World in Brief

Scores of Protestant churches, the Nicaraguan Evangelical Alliance, and the Latino-Islamic Cultural Association, were among 169 civil society organisations whose legal status has been cancelled by the Nicaraguan government.

The move follows the similar cancellation of 1,651 civil society organisations last month, and brings the total number of organisations that have arbitrarily lost their legal status since 2018 to 5,552. Among those cancelled are two historic Protestant denominations: the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua (dating back to 1612), which belongs to the Global Anglican Communion, and the Moravian Church of Nicaragua, established in 1847.

The Ukrainian Parliament has passed a bill banning churches affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church or supporting the Russian invasion.

The legislation will explicitly ban religious institutions subordinate to those based in Russia. Many see it as an overstep, a violation of religious freedom and a potential risk to continued foreign military aid. The clear target of the law is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with its historical ties to Moscow. The church declared itself independent of the Moscow Patriarchate after the Russian invasion, but many suspect some of the church leadership remains loyal to Russia.

New research reveals ‘systematic discrimination’ against Christians fleeing from Boko Haram extremists in Nigeria’s north eastern state of Borno. An Open Doors’ report says Christians are routinely denied aid in temporary camps – sometimes just for having Christian-sounding names.

More than 2 million people are displaced in north east Nigeria largely because of violent extremist attacks, according to the International Office of Migration (IOM). Borno hosts 80 per cent of them.

A free evangelical church in Cologny, Geneva, is to appeal, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Federal Court’s decision against public baptisms in Lake Geneva. It is being supported by the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA-RES) and other Swiss evangelical organisations.

The Geneva State Council forbade the church from celebrating baptisms in the lake, saying: ‘baptisms in public places are authorised only for churches with which the State Council has a relationship’. The church appealed to the Federal Court, which rejected the appeal. It is now taking its case to the ECHR.

The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) reveals that over 55,900 people were killed in 9,970 attacks, while at least 21,600 people were abducted in 2,705 attacks from October 2019 to September 2023 – an average of eight attacks per day.

ORFA’s report, Countering the Myth of Religious Indifference in Nigerian Terror, says that: ‘Nigeria’s multifaceted, violent security crisis is the result of Islamist extremists enjoying relative freedom to carry out atrocities’.

The Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Argentina (ACIERA) has signed an agreement with Argentina’s Ministry of Security to carry out projects promoting the social integration of people deprived of liberty – those released from prison – and their families.

The agreement was signed by the president of ACIERA, Christian Hooft, and the national director of Social Reinsertion, Felicitas Beccar, from the Undersecretariat of Penitentiary Affairs. The agreement gives these projects concrete objectives, work plans, deadlines for their implementation, human, technical and financial resources, as well as any other necessary contribution and specifications.

An influential ‘evangelist preacher’ from the Philippines accused of sex trafficking and sexual abuse has been arrested, authorities have said.

Apollo Quiboloy, self-proclaimed ‘owner of the universe’ and ‘appointed son of god’, is wanted on charges of child and sexual abuse and related allegations of human trafficking. The leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church has denied wrongdoing. The pastor is also on the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list in the United States on separate charges of sex trafficking and bulk cash smuggling, over which he has also denied wrongdoing.

Three Colorado families have filed a lawsuit against schools in the state for ‘violating parents’ fundamental right to make decisions about the upbringing and education of their children’.

The families, who are being represented by lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom, have brought the action against Jefferson County Public Schools. Its policy directs that students should be ‘assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity’ rather than rooming by sex.

At least two people have died in Recife, Brazil after the roof of a church collapsed, state authorities said.

The vice-governor of Pernambuco state, Priscila Krause, said around 20 people had received medical assistance after the collapse, adding that authorities do not believe there are additional fatalities. At the time of the collapse, the church was being used for food distribution.

An Irish state inquiry uncovered a ‘truly shocking’ level of sexual abuse at religious schools, primarily those run by the Catholic Church, over nearly a century with 2,395 allegations.

Its preliminary findings revealed 884 alleged sexual abusers at more than 300 schools across the country between 1927 and 2013. Most of the cases occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s. This inquiry will be followed by a Commission of Investigation that is likely to find additional cases, Ireland Education Minister Norma Foley said, adding: ‘The level of abuse is truly shocking, and so is the number of alleged abusers.’

Christians in Rwanda are deciding what to do after the government closed almost 10,000 churches for noncompliance with health and safety regulations.

The closures were carried out in accordance with a 2018 law that mandates that places of worship meet safety and hygiene standards, including proper infrastructure, parking, fire-hazard equipment and soundproofing systems, and that they are safe to occupy. The law also requires pastors to hold university degrees in theology, and churches to obtain legal registration and provide clear statements of their doctrine.

The Colombian Bible Society has completed its first translation of the complete Bible into an indigenous language – Wayuunaiki. It will benefit two indigenous ethnic groups in Colombia, comprising about a third of the indigenous population.

The project required the expertise of Biblical scholars, native translators and language specialists to ensure that the meaning and interpretation of the text remained intact. ‘With this resource now available in all our churches, we can advance not only in urban areas but also in rural communities,’ said Deinles Epieyú, an indigenous Christian leader.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Orthodox Church have announced an agreement over the ‘filioque’ clause of the Nicene Creed, which prompted the schism, in 1054, between Western and Eastern Christian churches.

Meaning ‘and the Son’ in Latin, filioque was added to the Nicene Creed in the sixth century, to say that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both God the Father and the Son. The LWF and Orthodox Church leaders now ‘suggest that the translation of the Greek original (without the filioque) be used in the hope that this will contribute to the healing of age-old divisions between our communities’.

The commander of an Islamist militia has seized 500 acres of land from Christian farmers in the town of Ras Al-Ein, in northern Syria near the Turkish border.

The area is under the control of a coalition of Islamist militias that are part of the Syrian National Army, an entity backed by Qatar and Turkey. The main groups involved in human rights abuses in Ras Al-Ein include the Al-Hamzat Battalion and Jaysh Al-Sharqya.

Missionaries from all corners of the globe gathered for the first time in six years at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Together 2024 in Manila, Philippines, with 4,500 people from 110 nationalities taking part, serving in 120 countries.

Hosted in Manila by Christ’s Commission Fellowship Church, it featured mission-focused teaching and worship. The conference was the first get-together since YWAM met in Thailand in 2018; the first global staff meeting since the Covid era; and, most poignant of all, the first large gathering since the death of YWAM founder Loren Cunningham in 2023.

Iain Taylor