Christianity threatened in the Bible lands; Syria – the plight of Christians intensifies; Christians killed in Christmas bloodshed in Nigeria; Joy in Jos; Church on the streets in Greece; Unprecedented east Jerusalem building in pipeline
Christianity threatened in the Bible lands
Sunday Telegraph – Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.
The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.
And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.
It warns that converts from Islam face being killed in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran and risk severe legal penalties in other countries across the Middle East.
The report, by the think tank Civitas, says: “It is generally accepted that many faith-based groups face discrimination or persecution to some degree.
“A far less widely grasped fact is that Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.”
It cites estimates that 200 million Christians, or 10 per cent of Christians worldwide, are “socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.”
“Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood,” says the author, Rupert Shortt, a journalist and visiting fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9762745/Christianity-close-to-extinction-in-Middle-East.html
Syria – the plight of Christians intensifies
Barnabas Fund’s prayer update – The condition of the Church in Syria is becoming more and more desperate. Christians, their property and their churches continue to be the targets of violent attack. A senior church leader reported that they also face “inflation, poverty, growing of sectarian enmity, shortages of supplies of food and fuel, cold weather, revenge, kidnapping for big amount of ransom, risks of travelling, frequent Internet cut off and many such things.”
For example, while the Christian population of Homs was once 50,000-60,000, just 80 Christians remain in a Christian neighbourhood of the old city in December 2012. They are being held hostage by rebels and prevented from leaving. One by one they are dying because of severe hardship and a lack of medicines. A Barnabas Fund partner stated that they were being kept there as “human shields” by Salafist rebel groups to deter government forces from attacking the Christian area, which is now occupied by rebels.
Despite the dangers they face, and the fact that many Syrian Christians have fled their homeland, church leaders in Syria have refused to leave their people. One senior Christian leader said, “We have to say we want to stay here. It is our vocation to give our testimony. We had a lot of persecution in the past and we have to find a way to continue.”
Unprecedented east Jerusalem building in pipeline
Christians killed in Christmas bloodshed in Nigeria
Christmas Eve attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Nigeria’s Borno state – already reeling from the slaughter of at least 10 Christians earlier this month – took the lives of six people at a Baptist church, as gunmen killed six others in Yobe state the same night.
According to Morning Star News, in Borno state, where Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is based, six Christians were slain at First Baptist Church in Maiduguri on Christmas Eve.
About 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in Kupwal village in Chibok Local Government Area, suspected jihadists shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” on December 1 slit the throats of at least 10 people in carefully selected Christian homes, according to reports from survivors.
In Yobe state on Christmas Eve, gunmen believed to be members of Boko Haram reportedly entered the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Peri, near Potiskum, and killed six Christians including a pastor before setting the church building ablaze. Several others were reported seriously wounded.
“No group has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve attacks, but Boko Haram mounted Christmas assaults on Christians last year and in 2010,” said the Morning Star News Nigeria correspondent.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.killed.in.christmas.bloodshed.in.nigeria/31366.htm
Joy in Jos
Alan Craig writes – Over the past couple of years I’ve twice visited Jos in central Nigeria and was overwhelmed by the tragedy of a formerly prosperous peaceful city being torn apart by Islamist incursion and violence from the Sharia states to the north. Fear and hostility were endemic; the compassion, courage and vibrancy of the Christians I met was a light in an increasingly fraught dark place.
One source of such light is an orphanage called Lambiri Outreach run by the formidable Mrs Gloria Kwashi, wife of the Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Ben. They have up to 40 (yes forty) children living in their home and in addition she runs a day school with 450 on its roll. I visited the school during my first visit and at the insistence of Mrs Kwashi gave each of the destitute kids their bowl of rice for lunch – the only meal of the day for some she told me – and had one for myself. It was heart-warming and heart-breaking stuff. Normally in Nigeria orphans are looked after by their wider extended family, but many of these are victims of the atrocities and have no other family.
Early last month I attended a Church of Nigeria conference at the impressive national cathedral in Abuja with its extraordinary rotating altar and pulpit. The Church of Nigeria is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, is rapidly growing with currently some 18 million members and is an example of vitality and commitment to the Gospel that declining Anglican churches in the West would do well to emulate. Nigerian Anglicans make mistakes no doubt and their enthusiastic worship is too loud for restrained English ears, but theirs is the mess and noise of the nursery not the morgue.
http://www.alansangle.com/?p=1172
Church on the streets in Greece
Churches are doing what they can to help people experiencing economic hardship in Greece
Unemployment in Greece has spiralled in the last year, with more than half of young people out of work. The things that were once considered basics are now luxuries, says the Reverend Jimoh Adebayo.
He and his church are helping to run a soup kitchen in central Athens that is feeding around 700 people each day.
Church in the Street was set up four years ago to assist destitute migrants but after the country plunged into economic crisis, more and more Greeks are lining up for the free lunch.
Malcolm Bradshaw, of the Anglican Church in Greece, a co-founder of the project, estimates that around a third of the recipients are Greek.
With pensions halved, it is not surprising that many of them are pensioners, but more recently some younger faces have started to appear.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.on.the.streets.in.greece/31303.htm
Unprecedented east Jerusalem building in pipeline