Algeria: Authorities close 58 churches
Luke Randall
Date posted: 24 Jan 2025
Christians are being persecuted by authorities in Algeria, with 58 churches having been closed down by the government since 2018, leaving only one open.
In a video at the UK parliament with ADF International, Pastor Youseff shed light on this growing persecution. The pastor, who has previously been sentenced to prison twice since 2008, revealed that there have been almost 60 prison sentences handed to Christians in the country, mostly ranging from two months to five years.
letter from America
When should Christians fight to protect?
Josh Moody
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
A former marine, Daniel Penny, was recently acquitted of all charges - despite putting a black homeless man, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold and killing him while they and others were travelling on a New York underground train.
Neely, apparently well-known locally for his Michael Jackson impressions, had allegedly made violent threats against other travellers on the subway car (as carriages are known). But he reportedly says he could not have lived with his conscience if any harm had come to his fellow passengers.
California wildfires: ‘God at work in disaster’
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
As wildfires continue to blaze across Southern California, razing homes, schools and churches to the ground, local churches have been pulling together to lament, pray and provide relief – seeing God at work amid the tragedy.
The first and largest wildfire in California broke out on 7 January in the Pacific Palisades and was quickly followed by four more that same week – in Eaton, Hurst, Lidia and Kenneth. With 100 mph winds whipping up the fires, churches across the region reported extensive damage.
Wildfires: Climate change is ‘here & now’
en staff
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
Leading climate scientist and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe says the wildfires causing devastation in California are a stark reminder of the reality of climate change today.
Hayhoe, currently Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit international charitable organisation, says Los Angeles County was ‘tinder dry’ after receiving only 0.16 inches of rain since last May and experiencing ‘an unusually warm summer’.
Donald Trump's second term: Christians in key roles
Luke Randall
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
Donald Trump bas become President of the United States for the second time, and while he naturally takes the limelight, he has appointed several Christian influences in key positions around him.
Vice President J.D. Vance’s Catholic background is well-documented, but others with a more evangelical worldview include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and Secretary of Defence nominee Pete Hegseth.
Jimmy Carter funeral: a testimony to his 'deep' Christian faith
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 10 Jan 2025
For anyone who hadn’t appreciated that the late US President Jimmy Carter was a Christian with a deep faith and love for God, his funeral service on 9 January has left no doubt.
The BBC currently has a programme on famous names who died in 2023 called Lives Well Lived. The typical worldly measure of a life well lived is their achievements, wealth accumulation, status, and doing good. Viewers of Jimmy Carter’s funeral service and its attendees were offered a far more valuable measure of a life well lived: a higher godly standard.
Europe: Christian discrimination on rise
Luke Randall
Date posted: 8 Jan 2025
Discrimination against Christians is on the rise in Europe, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe’s (OIDAC Europe) annual report.
The non-governmental organisation recently released its annual ‘Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe Report,’ which revealed that there were more than 2,400 anti-Christian hate crimes committed in 35 European countries in 2023, as reported by police forces and civil society, which included acts of violence, threat and harassment.
letter from Latvia
Introducing the prophets in Latvia
John Woods
Date posted: 6 Jan 2025
I am writing this letter while in Latvia on one of my regular visits to teach at the Latvian Biblical Centre (LBC) in Riga.
Over three weekends I am contributing to four of LBC’s programmes. So far, I have been teaching on Identity for the School of Christianity, Work and Society, Introducing the Prophets for the foundation course: Theology and Ministry, and The Kingdom of God on the Missional Church Programme. This is an example of the range of things that LBC offers. My final weekend in Latvia will be with the School of Preachers Course that I started in 2018. This is a two-year programme consisting of eight weekend teaching sessions with regular cluster group meetings for application in between these weekends. There have been 44 graduates from the course so far. It is a joy to see some of our students coming back to preach at our weekend sessions and field questions on how they approached their preparation.
Sydney blazes trail with ‘NDA’ motion
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 3 Jan 2025
It is essential to change the culture in which non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are misused, if churches and church organisations are to safeguard against perpetrators of abuse, an NDA whistleblower has said.
The warning follows a resolution passed by the Sydney Synod in Australia discouraging the use of NDAs to silence victims. It is understood to be the first denomination or church network to take a public position on the use of NDAs in their churches.
India: Christians march with empty coffins
Luke Randall
Date posted: 3 Jan 2025
Twenty thousand Christians marched through Manipur, India, holding empty coffins aloft to demand that the bodies of Christians who were allegedly killed by police forces in a gunfight were released.
