Russia has added a U.S.-based Christian ministry focused on evangelizing children and caring for minors to its list of “undesirable organizations,” raising concerns about the safety of its workers as well as churches and organizations using the ministry’s materials, sources told Worthy News.
Three Greek Catholic parishes can no longer continue operating legally in autocratically ruled Belarus after their mandatory applications for “re-registration” were rejected by a regional court, well-informed Christians told Worthy News.
A prominent Christian preacher and activist known for his anti-war views has died in Russian custody, Worthy News learned Monday.
A Protestant pastor in Kyrgyzstan who was reportedly tortured by secret police has suffered traumatic brain injuries and lasting cognitive impairment, according to his family, doctors, and United Nations experts cited by rights monitors.
Concerns grew Sunday about a frail elderly Russian pastor after he was sentenced to a prison camp for publicly criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A Pentecostal pastor in Russia is in prison charged with undermining national security after he preached a sermon in which he criticized the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine from a Biblical perspective, the Norway-based Forum 18 rights group reports.
A new report by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) calls on the international community to hold Azerbaijan accountable for what it describes as the systematic “malicious destruction” of Armenia’s Christian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Members of a thriving Baptist church in western Uzbekistan say local authorities have begun demolishing their worship facility as part of a broader crackdown on devoted Christians.
Pressure is mounting on Rahymjan Borjakov, a 44-year-old pastor who faces imminent arrest for leading an unregistered church in Turkmenistan, Christians tell Worthy News.
Uzbekistan’s draft legislation to “further strengthen the rights of children” will lead to government persecution of Christian parents in the former Soviet nation, well-informed sources told Worthy News.
Minority Christians in Kyrgyzstan fear measures limiting their worship possibilities may be forthcoming despite legislators opposing more restrictive religious legislation.
Baptist Christians in southern Kazakhstan have suffered a surge in police raids upon their churches, as well as arrests and fines for expressing their faith, Christian Daily (CD) reports.
The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that the transcontinental country of Azerbaijan now be placed on the US State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) because of intensifying violations of religious freedom, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. The USCIRF made its recommendation in its new annual report on the status of religious freedom around the world.
A Belarusian preacher, Syarhey Melyanets, has still not been released from jail in Belarus after being sentenced to 13 days’ imprisonment on unspecified charges, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports.
A pastor in Belarus was sentenced to 15 days in prison earlier this month after praying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would end, Christian Daily (CD) reports.
Hundreds of priests in autocratically-ruled Belarus have been warned that state agencies are monitoring them and hundreds of religious communities.
In a move welcomed by religious rights advocates, the United States has for the first time officially listed the Republic of Azerbaijan as a country which violates religious freedom, Christianity Today (CT) reports. A part of the former Soviet Union until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Azerbaijan is a Muslim-majority transcontinental state which lies at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Evangelical Christians in Russia were forced to pay a “tax on faithfulness” in 2022, which will likely increase this year as part of a government crackdown on non-Orthodox faiths, rights investigators tell Worthy News.
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.
Authorities have now ordered the congregation at the New Life Church in Minsk, Belarus, to stop even the outdoor parking lot meetings they were reduced to after city officials sealed their church building last year, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) reports. Ideologically close and loyal to Russia’s President Putin, Belarus’ authoritarian regime has criminalized unregistered Christian activity.