World in Brief

Campaigner, humanitarian aid-worker and Church Mission Society mission partner Dr Ann-Marie Wilson received an MBE in King Charles’ first New Year’s Honours List. The citation reads that Dr Wilson is being recognised ‘for services to the prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls’, in particular her pioneering to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Ann-Marie’s charity 28 Too Many sought to end FGM in 28 African countries where it is prevalent. Building on more than 3,000 FGM survivors’ stories and mobilising grassroots organisations with advocacy tools, Dr Wilson has helped secure widespread change.

Christians in 20 villages in Chattisgarh state have been attacked by radical Hindu nationalists for refusing to re-convert from Christianity to Hinduism. The attacks took place on a Sunday as they gathered for worship. The attackers looted and destroyed the homes of many Christians and desecrated three churches.

The perpetrators used bamboo sticks in the assault. Several people were severely injured and hospitalised, while others fled to the jungle or to nearby police stations. When the Christians reported the attacks to authorities, the police told them to fend for themselves.

A man suspected of being a Muslim extremist in the ranks of the Sudanese military has burned down a church building in eastern Sudan. The 20-year-old building belonged to the 100-member Sudanese Church of Christ congregation in El Daoka, Al Qadarif state.

The suspect is an unnamed local man who opposed the presence of the church in the area. He was already under investigation, said a church attorney, who described the attack as a criminal act that violated religious freedom and was punishable by two to five years in prison.

Muslim extremists in central Uganda lured Christian teacher Abdu Muyinga back to his home by forcing his wife to call and tell him she was ill. Intruders then beat him and his young adult son, Hamisi Sentongo. They are now nursing their injuries after the beatings by Muslims upset with their conversion to Christianity.

‘We were attacked and beaten because of leaving Islam, as the sharia [Islamic law] instructs Muslims to kill anyone who leaves Islam’, Muyinga said. ‘We survived being killed by the grace of the Lord Jesus.’

The European Union (EU) has appointed Frans van Daele as its new Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) outside the EU.

The appointment comes after the post was vacant for a year and after repeated calls from the European Parliament and others for the position to be filled. Baron van Daele is a seasoned diplomat who joined the Belgian diplomatic service in 1971. He was appointed to the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the EU from 1973 to 1977, and later became Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the EU from 1997 to 2002.

The former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), The Revd Dr Hkalam Samson, has been arrested at Mandalay International Airport as he attempted to travel to Bangkok, Thailand.

Samson, who now serves as chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, is one of Myanmar’s most prominent and outspoken Christian religious leaders, and a courageous defender of human rights. After the military coup which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government, he issued an appeal for prayer for Myanmar.

The Israeli Government’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has revealed that the Christian population grew slightly in 2021. Concentrated mainly in the country’s northern region, the Christian community grew to represent 1.9 % of the nation’s total population.

Most Christians live in Nazareth (21,000), followed by Haifa (16,700), and Hefar’am (10,500). Some 13,000 Christians reside in Jerusalem. The report, conducted by the CBS, also found that 75.8% of Christians in the nation are Arab Christians, accounting for almost 7% of the Arab population.

Christians in Iran are being warned not to join the country’s uprisings for fear of further persecution for their faith. One community priest has asked them to refrain from writing material on social media opposing the government.

Iranian Christians are a minority in the country. According to Open Doors, there are around 800,000 Christians in the nation, with those converting from Islam facing the most extreme persecution. The priest’s warning comes as protests mount across Iran against the ‘morality police’.

Brazilian evangelicals have condemned the attack on government buildings by supporters of the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the latest presidential election.

The country’s Evangelical Alliance said it ‘vehemently condemned the anti-democratic, violent and unjustifiable acts that took place in our federal capital, including the destruction of symbols of democracy that are so important to us.’ Stating that ‘the Christian faith is committed to truth, justice and peace’, the organisation added: ‘Based on those principles, we affirm the importance of investigating those behind such tragic events, so that justice can be done and peace can be established.’ Anti-government demonstrators violently assaulted the headquarters of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace. They refused to recognise the election result and called for military intervention, mistakenly believing the vote to have been flawed. Order was quickly restored by the government of President Lula da Silva.

The National Council of Evangelicals in France (CNEF) has launched ‘a listening and assistance service for victims and witnesses of sexual abuse within evangelical churches, structures and organisations’. It is called Stop abus (Stop Abuse).

The online platform enables abuse to be reported and assessed by a professional before being passed on for appropriate legal, psychological and/or pastoral support. If the victim requests it, the Stop abus team also informs the judicial authorities and asks the church or Christian organisation where the abuse took place to also take action.

The number of evangelical Christians continues to grow in France. A new report by the National Council of Evangelical Christians (CNEF) shows that there is now one church for every 25,000 inhabitants – five years ago, there was one church for every 29,000 people.

The number of evangelical churches has risen from 2,521 in 2017 to over 2,700 today – a significant increase from 1970, when there were just 769 evangelical churches. In the last half century, evangelical churches have been opening in France at a rate of about 35 a year.

The Family Research Council (FRC), a Christian conservative activist organisation, has reported that over 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred in the United States over the past five years. Some 57 of those hostile acts occurred between January and September 2022 and were related to abortion.

Those acts, which targeted 397 individual churches in 45 states, included vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, and bomb threats. The FRC states that the severity and frequency of such attacks may intimidate Christians.