Two Pastors Arrested After Outdoor Worship Service
On April 11 of 2021, two Christian pastors were arrested and detained for over 4 hours during an outdoor worship service, which was interrupted by the police due to Covid-19 regulations. A few dozen people of the Baptist-affiliated “home church” (Kottikirko) gathered on a large and spacious square for their public worship, being the fifth Sunday running that the Christian group gathered in the same place for the same purpose.
The Espoo Kottikirko is a registered and officially recognized church, and it possesses all the legal and constitutional rights granted to religious assemblies and churches in Finland. Miska Wilhelmsson, another pastor and friend of the arrested pastors, argued in a video he posted on Youtube, that national or regional health-related restrictions do not apply to religious congregations and, therefore, police authorities should not interfere with religious gatherings.
The pastors used to preach and worship at a restaurant they rent, since it does not open on Sundays, but Covid-19 restrictions forced these venues to close in the Espoo and Helsinki areas. Thus, the gatherings were moved to the square in front of the restaurant, with "permission" according to Wilhelmsson, since the church "does not own premises adequate for worship". All previous gatherings went smoothly except for this one, where masked police officers approached and warned the worshipers that they had to leave the premises because the public gathering was illegal. However, the 35 members present did not comply and remained in the same place.
The police then returned with more officers, warned the pastors once more, and threatened to arrest everyone present. The pastors had been preaching calmly, turned off their loudspeakers, and argued that they were complying with the Covid-19 imposed regulations.
The two pastors ended up being seized by the police officers and were placed in jail cells, awaiting questioning, without being given any kind of opportunity to ask for a justification on why they had been detained, treated like criminals, and why their freedoms were being violated.
Since this incident, the Regional Administrative Office clarified the next day that “The activities of religious communities are regulated by the communities themselves. The Regional Administrative Authority has no legal competence to restrict such events”.
Source and picture: Lifesitenews.com