An Iranian Christian father and his young son, who were detained on the Hungarian-Serbian border for 527 days, have been moved to a home in northwest Hungary following international pressure. A Baptist church helped Abouzar Soltani, a convert from Islam to Christianity, and his 12-year-old-son Armin to find an apartment in the Hungarian city of Győr, Worthy News learned.
Luis Palau, the international evangelist who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to more than 1 billion people through media and evangelistic events, has died, his family confirmed. The 86-year-old preacher, a close friend of the late evangelist Billy Graham, passed away after a decision to stop all treatment for his incurable lung cancer.
Five Christians were arrested Sunday morning during a police raid on a house church in China’s Chengdu, International Christian Concern reports. The Spring of Life Church (East Hall) was in the middle of a service when authorities arrived and took away the elder Cha Changping, who leads the church, his wife, and three others.
Pope Francis has visited Iraq to reassure the nation’s dwindling Christian community of his prayers after years of Islamic attacks and persecution.
The ruling Fidesz party of Hungary’s outspoken Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has left the largest center-right political group within the European Parliament after tensions over his perceived autocratic style.
Indonesia has appointed an evangelical Christian as its new national police chief, thwarting opposition from Islamic groups in the predominantly Muslim country, the Christian Post reports. Commissioner General Listyo Sigit Prabowo was sworn in on January 27. and is the first Christian to hold this post in 50 years.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a bill that would block state and local government officials from forcing houses of worship to close, even under circumstances like a pandemic, the Christian Post reports. House Bill 2648, the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, passed by 80-18 votes in the House and now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
Pope Francis was in northern Iraq Sunday where he prayed in the ruins of churches destroyed by the Islamic state and celebrated an open-air Mass.
Algerian Christians have urged prayers for a pastor and his assistant who were jailed and fined for evangelizing in Algeria, an Islamic nation, Worthy News learned.
Islamic militants have released a Nigerian pastor who they threatened to kill unless their demands were met, security sources said. Bulus Yikura of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) was held captive since December 24, 2020.
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided once again with California houses of worship in their most recent request for an injunction against a county health order, pending appeal in the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of cert.
Amid rapidly intensifying persecution against Christians in China, police in Chongqing city raided the 20-year-old Living Fountain house church Sunday, confiscating computers and arresting two brothers, International Christian Concern reports.
Eritrea has released a further 21 Christian prisoners, but Eritrean forces are accused of attacking churches in neighboring Ethiopia, Christian Today reported Tuesday. Despite these accusations, rights advocates believe the Eritrean release of Christian prisoners may constitute an effort to seek favor with Ethiopia’s Protestant prime minister: Eritrea has freed a total of 171 Christian prisoners since August last year.
A US warship docked in Sudan Monday a day after a Russian frigate arrived in the same key Red Sea port where Moscow is planning to establish a naval logistics base, an AFP correspondent said.
A kidnapped pastor in Nigeria faced imminent death Wednesday amid fears that authorities had ignored an ultimatum by Islamist militants to save his life.
Pleading for his life, a pastor abducted by Islamic terrorists in northeastern Nigeria on December 24 last year has said on video that his captors will execute him on Wednesday, March 3 if their ransom demands are not met, Morning Star News reports. Pastor Bulus Yikura of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was (EYN) was abducted during an attack by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on Pemi village in Borno state; 11 other people were slaughtered during that attack.
More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have reportedly died in Qatar since it won the right to host soccer’s 2022 World Cup, fueling calls to boycott the event.
Hundreds of Pakistani Christian widows and their children rely on monthly food parcels in impoverished Pakistan amid Christian persecution and an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, aid workers told Worthy News Sunday.
California churches are celebrating after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Santa Clara County to allow indoor worship services amid a pending appeal over COVID restrictions.
More than 500 US evangelical pastors and leaders have condemned ‘Radical Christian Nationalism’ in an open letter responding to the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, Religious News reports. Entitled “Evangelical Leaders Statement Condemning Christian Nationalism’s role in the January 6th Insurrection,” the letter explains the signatories come from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions, but stand together against ‘the perversion of the Christian faith” displayed at the insurrection, and against “the theology and the conditions” that led to the attack itself.