ADHRRF – Recently, it is learned that the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of Jiyuan city in central China’s Henan province banned a local church from singing religious hymns, and forced the believers to sing worldly wedding songs for the new couples who would hold the weddings in the church.
On April 25, 2018, when the believers of a church in Jiyuan, Henan province were playing the piano and singing hymns, a man and two women from the UFWD suddenly burst into the church, came up to the rostrum and ordered believers not to sing spiritual hymns anymore. They specifically brought a worldly wedding song for believers to sing and said that it would be used in the new couples’ weddings to be held in the church during the Labour Day holiday.
Believers said indignantly, “Now we already cannot believe in God as freely as before. Why does the UFWD even restrict us from singing religious hymns? Aren’t they going to control the church?”
In addition, the local believers said that now the UFWD of Jiyuan has tightened the control of folk religions. They send people to inspect the churches every few days, register the ID number of believers, and have installed monitors both inside and outside the church.
