by The Barnabas Fund is, as ever, keeping a careful and caring eye on the situation of believers all over the world. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected poor and persecuted Christians. The following is a summary of recent news published by the Barnabas Fund.
China, 7th March 2020
The Beijing regime is continuing its persecution of the Church in China, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a cover for further repression. The authorities are preventing pastors from live-streaming services during the coronavirus lockdown.
“Our first and only online gathering was blocked by the government soon after it started,” reports a pastor of an unofficial house church in the south-eastern province of Jiangxi.
In the eastern province of Shandong, a pastor tells of his online service being stopped less than 20 minutes in, and attempts days later to hold a service on another online platform were similarly blocked. On 23rd February, the local authorities issued a notice demanding that all churches cease live-streaming services immediately.
Even the state-registered ‘three-self’ churches are coming under restriction, with members of one such church in Henan province receiving a notice from their pastor to cease all groups on WeChat, the Chinese messaging service.
The Beijing government is utilising its “Measures for the Management of Religious Information on the Internet”, first deployed in January 2019, to legitimise its banning of live-streamed services by churches.