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Persecuted Christian Women In Focus At Day of Prayer

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TORONTO/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The global annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) will this year focus on Christian women, Worthy News learned Wednesday.

Organizers told Worthy News that the IDOP on Sunday, November 3, will be themed “Remember Her.”

“While all followers of Jesus can suffer for their faith, the various forms of persecution that Christian women encounter often look different than the ones Christian men face,” explained Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), an advocacy group involved in the IDOP.

“For women and girls, persecution is complex, hidden, and violent. It is characterized by sexual violence and forced marriage, as well as by insidious, invisible abuse behind closed doors,” VOMC told Worthy News in a statement.

It said it had invited Christians “to set some time aside on November 3rd to prayerfully remember our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who share our faith but not our freedom.”

VOMC added that a “full resource kit is available for free download” to help churches pray more effectively, including through the website https://idop.ca

“This resource kit includes a three-minute video, bulletin inserts, children’s resources, sermon outlines, and more.”

BIBLE TEXT

VOMC suggested that a key Bible text that inspired this year’s IDOP is Genesis 16:13:
“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.'”

Women are among the 365 million Christians subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination,” according to Christian researchers, compared to 340 million in 2021.

1 in 7 Christians are persecuted worldwide, including 1 in 5 in Africa and 1 in 7 in Asia, according to investigators, compared to 1 in 8 worldwide in 2021.

Nearly 5,000 Christians were known to have been killed for faith-related reasons, most of them in Nigeria, where attacks on Christians have become more common since 2020, according to the Open Doors advocacy group.

Open Doors estimates “the number of Christians killed for faith-related reasons worldwide was 5,621 in 2023, 5,898 in 2022, and 4,761 in 2021.” Some 14,766 Churches and Christian properties were reportedly attacked in recent years.

North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, and Yemen had the highest rates of reported persecution against Christians.