“Christianity’s Enormous Harm on China’s Security” is the title of the most recent seminar held by party officials of the Chinese communist party, which took place in Henan last month amidst Xi Jinping’s campaign to assimilate all Chinese house churches into the communist-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM).
Members of Beijing’s Shouwang Church, which recently became the fourth Chinese house church to be closed since September, are ‘considering hiring lawyers’ after the government proceeded to shut down their alternative worship location last week, according to a source at China Aid.
In China, Rongguilli Church, Early Rain Covenant Church, and Zion Church have all been victims in recent months of President Xi Jinping’s attempts to control the spread of underground Christianity.
About 100 worshippers at an unofficial church in southwestern China were snatched from their homes or from the streets in coordinated raids which began on Sunday evening.
According to ChinaAid, Henan authorities have continued to tear down crosses across China.
Iran’s hardline government has sentenced four Christians to harsh prison terms for putting their faith in Jesus Christ.
The son of an influential pastor silenced by the Iranian government has been handed a four-month jail sentence for his involvement with illegal house churches, World Watch Monitor has learnt.
Four Iranian Christians will soon begin serving ten-year prison sentences after a court ruled the Church of Iran members were “promoting Zionist Christianity” and running house churches.
Two house churches in Beijing reported that authorities in the past week have investigated churches and pressured landlords to cancel the leases on houses of worship.
A pastor of a now-closed house church in the capital of China’s inland Guizhou province was found guilty of ‘intentionally disclosing state secrets’ at a trial on April 26, but the announcement of the verdict was delayed.
Four U.N. human rights experts have issued a joint statement, urging Iran to ensure ‘a fair and transparent final hearing’ at the country’s Revolutionary Court for three Iranian Christians who have been sentenced for ‘conducting evangelism’ and ‘illegal house church activities,’ among other charges.
For years, Syrian Christians had been praying for a revival. ‘But never did we imagine it would come because of war,’ said one church leader. Seven years of civil war has left Syria in ruins. Many of those who came from Christian families left early on in the war, a cause of great despair as church leaders watched their congregants slowly disappear.
Facebook shut down two Christian ministry pages this month, without warning or explanation, renewing fears about the social media giant’s ability to control access to an important corner of today’s public square.
An Azerbaijani man fined for leading a ‘house church’ without state permission has not been treated fairly during his appeal against the fine, a local source has told World Watch Monitor.
A Chinese house church pastor, her daughter, and her young grandson have been arrested, weeks after being accused of overstepping the country’s newly tightened religious restrictions.
Provoked by the mission work of a local house church, officials detained a pastor and her daughter on Sept. 22, taking the daughter’s three-year-old son into custody as well.
An organization with ties to the Chinese Communist Party has unveiled new plans on how the government can enforce its restrictions on churches, including forced registration with state-run Christian institutions.
China has tightened its ‘choke-hold’ on churches across the country in recent weeks, according to the rights and religious freedom group China Aid.
The wife of an American pastor serving eight years in Iran for his Christian faith said God had chosen their family for this ordeal to reach people in despair.
This month an Iranian court in Rasht sentenced four members from the Church of Iran to 80 lashes each.