritarian control in China.
However, the ecumenical and kingdom nature of the Church means that it is never alone without support. As taught in 1 Corinthians: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Despite enduring such persecution, the Fuyang Reformed Church continues to pray for other persecuted churches. The strong organizational structure of traditional churches resisted the regime’s efforts to atomize Christians; this is perhaps one of the reasons why the Reformed Presbyterian Church has become a particular target of the CCP’s intensified crackdown. — ChinaAid
(Reported by Special Correspondent Ningmeng of ChinaAid)
