Police have detained some members of Seventh Day Adventist church in Akoc Payam, Twic county, over baptismal pond dispute.
On Sunday, Pastor Ater Malueth baptized new church members in the nearby pond, a move which angered the community.
They say the pond is a spiritual place some community members use to communicate with their ancestors or traditional gods.
“The authority is questioning why we conducted baptism service without informing them,” said Maker Atem, SDA church member.
Ater accused the Payam Administrator Ayiei Deng Malek of being behind the arrest of Christians.
“Payam administrator is the one who wrote order to police to disrupt baptism and arrest pastor,” he continued.
For his part, Ayiei Deng confirmed the arrest of seven-day Adventist Church members, saying: “Yes, we arrested church members”.
“They are causing insecurity because people who use this pond to worship their gods are unhappy when this church used their pond as for baptizing people,” he stated.
According to an eyewitness Pastor Ater was arrested along with 12 church members.