World in Brief

The Alliance of Christians of Cuba (ACC), which brings together around 50 religious leaders from several Christian denominations, issued a joint statement after its recent national gathering in Santiago.

It made three requests to the Cuban government. Firstly, to free all those imprisoned for exercising their inherent rights. Secondly, to allow every religious movement on the island to associate and obtain legal status and protection under the law. Thirdly, to respect the right of each Cuban citizen to exercise all their inherent rights, and that they do not persecute them for this.

Algerian pastor and vice president of the Algerian Protestant Church (EPA), Youssef Ourahmane, has lost his appeal hearing and was sentenced to a year in prison and fined the equivalent of £600.

Ourahmane was accused of holding an unauthorised religious worship last March, in a building not permitted for that purpose. Algerian law regulates non-Muslim worship by preventing any public gathering in places that do not have a government licence. He was also accused of having supervised several Christian families staying in a church compound that includes a chapel sealed off by the authorities.

A Christian head football coach at a publicly-funded American high school in Georgia has been fired after allowing a pastor to baptise 20 members of the team.

Isaac Ferrell was sacked by school district officials at Tattnall County High School, who stated that ‘the safety and security of our students is paramount’. Ferrell’s dismissal, which has sparked outrage, came after atheist organisation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based on the other side of America, heard about the event and decided to object.

Six children have been killed and 23 adults injured when a large church in Sudan was bombed. The Church of Our Saviour, the largest church in the city of Omdurman, hosted services for both Evangelical and Episcopal believers. The church was badly damaged, as was a house for orphaned boys in the church compound.

It’s believed that the buildings were hit because they sit between the two warring factions in Sudan – the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese Armed Forces.

Pastor Gary Marsh, of Victory Chapel First Phoenix, Glendale, California, has vowed that his church will never stop preaching on the streets after the church’s outreach director was shot in the head whilst preaching on a local street corner.

Hans Schmidt, a father of two, is in hospital but is now showing some signs of recovery. Marsh said: ‘We stood out on the same street corner the last two nights in a row in large numbers to make a statement: Satan, you are not going to stop us.’

Iain Taylor

Thousands of Evangelical Christians marched for peace in Chiapas, Mexico on Sunday 3 December. Evangelicals came together from various different ethnic groups, including Tzotzil, Chol and Tojolabal.

They gathered at the march, which was organised by the ‘Jesus is the Way’ church, to thank God for peace in the state and prayed that He would guide their leaders, expressing thanksgiving and praise through singing and praising. Chiapas has known violence towards Evangelical Christians for not partaking in Roman Catholic traditions, and this march was seen as testament to their resilience through adversity in the past.

Santiago Peña, President of Paraguay, recently met with evangelical leaders from the Association of Evangelical Churches (ASIEP) of Paraguay to discuss his change of mind on an agreement with the European Union.

The President had promised to remove Paraguay from this agreement, which supports contemporary gender ideology, if he was elected President this year. However, Peña changed his mind after becoming President, and many Evangelicals are unhappy, and feel betrayed after voting for him because of his election promise. The President held the meeting to try to cool tensions, and assured them his government would respect Paraguay’s values.

Spanish Evangelical group, Fiet Gratia, has received the Menina 2023 Award by the government of the Basque Country for its work to prevent human trafficking and violence against women. The Menina Award is given annually to those who excel in preventing violence against women.

Fiona Bellshaw, the organisation’s National Director, received the award at the Villa Suso Palace in Vitoria-Gastiez, and said many of the exploited women who they find are in flats with no windows, and there are bunk beds with up to ten women, and the women are paying 200 to 300 euros to stay there.

Albania’s Evangelical Alliance, (VUSH) made up of 190 churches, recently held its General Assembly and outlined its key objectives for renewed focus.

The Assembly outlined unity amongst Evangelicals, empowerment of the church and bringing Christ into wider society as the Alliance’s three major objectives. The VUSH board revealed that within the last year, the 131-year-old Alliance has met with ‘people of influence’, including government ministers, and has also held events to strengthen churches, showing that work to meet its three objectives is already underway.

A Christian dance group in Barbados has been disqualified from a national competition after opposing gender-identity ideology.

Praise Academy, part of Dance Barbados were judged to have broken rules concerning ‘good taste’ and ‘defamation’ because of their performance, which told the story of how reading the Bible helped a 15-year-old girl overcome her struggle with her gender identity. The group promoted the existence of two genders and held banners with words from Genesis 1:27. The group is taking legal action, following an unsuccessful appeal.

A film about German anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is to be released in November 2024. Angel Studios recently acquired the film’s worldwide rights, and it will cover the story of Bonhoeffer’s life as a pastor, theologian, and critic of the Nazi regime.

Two of the film’s main characters will be Bonhoeffer, played by Jonas Dassler, and fellow German theologian Martin Niemöller, played by August Diehl. The film will be written and directed by Todd Komarnicki, who has helped to produce several big hits.

European Union (EU) member state governments can ban public servants from wearing religious clothing or symbols, as has recently been ruled by the Court of Justice of the EU, the EU’s highest court.

The court ruled in favour of a local Belgian government in Ans, allowing the local authority to prohibit a female Muslim employee from wearing a hijab. The court said the decision was not discriminatory, as it did not directly apply to Muslims, but was a ruling which applies to people of any belief system.

Christmas celebrations have been cancelled across Israel because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Jordan are among the places to have been encouraged to ‘forego any unnecessarily festive activities’ this year.

The news was revealed in a joint letter from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem which said that while Christmas celebrations are integral to Christian communities across Israel, the country is not living in normal times, and that festive celebrations would not be appropriate when so many are experiencing so much sadness and pain due to the ongoing conflict.

Luke Randall