(Guangzhou — September 10, 2025) During this Sunday’s worship service, the Tianhe congregation (branch) of Guangzhou Reformed Bible Church was subjected to intervention by multiple government departments. On that Sunday morning, more than ten personnel from the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, Public Security, State Security, and local community offices entered the site of the gathering and forcibly halted the ongoing worship service.

According to worshippers present, the sermon was still underway when law enforcement personnel approached and interrupted the preacher, demanding that individuals on site show identification. Some members attempted to record the incident on their phones, but were stopped by the law enforcement personnel. The preacher reminded congregants to “watch over one another” and urged them to remain calm. Shortly after, two plainclothes personnel escorted the preacher away from the pulpit and ordered him to sit among the congregation.

During the confrontation, a Christian woman questioned the law enforcement personnel’s identities, to which they replied they were from the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs and the Public Security Bureau. The congregation repeatedly invoked the principle of “transparent law enforcement” and attempted to record the law enforcement personnel’s identification information, leading to multiple verbal confrontations. The law enforcement personnel insisted that those on-site stop recording and cooperate with the inspection. An official then went up to the pulpit and read from a slip of paper with information on a notice, stating that “a report was received alleging that this venue was conducting illegal religious activities in violation of regulations on religious affairs, and it must now be inspected according to law.”

The Tianhe congregation is a small fellowship of 20 to 30 people under Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church, a house church rooted in the Reformed tradition that adheres to a principle of separation of church and state and has not registered to join the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Since the implementation of the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018, the church has faced persistent government pressure. Its senior pastor, Huang Xiaoning, has been repeatedly summoned for questioning and briefly detained.

Pastor Huang Xiaoning is regarded as one of the influential leaders among house churches in Guangzhou and is a key participant in the “Kingdom Prayer · 5 p.m. in China” movement. He has consistently called for prayers for the persecuted house churches and has emphasized the stance of “believe what ought to be believed, do what ought to be done, and carry on as usual until the unusual comes.”

The disruption of the Tianhe congregation marks yet another incident of government interference faced by the Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church in recent years.

Reported by Special Correspondent Ning Meng for ChinaAid