Ten Kuki-Zo youths were allegedly killed in the incident by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jiribam district, and their bodies are still in a morgue awaiting post-mortem results at the time of writing.
letter from New Zealand
The slippery slope? It’s real and it’s here
Charley Ballinger
Date posted: 1 Jan 2025
As I have written previously, New Zealand is often at the cutting edge of progressive law making. With euthanasia it is no different; we are amongst 19 jurisdictions in the world where it is legal to request medical help to die.
The End of Life Choice Act came into force on 7 November 2021: as a result almost 1,000 people have been euthanised. When the law was introduced the Ministry of Health was required to review it after three years. The review was published at the end of November 2024, and many of the recommendations made are alarming for those who believe in the sanctity of life.
The faith that inspired Jimmy Carter
en staff
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100, had a strong Christian faith which motivated him in all he did.
In his final book, Faith – A Journey for All (2018), Carter wrote: ‘I consider myself to be an evangelical Christian … the basic elements of Christianity apply personally to me, shape my attitude and my actions, and give me a joyful and positive life, with purpose.’
letter from Ukraine
‘Attention! Air raid alert!’ said Luke Skywalker...
Ryan Burton King
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
My phone went off with a loud siren. The voice of Mark Hamill – yes, of Luke Skywalker fame – spoke sternly: ‘Attention! Air raid alert! Proceed to the nearest shelter. Don’t be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness.’ I hastily moved to mute it and apologised. A large table full of Ukrainian men grinned back at me. ‘Now we can tell who is not local,’ one of them joked. We continued eating our pizza and talking.
I was in Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine - one of two other cities I visited this past month. Every day and night brought reminders of war, as Ukraine continues to defend itself against its Russian invader almost three years into a three day fight. In Odesa, my bedtime soundtrack was the mournful cry of air raid sirens, the infernal buzzing of Russian drones, the roar of explosions, and the reassuring rat-a-tat-tat of air defence guns. This is the daily lived reality of the 38 million people who still live in Ukraine, most of whom meet the threat with a weary but collective shrug and carry on with whatever they need to do.
Afghanistan: Women ‘weary of Islam’
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 29 Dec 2024
Adding to their long list of severe restrictions since coming into power in 2021, the Taliban are now banning women in Afghanistan from training as nurses and midwives.
This ban is the latest in a series of edicts by the Taliban that prevent women from entering the public sphere. Women have already been banned from working in government or private jobs, leaving their homes without a male escort, or reading, singing, or speaking in public, to name a few.
Georgia shuns Iranian believers
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 28 Dec 2024
Iranian Christians who seek a new life in the Caucasus nation of Georgia after fleeing persecution in their homeland face rejection there too, a report says.
A joint report published this month by Article 18, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and Middle East Concern says that Iranian Christians are being refused asylum in the country because they are not Orthodox.
letter from America
Thinking through ‘Christian nationalism’
Josh Moody
Date posted: 27 Dec 2024
It’s hard for me to tell from my current location in Chicagoland, but I suspect that the ideas floating around, dubbed at times ‘Christian nationalism’, have also made their way to the fayre isles of my homeland, the United Kingdom. Certainly, at any rate, they have caused some waves in America. How do we think through the issue of ‘Christian nationalism’?
Part of the problem is the slipperiness of the term. After all, raised as I was in England, the idea of a ‘Christian nation’ hardly seems strange –though, even by then, we were acutely aware that England was in no real sense ‘Christian’ anymore, if it ever had been. But the Church of England was, and is still, the established church. It has legal standing; there are bishops who sit in the upper house of the Houses of Parliament. The laws upon which the countries of the United Kingdom base their legal existence are deeply rooted in Christian ideas. None of this can be denied by anyone who has given much thought to the matter. Why then the controversy over ‘Christian nationalism’?
US Bible surge led by first-time buyers
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 26 Dec 2024
In the last year, the sale of Bibles in the US has jumped by a staggering 22%, despite overall book sales in the country only rising by less than 1%.
This increase, reported by Circana BookScan, has been attributed to people searching for stability and assurance, and is the latest sign of an encouraging trend of growth for Bible sales in the US. In 2019, 9.7million Bibles were bought by Americans, whereas last year that number leapt to 14.2 million, and in the first ten months of this year has already hit 13.7 million (Forbes).
Bangladesh: Testimony of nine-year-old
Luke Randall
Date posted: 24 Dec 2024
A nine-year-old Christian girl from Bangladesh says she has only survived extreme persecution for her faith because of Jesus’ love. She has been completely excluded at school and in wider society, is constantly bullied and has even watched her house burn down.
Rumana, whose family live in a village in northwest Bangladesh, which has an almost exclusively Muslim population. When her family became Christians, they were ostracised from the community, with even non-Muslims hesitant to associate with them due to fear of being similarly mistreated.
