One of China’s largest house congregations planned to hold its last outdoor worship service on Christmas Day in the capital Beijing after months of detentions, while elsewhere several congregations were raided by Chinese security forces as part of a Christmas season crackdown, local Christians and activists said.
A senior evangelical pastor and his wife are spending Christmas behind bars in southern Iran after security forces raided their Assemblies of God-affiliated church, detaining everyone in the building, including children attending Sunday School, a friend of the couple told Worthy News.
Saudi police arrested 42 Ethiopian Christians attending a prayer meeting in Jeddah Thursday.
A New Jersey community of 72 Indonesians who years ago were spared deportation after a pastor brokered an agreement with immigration authorities allowing them them to stay in the country temporarily may soon be deported thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has to serve at least one more year in prison before he may be executed for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam, an official assisting him told Worthy News Thursday, December 14.
The “Jewish terrorist” who tried to murder members of an Israeli Messianic family on account of their faith has been declared fit to stand trial.
More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church in the village of Qoto Baloso, Ethiopia, on Nov. 29.
Authorities in eastern Uzbekistan have warned local churches not to allow youngsters and children to attend their worship services and not to carry out missionary activities or “proselytism”, the word for evangelism, local Christians and activists said.
Nepal Police deactivated a bomb discovered near the entrance of the Navajiwan Church in Kathmandu last month.
More than 30,000 Christians recently took part in a prayer meeting in Hubli, Karnataka despite efforts by pro-Hindu groups to disrupt them.
Fulani Muslim herdsmen and soldiers killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state last week.
At least four people were killed in attacks in the city of Geidam, Nigeria, after vandals set fire to at eight churches, destroyed a police station and then set local shops ablaze.
Iran has ordered three evangelical house church pastors to report to prison within a month and serve lengthy jail terms on charges linked to their Christian activities, a well-informed source told Worthy News late Tuesday, November 29.
The immigration status of thousands of Christians fleeing from persecution in Iraq are now in limbo thanks to new security measures.
Earlier this year, Islamists from al-Shabaab’s militia fighting for control of Somalia razed Mohammed Abdi Mose’s house in Mogadishu to ashes after he evacuated his family, the 54-year-old father of seven told Compass News.
Last week more than 70,000 prayed all night in Cario, but they weren’t Muslims.
The largest Christian event in Egypt for more than a millenium was held at St. Simeon the Tanner Coptic Orthodox Church in Mokattam, Cairo’s largest “garbage city”. An Egyptian Christian leader called it the beginning of a revival, even though there was no promotion for, or media coverage of the all-night event.
A mob of men attacked leaders of a Baptist house church near Hanoi Sunday, seriously injuring a pastor and several others, including women and teenage children.
The leader of a hardline Hindu group wants India’s constitution to legalize the killing of Christian evangelists and, for instance, promoters of other non-Hindu religions.
In October of this year, Egyptian news media published stories of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province, which left one student dead. It was being reported as a non-sectarian, that is, non-religiously motivated, incident. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic Christian news website, denied the claim, saying, in fact, that the student was killed because he was wearing a crucifix.
Iranian officials are trying to convince an imprisoned pastor to return to Islam while he awaits word from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on whether he should be executed for converting to Christianity.