Christian missions from across the world, which are based in Hong Kong, may be forced out, it is feared.

There is an increasing ‘climate of fear’ in the former colony, according to a missionary speaking under a pseudonym to Evangelicals Now.

The Global Assembly of Pastors for Finishing the Task (FTT) has held an online forum to discuss how to mobilise churches to cover 5,000 unengaged and unreached people groups.

FTT is a movement of 1,600 churches and organisations who have come together to reach the Unengaged, Unreached People Groups (UUPGs). These are people groups who have no access to a Bible, believers, or a body of Christ and have less than 0.1% evangelical believers. Rick Warren is the director.

The story of Anglican growth in Africa and decline in the West is very familiar, but this is often spoken of as if it were simply the result of underlying social, economic and cultural forces, without giving sufficient attention to the role that leadership plays, for good or ill.

The Anglican Church of Kenya, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary as an independent Province, is an interesting example. The current Archbishop and Primate, Jackson Ole Sapit, may not yet be as well known outside Kenya as some of his predecessors (such as David Gitari who was a prominent opponent of President Moi’s attempt to entrench one-party rule, and Eliud Wabukala, who was Chairman of GAFCON from 2011 to 2016), but he too is bringing courageous and creative leadership to the Anglican Church of Kenya.

Exclusive photos and report from Phil Good in Beirut, Lebanon. Phil and his wife Sylvie work with the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the evangelical Resurrection Church there.

‘Resurrection Church Beirut (RCB) has raised funds and undertaken to repair 100 homes that have been damaged. Counselling support is ongoing and will be needed for many months to come; the repercussions of this event will reach a long way into the future and the church is preparing for the long haul. After the news fades, so many people will need to rebuild their lives, and rebuilding lives is what the church knows about.

An English evangelical led a German man and his Bolivian wife to Christ after he met them by seeming chance in the very highest point of St Peter’s Roman Catholic basilica in the Vatican.

Greg Downes, Director of Ministerial Training, and Dean of The Wesley Centre for Missional Engagement at the evangelical training college, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, says:

Saudi Arabia has called the United Nations to focus on ‘eliminating Islamophobia’ as an outworking of tackling online racism and xenophobia.

Meshaal Bin Ali Al Balawi, Saudi’s Head of Human Rights at the United Nations Mission in Geneva, addressed the Human Rights Council, flagging the internet as a ‘space for practicing racism’ as he called for the UN to work towards finding a ‘solution’. The Saudi leader stated that the world needs to ‘prohibit racial discrimination in all its forms’.

Covid-19 has prompted many thoughts about what life could look like now that we have been forced to abandon, for a while, uninterrupted global travel, foreign holidays, and despite the foreshortened lives and devastated economies, enjoyed with the earth and its airspace a sabbath of sabbaths.

Lambeth 2020 and GAFCON in 2020 postponed gatherings that would have signalled the continuing tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion. Does this postponement and the pandemic crisis signal a possibility of different opposing groups in the Anglican Communion finding a way of remaining in one Communion both seeking and showing the unity Christ prayed for the church? Seeking the unity of the Church has always been a key commitment of the Anglican tradition. Might there be space for thoughts about what the Global Anglican Communion might look like?

In May, a judge blocked the appointment of a former Christian missionary and pastor to head the country’s federal Indigenous Affairs Agency after concerns were raised by advocacy groups that oppose evangelical outreaches to tribes in the Amazon.

Ricardo Lopes Dias had worked with New Tribes Mission, now called Ethnos260, for ten years. The group’s missionaries have engaged in efforts to contact unreached people groups and tribes deep in the Amazonian rainforest.

A round-up of encouraging news stories during the coronavirus pandemic

Uganda: was I dreaming?

For three days in Uganda, blind Anna and her granddaughter lived on nothing but water and a daily cup of milk, given by a neighbour, which the pair shared between them.

