World in Brief

The number of resignations from the Catholic Church in Switzerland has risen to over 67,000, up from just below 35,000 in 2022, according to the Swiss Pastoral Sociological Institute. The Protestant Church in Switzerland has been hit by nearly 40,000 resignations, which is a third more than the previous year.

The most common reason for the accelerating departure from the Catholic Church is believed to be its alleged covering up of sexual violence committed by officials in a decades-long scandal uncovered in 2023, while a more gradual departure has seen the Protestant Church continue to decline.

Christian colleges in the United States have faced about 70% of penalties imposed by the Department of Education, despite only educating about 10% of students across the country, according to a report by conservative think tank, the American Principles Project (APP). Researchers argue this suggests a bias against Christian institutions.

The report also highlighted that over the last decade, Christian institutions have faced average fines of $815,000 for breaking federal campus crime laws, while public and other private institutions were billed just $228,571.

A pastor in Vietnam was shot twice in the knee with rubber bullets by a passenger on a motorbike, in an attack the pastor believes was a warning that he should return to the government-approved Evangelical Church of Vietnam.

All Vietnamese churches are required to register with the government, and independent churches often face discrimination for failing to do so. Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that Y Hung Ayun, 62, who leads a congregation in Tara Puor village, was shot while travelling. The two men on the motorbike were masked and fled the scene following the incident.

A recently converted Christian woman fled from her home in Somalia after being beaten by her Muslim husband when he found out she had left Islam for Christianity. She had to leave her two young children behind.

Morning Star News reported that she was ‘seriously injured’ during the incident, and despite missing her children, who are four and six, she has said she cannot return home because her husband would kill her. She was converted at an underground-church service in October.

A 64-year-old man, his wife and their adult son have been burned to death in Eastern Uganda because of their recent conversion to Christianity. They were burned beyond recognition according to neighbours, after local Muslims set their house on fire.

The trio were converted from Islam about a month before their death and were keeping their faith secret. However, local Muslims spotted the father leaving a church service in a nearby village and the area chairperson threatened to incite the Muslim community against them if they did not renounce the faith.

A one-year-old child is believed to have been among the 50 Christians killed in villages in Nigeria by militant Islamic Fulani Herdsmen over the Christmas season. One attack on a village in Plateau state saw 15 killed, before attacks on five villages in Benue state on Christmas Day saw 33 killed.

The Aten Development Association (ADA) condemned the attacks and reported that dozens of houses were set on fire during them. They also questioned how the perpetrators were able to carry out their attack in Plateau state, with an overnight government curfew in place, without being arrested.

Eleven people have been killed in a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) airstrike on Al Ezba, Khartoum North which damaged the Al Ezba Baptist Church, its nursery and its residential buildings. The nursery was open when the airstrike took place, resulting in the deaths of eight children, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

This incident adds to a growing number of attacks on worship places amidst the ongoing civil war in Sudan between the SAF and Rapid Special Forces (RSF). The church’s pastor, Philemon Hassan, called for God to ‘give the two warring parties wisdom to stop the war’.

A Christian woman in Pakistan has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after she was reported to authorities for burning Islamic scripture. Morning Star News reports that her husband and two sons, who earn low wages as daily-wage labourers, have gone into hiding underground due to security fears.

Shazia Younis, 50 was arrested in Toba Tek Singh District, Punjab Province following a complaint from a prayer leader of a local mosque. Her lawyer suspects that she unintentionally burned the Islamiyat book amongst wastepaper. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, desecration of the Quran can result in life imprisonment.

Church of Iran leader Matthias Haghnejad has been released from prison, having been due to serve a six-year sentence on charges of endangering national security by ‘forming a group and propagating Christianity outside the church and in the house church, and giving information to the enemies of Islam’.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide says that Haghnejad has endured a lengthy legal saga, having initially been acquitted of the same charges in 2014, before being rearrested in 2022, soon after his release from prison after a three-year sentence for other charges in 2021.

Gunmen opened fire on an Orthodox church in Hama, Syria, in one of a series of incidents since the fall of Assad’s regime reported by Christian Solidarity Worldwide. No one was harmed in the attack, but the walls incurred minor damage.

In other incidents, a cemetery was damaged in Mhareh, a predominantly Christian town near Hama, while someone claiming to be a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group which overthrew Assad’s regime, persecuted a bar owner in a Christian area of Damascus for serving alcohol. Security forces have condemned the incidents and pledged to arrest the attackers.

Two pastors and their children have been killed in Aguachica, in an incident which the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia (CEDECOL) says ‘adds to the many cases of persecution faced by religious leaders’ in the country. The family were eating lunch after a church service when the attack took place.

Local police forces have not yet determined a motive for the attack, but in a statement addressed to Colombian president Gustavo Pestro, CEDECOL has called on the authorities to review protection measures for religious leaders, reports Evangelical Focus.

The European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) recently held its Week of Prayer (WOP), with ‘contending for the faith’ as its theme. Evangelical Focus reports that the EEA invited evangelical churches from across Europe to participate in the event, with EEA General Secretary Jan Wessels suggesting that, rather than debating ‘all kinds of issues’, the church should ‘bring them before the throne of God together’.

The Italian Evangelical Alliance produced material for churches to follow over eight days, stressing that contending for the faith is crucial today, as churches combat ideological concerns, such as atheism, universalism, syncretism and spiritualism.

Churches in occupied territories in Ukraine are facing growing persecution, with religious leaders facing investigations, churches being raided and closed, and some pastors being accused of ‘illegal missionary activity’, according to Forum 18, a Norwegian human-rights group.

As detailed in Release International’s Persecution Trends 2025 report, many Christians have fled occupied territories due to increasing persecution, with churches being forced to reregister under Russian law, cutting all ties with the Ukrainian church, while pastors find themselves under pressure to preach in ways which are sympathetic to ideology backed by Russia.

Pro-life events were held at the Chilean National Congress ahead of parliamentary discussion about a draft law on abortion. A film was shown in the Hall of Honour in the Congress, before the Commitment to the Right to Life was signed by politicians opposed to proposed changes to the law.

Amada (which means ‘Beloved’), the film shown at the event, follows the personal struggle which protagonist Roxy endured when deciding whether to have an abortion when she fell pregnant at the peak of her career as an artist. The initiatives were organised by Christian MP Stephan Schubert alongside several other organisations, reports Evangelical Focus.

Patriarch Krill, of Russia’s Orthodox Church, has said that the West is in ‘moral collapse’. These remarks, among others, came during a service at Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow, in which he also asserted that ‘nothing will work’ in Western efforts to stop Russia – because God is with them.

Premier Christian News reports that Patriarch Krill also blessed items due to be engraved with Vladimir Putin’s initials before being sent to servicemen in Ukraine.

Luke Randall