Little Flock is resisting state control from pastures new
The Christian group fights on after seeing its place of worship destroyed
From the outside, there is nothing to suggest that the plain building surrounded by brown fields on the edge of Hangzhou is a house of worship.
But inside, more than 100 people fill the rows of bamboo chairs, their heads bowed in prayer, as a church elder tells them to accept God. 'If you don't believe in Jesus, you are lost. The devil will control you,' he says, accompanied by chants of 'amen' from the congregation.
The members of the Little Flock, a homegrown Christian religion, are resisting something else besides the Devil. The group is fighting against state control by refusing to register with the authorities.
In the past two decades, loose government control in Zhejiang province has made it the mainland's cradle for private companies and the home of the largest concentration of Little Flock believers in the nation, with more than 100,000 members reported in and around Hangzhou, the provincial capital.
A stable, though uneasy, relationship with the authorities in the Xiaoshan district of the city ended in June when local officials launched a crackdown on underground churches across the district.
Five months ago, nearly 200 police descended on the group's gathering place and dragged worshippers from the building before workers destroyed it with a bulldozer. Witnesses quoted officials as saying: 'If you register, we will go away.'
Rights groups say the move is part of a larger crackdown on underground churches which has so far reached parts of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Hebei provinces.
In this village, the destruction of the church has hardened the group's attitude towards authority and driven members deeper underground.
Followers set up a temporary structure made of metal sheets on the site of the former church, until authorities demolished it in September. Farmers now dry rice on the cement foundation, one of the few remains of the building besides a mound of bricks.
The 400 members moved their place of worship to a three-storey residential building, which authorities have also threatened to close. 'They want to limit and control us. We won't register. We will use the houses of brothers and sisters for gatherings,' one member said.
During a recent Sunday service, members hung a plastic sheet over the building's courtyard to shield the entrance from prying eyes and shade worshippers who had overflowed outside.
Inside, two lines of scripture decorate a wall. Men and women sit in separate sections of the main room during the service, the women wearing grey cloth caps and their hair fixed in braids. Members, many of them elderly, stamp their feet to stay warm.
The religion was founded in 1928 by Ni Duosheng, or Watchman Nee, in reaction to his strict Anglican background. He reportedly died in a labour camp in 1973. The religion came to Zhejiang in the 1930s through a silk merchant from nearby Shanghai.
Little Flock chapters, also known as Local Assemblies, stress simplicity and have no formal clergy or structure. Members believe the affairs of man and God should be separate. In this village, followers say they refuse to register the group since the state does not believe in God.
Bibles and hymn books used by the group are printed by the state church. Followers used the former church building, although it was unregistered, for several years.
A US academic researching China's underground churches said: 'It's a very pragmatic way of coping. The state has one eye open and one eye closed and allows these groups to exist because they can't do anything about it.'
Newfound prosperity in the village, which lives by farming and small industry, provided funds to improve the church. But local officials, some newly appointed, apparently became worried when the group started to carry out renovations and expansion to the building to seat more people.
The crackdown has struck other areas of Zhejiang. Officials have closed 392 temples and 10 small churches in Deqing county to the north of Hangzhou.
Around Hangzhou, authorities have demolished 10 churches. Police arrested three Little Flock leaders and a Beijing-based Christian activist, Liu Fenggang, who was seeking information on the crackdown, rights groups say.
Failure to register means that children under 18 are barred from attending services. The group cannot hold large-scale gatherings or travel to other places to seek new members.
To register, house churches must set a fixed location and meeting time, provide information about their history and followers and have responsible leaders. Even after going through the registration process, some churches are denied permission or kept waiting indefinitely for approval.
In a rarity for China, some Little Flock assemblies in Zhejiang have registered but remain outside of the so-called Three Selves movement, or the state-sponsored church. But members of the village assembly have ruled out registration despite the possibility of reprisals from the government.