Fulani militants were seen to be exploiting lockdown as they launched a series of murderous attacks throughout May.

Militants killed at least eight Christians and injured scores of others on 12 May in one of a series of murderous attacks on villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Large numbers of gunmen stormed the villages of Bakin-Kogi, Idanu and Makyali, in the Kajura Local Government Area of Kaduna State, causing families to flee into the bush and to neighbouring communities.

As an unprecedented virus disrupts the planet, MAF’s planes and people are helping to prevent the spread of coronavirus in some of the world’s poorest places.

Implementing every precaution possible to protect its personnel and the isolated areas MAF serves, the organisation has been quick to offer support wherever possible.

Six leaders of the Early Rain Covenant Church were removed from their homes and detained by Chinese authorities whilst watching an online service on Easter Sunday. Taking place via Zoom, it was interrupted as police raided members’ homes. Someone watching the service said: ‘I thought it was the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt.’

The electricity was disconnected in one of the homes and others received phone calls warning them that the police were coming. All six leaders were later released.

A spokesman for the Al-Shabaab terror group active in Somalia declared coronavirus as a ‘punishment visited by Allah upon the disbelievers’ in an audio message reported on 27 April.

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Mogadishu began to climb, the militant, known as Ali Dhere, called on Muslims to gloat about the ‘painful torment’ inflicted on any non-Muslims who contract Covid-19.

In the 1960s, a diffident young Korean, who was an ex-refugee aspiring to be a pastor, knocked at the door of Swiss L’Abri. Cynthia Stanton, Edith Schaeffer’s long-serving worker, opened it and greeted him. In due time, they were to wed.

It was a chalk-and-cheese liaison, but it was to produce much unobtrusive fruit. She was a Londoner, her father running a fleet of black taxi cabs. His father had fled North Korea to Beijing, where he and his wife sheltered refugees. Both Kim’s parents were freedom fighters in a volunteer Korean army against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). They suffered torture and witnessed atrocities. Kim was born in Beijing one year into that war.

Every year, in the 26 countries MAF serves, pilots from the Christian aviation charity carry out hundreds of medical emergency flights for ill and injured people and women facing pregnancy complications.

In Suriname, the organisation’s experience of life-saving medevacs proved vital when MAF Country Director and Chief Pilot Andy Bijkerk had to carry out an urgent flight.

At the time of writing, the seemingly never-ending summer of bushfires continues to take a devastating toll. Some 33 people have been killed in the fires, and over 2,500 homes across the nation destroyed, with the heaviest loss occurring in the state of New South Wales.

Losses among wildlife and livestock are inestimable in number, with some sources stating that perhaps 1.25 billion animals have been destroyed. The landmass devastated is equal to one and a half times the area of Scotland. Australian home territory has largely escaped the ravages of war over the decades, but is now experiencing something similar to a devastating military attack.

The executive committee of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) (Global) together with the trustees of the English charity EFAC met for three days in November to confer about the opportunities and challenges facing the gospel witness of the Anglican Church around the world.

They affirmed that EFAC is defined by theology, not by a relationship to a bishop. Through fellowships, fora and resources EFAC builds on the five marks of mission:

Nearly four years ago, Chancellor George Osborne claimed that the UK’s exit from the European Union would be ‘a shock to the world economy’. Thus began what became known as ‘Project Fear’, but with Brexit imminent there is no sign of financial panic nor of the other dire consequences foretold.

This is not to say that Remain had a monopoly of misleading claims, but it is a reminder of how politically-driven communication can stretch facts and evidence. Sadly, the Anglican Communion is not exempt. It has its own ‘Project Fear’.

Josué Sánchez, 32, from El Salvador, knows all about risk.

‘I grew up in the most dangerous town in Central America,’ Josué said. ‘There are violent gangs who fight for territory and will kill for no reason. Everyone in El Salvador faces this every day. It’s a matter of knowing how to survive. It’s like: “Welcome to the jungle”.’