(Hefei, Anhui province) During a Sunday service on February 12, police took away Sun Hongguang, the pastor of Jilin Covenant Truth Church. He was released that evening, but authorities confiscated his laptop. They ordered him not to leave Hefei for now. All Christians who attended the Sunday service were summoned and released together.
Investigation and confiscation
Pastor Sun Hongguang himself posted a prayer request on WeChat, recounting the details of the incident. According to the pastor, local police and the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs suddenly broke into the church meeting venue during worship. Authorities took away all the congregants and interrogated them for a few hours.
Many of the believers were allowed to leave, but authorities told Pastor Sun he was not allowed to leave. They confiscated his laptop, claiming they needed to “investigate” it. Therefore, Pastor Sun could not serve his congregation online anytime soon. In his WeChat post, he apologized that he could not teach the Old Testament as planned.
Pastor Sun’s background
Serving Jilin Covenant Truth Church for over 20 years, Pastor Sun gave up the opportunity of studying abroad when he was younger to accept God’s call to ministry. He also signed “Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” by Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in 2018, so the government targeted him. The purpose of his trip to Hefei was to serve a local house church.
Pastor Sun Hongguang is passionate about serving Christians outside his church, and he takes advantage of the internet to organize believers across China to read theology books.
~Yu Bing, ChinaAid Contributing Reporter
