Popular house church Pastor Wan Changchun was arrested earlier this month while he was travelling in the Lijiang region of Yunnan province in China. He has been detained in a prison in his home city of Bengbu in Anhui province, Bitter Winter reported citing information provided by his co-workers. Wan Changchun is the pastor of the Living Stone Reformed Church in Bengbu. As per the news report, Pastor Wan Changchun’s wife and several elders, and co-workers of the Living Stone Reformed Church were taken to police stations for questioning and later released.
The bank accounts of the church were closed while Pastor Wan’s home was raided by the police on April 14. Religious items and documents were confiscated, as per the Bitter Winter report. In 2018, he was one of the house church leaders who signed a statement drafted by Wang Yi, of Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church, against the 2017 Regulation on Religious Affairs. The regulation came into effect on February 1, 2018, according to the news report.
The statement denounced the Regulation as a tool whose goal was to coerce independent house churches into joining the government-controlled Three-Self Church. As per the news report, the dissident pastors were losing their freedom. Wang has been detained under the accusation of “illegal business practices.” The statement said, “Under no circumstances will we lead our churches to join a religious organization controlled by the government, to register with the religious administration department, or to accept any kind of affiliation,” according to Bitter Winter report.
It further said they will not accept a “ban or fine” imposed on churches due to their faith. According to the statement, they were ready to bear all the losses. As per the news report, the dissident pastors were losing their freedom.