World in Brief

A Hui Christian pastor has been charged with “organising illegal gatherings” after a gathering of about ten Christians was discovered by the authorities in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Ma Yan, 32, was arrested alongside three others last summer and he pleaded guilty at his trial which took place recently, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Yan is believed to have pleaded guilty to the charges because they are treated more leniently than other offences, but he could now face nine months in jail if sentencing recommendations are followed.

Freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Nicaragua is worsening, with over 220 cases related to FoRB recorded throughout 2024, according to a newly released Christian Solidarity Worldwide report.

Incidents recorded sometimes affected thousands of people, and many saw religious events cancelled, while others featured police crackdowns on religious marches outside their buildings. Most concerningly, religious leaders were instructed to report to a designated local police officer once a week to detail their weekly activities for review.

Evangelicals in Brazil could outnumber Catholics as soon as 2030, following a gradual decline in Catholicism, matched by unprecedented growth of Evangelicalism. Furthermore, about 30% of Brazil’s politicians now identify as Evangelical, reports Premier Christian News.

Statistics reveal that about 93% of the country identified as Catholic in 1953, but the church has reportedly lost about one per cent of its number per year since 1991. However, the number of evangelical churches has grown from just a few in the early 20th century to over 110,000 today, with CBN news reporting that 17 new churches are being planted every day.

A woman in Minnesota has been charged with the murder of her husband after he was found dead in a vehicle in southern Angola, where the couple had been serving as missionaries since 2021.

Beau Shroyer, 44, was allegedly lured to a remote place where he was stabbed, reports Premier Christian News. Jackie Shroyer is accused of coordinating his murder, and investigators also accuse her of having an affair with the family’s security guard beforehand. She is due to be tried in Angola this year.

A conference on religious freedom organised by the Italian Evangelical Alliance (AEI) was recently held in Rome in an effort to foster greater awareness and interest about the issue.

According to Evangelical Focus, the event, which was held in a hall of Italy’s Senate, featured contributions from academic, political and faith representatives. Several issues relating to religious freedom were discussed, including challenges presented by new technology and how the issue is explored in schools, a well as the benefits of religious freedom to society on a wider scale.

A Christian mother of three has been forcibly married, raped and converted to Islam, and her kidnapper has called for her real husband to drop charges against him.

Morning Star News reports that the man initially thought his wife had gone with her kidnapper willingly, but found that she had actually been manipulated by a false conversion certificate and forced marriage. Her husband revealed that the kidnapper had pretended to offer the woman help and supposedly took her to fill out paperwork, which enabled him to fraudulently obtain her thumbprint on the key documents.

Fifty Christians have been injured in a mob attack on a church service in Rajasthan, India which saw worshippers hit with rods and the church building vandalised before the police arrived.

At least three people are believed to have been seriously injured by the mob of about 200 attackers, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The attackers quickly fled the scene following the arrival of the authorities, but the police allegedly interviewed worshippers and accused them of forcibly converting people, instead of pursuing the members of the mob.

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has announced it is looking for a new Secretary General almost a year after Thomas Schirrmacher resigned from the role on medical grounds. The Christian Post reports that the organisation hopes to fill the role before its next General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea in October.

The WEA detailed that a team has been tasked with appointing the successor, with the role being filled on an interim basis. A replacement was initially due to have been found six months after Schirrmacher resigned, but the process has been delayed.

More than sixty Christians have been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The group mostly comprise of Montagnard Christians who were at a memorial gathering near the city, according to The Christian Post.

Most of those arrested remain in custody and face deportation for being in Thailand without documentation. The authorities have also been criticised for deporting 40 Uighur ethnic minorities to China.

A former Assemblies of God pastor has been sentenced to 17 years of probation and 800 hours of community service after pleading guilty to stealing more than half a million dollars from a church in Arkansas, USA.

The Christian Post reports that Brian Keith Herring, 49, was charged on the grounds of theft, forgery and tampering with evidence back in 2021. The church had discovered that significant sums of money had gone missing from their bank accounts and that they could not view church credit card statements. Herring has now also been ordered to pay the church $100,000 in restitution.

Christians across China joined celebrations of the Lantern Festival by taking part in various activities and attending festive events. The festival takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar, and concludes the Chinese New Year, according to China Christian Daily (CCD).

Christian organisations took part in events, including lantern riddle games, which were sometimes based on Biblical knowledge, festival lectures and services, while others handed out material to people.

Luke Randall