A group of forty-four Christians, most of whom are women, have been imprisoned in Eritrea since their arrest for unknown reasons at the beginning of the year, Voice of the Martyrs Canada reports. 

A new study shows that the Hispanic protestant community in the US is flourishing, with a rapidly increasing number of churches, a strong base of young congregants and first-generation American citizens, and a strong record in effective evangelistic outreach, Lifeway Research reports. The study was sponsored by Lifeway Recursos, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Samaritan’s Purse, and surveyed 692 pastors of congregations that are at least 50 percent Hispanic.

America’s United Methodist Church has now lost over 1,800 congregations as conservative churches have disaffiliated with the denomination over UMC acceptance of same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy, Christianity Today (CT) reports. Nevertheless, analysts have said the rate of disaffiliation does not represent a major schism and the denomination is expected to survive.

A tense calm has returned to the Narayanpur district of India’s landlocked state of Chhattisgarh where more than 1,000 villagers, including suspected Hindu extremists, attacked a Catholic church injuring several people, Worthy News learned.

As rights advocates raise questions about the silence of world powers in the face of the ongoing years-long devastating slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, 17 more Christians were murdered by suspected Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Bauchi and Benue states between Friday and Sunday, Morning Star News reports. 

A Christian teacher in England may be permanently prohibited from teaching in the UK after referring to a female transgender student as a “girl” and telling another student he is opposed to same-sex marriage, the Christian Post (CP) reports.

In the first criminal case of its kind, a formerly gay Christian man in Malta is facing trial and a possible prison sentence for allegedly promoting ‘conversion therapy’ that helps people dealing with unwanted same-sex attraction, the Christian Post (CP) reports. Malta banned all such counseling and therapy in 2016, becoming the first country in the European Union to institute such a prohibition.

The Church of England has published draft prayers for God’s blessing for same-sex couples, the denomination said in a press release last week. The move follows the Church of England’s recently announced plans to continue the prohibition of marriage ceremonies in church but to allow clergy to bless homosexual civil partnerships in church on a voluntary basis.

Bypassing public debate on the matter, Pakistan’s National Assembly on January 17 voted to make the country’s highly controversial blasphemy laws even harsher than they already are, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports. Pakistan ranks seven on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

A new report by the international aid organization Open Doors shows that persecution against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa is now so intense that the continent is in danger of suffering a “vast humanitarian catastrophe,” the Washington Times reports.

Five female church members were abducted, and their pastor shot and wounded during a terrorist attack on their church in Nigeria’s Katsina state on Sunday, Morning Star News reports. The attack is just one more of tens of thousands of attacks, murders and abductions, maimings, and displacements of Christians by Islamic militants since 2015.

The Church of England has announced it cannot change its doctrine to allow same-sex couples to be married in the church but proposes that clergy may voluntarily choose to hold blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples in civil marriages, the Guardian UK reports. The “historic plans” announced on Wednesday represent a form of compromise after decades of anguished debate within the Church of England over the acceptance of homosexuality.

A prominent Chinese church leader has begun serving a two-year prison sentence for what his family and friends view as trumped-up charges of “illegally holding materials promoting terrorism and extremism,” Worthy News learned Wednesday.

One Christian out of seven in the world suffers high levels of persecution and discrimination for his or her faith, and North Korea appears again as the most dangerous place for devoted believers, an annual report showed Wednesday.

A Christian father has been arrested and detained in Islamabad, Pakistan on a charge of blasphemy which carries the death penalty, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

Japan has declined the refugee status of a Christian evangelist who fled his native Bangladesh after Islamic militants threatened to kill him for converting to Christianity and being forced to marry a Muslim woman.

Suspected Islamist gunmen burned a Catholic priest to death and shot and injured his colleague in northwest Nigeria on Sunday, police and church sources said, prompting Christians to call for prayers.

Dozens of worshipers have been killed and injured in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Islamist militants bombed a Sunday service at a Pentecostal church, the government and military said.

About 120,000 Armenian Christians are trapped inside the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, including women, children, and the disabled, Christian aid workers told Worthy News Friday.

International Christian Concern (ICC) has published the horrifying account of the most brutally violent Islamic persecution and unimaginable loss and pain endured by a Christian mother in Uganda who ultimately gives glory to Jesus as her Shepherd. ICC confirmed the organization was able to rescue the mother and child, and has helped them to start a new life in which they are healing physically and emotionally.