Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


China Detains Worshippers at Unsanctioned Church

   VOA News  April 17, 2011
   Plainclothes security personnel film as they gather to load detained
   worshippers onto a waiting bus near a building that leaders of the
   unregistered Shouwang house church had told parishioners to gather in
   Beijing, China, April 10, 2011

Photo: AP

   Plainclothes security personnel film as they gather to load detained
   worshippers onto a waiting bus near a building that leaders of the
   unregistered Shouwang house church had told parishioners to gather in
   Beijing, China, April 10, 2011

   Several dozen members of a Beijing church have been arrested while
   attempting to meet in a public space, the second such episode for the
   church in two weeks.
   The rights group China Aid reported that police rounded up at least 30
   members of the Shouwang Church Sunday as they attempted to hold a
   service in a public plaza in the western part of the city.
   The group said two of the church pastors, Jin Tianming and Li Xiaobai,
   were detained Saturday evening but both had been released by Sunday
   morning.
   More than 150 church members were detained last week for attempting to
   meet in the same space.
   The Shouwang House Church, which is not registered with the government,
   was evicted from its usual gathering place, a restaurant, earlier this
   month.
   China allows Christian worshippers to attend state-sanctioned churches,
   but many more people meet privately in unsanctioned, so-called "house
   churches" to hold their own services.

.