A pastor of a now-closed house church in the capital of China’s inland Guizhou province was found guilty of 'intentionally disclosing state secrets' at a trial on April 26, but the announcement of the verdict was delayed.
Four U.N. human rights experts have issued a joint statement, urging Iran to ensure 'a fair and transparent final hearing' at the country's Revolutionary Court for three Iranian Christians who have been sentenced for 'conducting evangelism' and 'illegal house church activities,' among other charges.
For years, Syrian Christians had been praying for a revival. 'But never did we imagine it would come because of war,' said one church leader. Seven years of civil war has left Syria in ruins. Many of those who came from Christian families left early on in the war, a cause of great despair as church leaders watched their congregants slowly disappear.
Facebook shut down two Christian ministry pages this month, without warning or explanation, renewing fears about the social media giant’s ability to control access to an important corner of today’s public square.
An Azerbaijani man fined for leading a 'house church' without state permission has not been treated fairly during his appeal against the fine, a local source has told World Watch Monitor.
A Chinese house church pastor, her daughter, and her young grandson have been arrested, weeks after being accused of overstepping the country’s newly tightened religious restrictions.
Provoked by the mission work of a local house church, officials detained a pastor and her daughter on Sept. 22, taking the daughter’s three-year-old son into custody as well.
An organization with ties to the Chinese Communist Party has unveiled new plans on how the government can enforce its restrictions on churches, including forced registration with state-run Christian institutions.
China has tightened its 'choke-hold' on churches across the country in recent weeks, according to the rights and religious freedom group China Aid.
Five Iranian house church Christians were behind bars Wednesday, March 15, after being sentenced to one year imprisonment on charges of "crimes against the Islamic order" and there were reports that Iranian authorities have been burning Bibles.
In January 2004, top cadres of China’s Religious Affairs Bureau and the policy-making United Front Work Department met for the annual National Religious Working Conference.
HO CHI MINH CITY, March 19 (Compass) -- In what may be a small breakthrough for religious liberty, Vietnam’s religion authorities invited five leaders of Protestant house church organizations and non-denominational missions to Hanoi for “informal talks†in early March.
LONDON, August 7 (Compass) -- China's most famous house church prisoner, Mr. Xu Yongze, is free. The 58-year-old founder of the Born Again movement was released on May 16, after serving a three-year "re-education through labor" sentence for establishing an illegal organization in China.
17 May 2000 (Newsroom) -- Two colleagues of prominent Chinese evangelist Li Dexian have been sentenced to 15 days in prison, an Australian-based monitoring group reported. Ah Yung and Ah Kong are among 13 Protestant house church members who have been arrested in the southern province of Guangdong since the weekend, according to the Sydney office of Voice of the Martyrs (VOM).
14 March 2000 (Newsroom) -- Chinese house church leader Li Dexian was detained by police on Tuesday morning and released the same evening without harm. The Protestant evangelist was arrested by Public Security Bureau officers at his weekly 10 a.m. Bible study in Huadu near Guangzhou for the 11th time since October, a source in Hong Kong told Newsroom.