A brutal attack on a Christian book publisher in Ukraine has underscored the high stakes struggle over human rights and religious liberty in the former Soviet republic preparing for a re-run of a sharply contested presidential election.
This week members of For Zion’s Sake, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Jerusalem, hoped to send another team from Jerusalem to the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, in southern Russia to comfort the survivors and families of victims of the terror attack on the school there.
Police in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent raided a Baptist church during Sunday worship on October 17, declaring the service an “illegal religious meeting” and demanding the pastor promise to stop all the church’s activities.
Pastor Bradley Antolovich, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Jerusalem and father of five, watched helplessly as the horror at Beslan School #1 unfolded on television and various internet clips. The thought that these children could be his own welled up in him an unquenchable drive to reach out by going there.
Overwhelmed with messages of prayer and support, two pastors in Beslan, North Ossetia in southern Russia, have expressed their heartfelt thanks to all those who have written to them since the siege at the school in which hundreds, mostly children, were killed.
Jerusalem, Israel (Worthy News) — Pastor Bradley Antolovich, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Jerusalem and father of five, watched helplessly as the horror at Beslan School #1 unfolded on television and various internet clips. The thought that these children could be his own welled up in him an unquenchable drive to reach out by going there. Simultaneously, two pastors in Moscow — Kostia Kretov and Kevin Macken — were also moved to go and comfort the survivors from the school and the minister to the families who lost loved ones in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia.
Persecuted Christians in Turkmenistan began an uncertain week Monday, March 15, after autocratic President Saparmurat Niyazov announced he would allow all religious communities “to gain official registration” regardless of how many members they have.
It was back in 1999 that the Turkmenistan government declared its intention to “strangle minority faiths. All foreign Christians were expelled and the persecution of national believers, especially ethnic Turkmen, intensified intolerably.
Turkmenistan, an ex-Soviet republic with what human rights watchers call the “harshest state control” in the region has drafted new legislation that will make it difficult for churches to operate and to spread the Gospel, a news agency said Monday, Nov. 3
Total attendance at showings of the Jesus Film in St. Petersburg, Russia, amount to 150,000 people, according to a Russia interpreter who works with American missionaries in this city known as “The Venice of the North.”
Protestant Christians in Azerbaijan are fearing for the future of their children after police raided a Sunday school using old Soviet style “KGB methods”, reports said Thursday September 4.
Barring a miracle, an innocent U.S. citizen is going to spend five years in a Russian prison for a crime he did not commit. Andrew Okhotin’s four months under house arrest and upcoming show trial should outrage anyone who believes in justice. It should also move them to do whatever they can to help.
Baptists and other Protestant groups in two of the most oppressive republics of the former Soviet Union faced fines and possible liquidation Monday, September 1, unless they stop church meetings, reports said.
Just over a month after he signed what critics call “Europe’s most restrictive religion law,” the president of Belarus has agreed to allow a Christian radio program to air daily in his ex-Soviet republic, an official said Tuesday, December 17.
Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Belarus have told Christians and other religious communities they can no longer hold meetings in their homes without prior permission, news reports said Friday, December 13.
Pentecostal Christians in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia are not allowed to gather for worship amid death threats, while a Baptist church was set on fire amid a government backed crack down against religious minorities, reports suggested Monday June 16.
Baptist Christians in Kazakstan are pressured to no longer express their faith in Christ publicly while their leader is facing possible jail time for refusing to stop bible study meetings in his home, reports said Monday, November 11.
A Baptist church in Azerbaijan is threatened with demolition amid growing concern about wide spread violence and persecution of Christians across the former Soviet Union, news reports said Friday November 8.
The Full Gospel Union of Pentecostal churches in Belarus has said it will defy what human rights groups call “Europe’s most repressive religion law” because it “violates the law of God,” news reports said late Tuesday, November 5.
Belarus’ repressive new religion law enters into legal force this coming Saturday (16 November), Keston News Service has learnt. From that date all unregistered religious activity by organised groups will be illegal; all communities with fewer than 20 members will become illegal and will not be able to function; any religious activity in private homes – apart from occasional, small scale meetings – will be illegal…