Twin blasts at churches in Pakistan kill 10
“Bombs outside two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 10 people and wounded more than 55 during Sunday services, rescue workers said, and witnesses said quick action by a security guard prevented many more deaths…”
– Report from the Anglican Communion News Service. BBC report.
Islamic State ‘abducts 90 Christians in Syria’
“Islamic State (IS) has abducted dozens of Assyrian Christians from villages in north-eastern Syria, activists say…”
Australian Copts condemn barbaric slaughter of Christians in Libya
“The Australian Coptic Movement Association (ACM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric slaughter of 21 innocent Egyptian Coptic Christians by ISIS in Libya.
This evil act of terror has sent shockwaves throughout the entire Australian Coptic community and the Coptic Christian community worldwide. For years, the ACM has been warning the international community of the plight of Libya’s Coptic community and the need for stability to be restored to this country…”
Family of Asia Bibi appeal for help over blasphemy charge
“Asia Bibi, a poor, illiterate woman from Pakistan’s rural Punjab, has been on death row for almost five years after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, a charge she vehemently denies. In a rare interview, her husband has appealed for help from the international community…”
– Report from BBC News. (Photo: Barnabas Fund.)
45 churches torched in Niger
“Forty-five churches were torched over the weekend in Niger’s capital during deadly protests over the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, police say.
The protests, which left five people dead and 128 people injured in Niamey, also saw a Christian school and orphanage set alight…”
– Report from ABC News. Video from the BBC. (Map: Operation World.)
Satellite images show Nigerian town ‘wiped off the map’
“The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger as tens of thousands of refugees flee deadly Boko Haram attacks.
It is still not known how many people died in last week’s suspected massacre in Baga, a town on the shores of Lake Chad in north-east Nigeria, however some reports suggested thousands of people may have been killed…”
– Report from ABC News.
Related: 9 Things You Should Know about Boko Haram (h/t Tim Challies.)
Egypt’s President first ever to attend Coptic Christmas mass
“In a historic event that set Cairo ablaze, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an unannounced appearance at the Coptic Cathedral where Christmas Eve Mass was being celebrated by the Egyptian Pope Tawadros II.
The Coptic Church celebrates Christmas on 7 January because of its use of the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian. It was the first time ever that an Egyptian President was honoring a Coptic Christmas celebration with his presence…”
– Interesting developments in Egypt.
More than 120 people killed in Taliban attack on Pakistan school
“At least 126 people have been killed and 122 injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school.”
– ABC News report on the attack in Peshawar.
Time magazine names Ebola fighters as ‘person of the year’
“Time magazine has named the medics treating the Ebola epidemic as its “person of the year” for 2014, paying tribute to their courage and mercy…”
– Report from ABC News. Photo: Samaritans Purse.
Related: Are Christian Missionaries Narcissistic Idiots?, Albert Mohler (07 August 2014.)
Tribute to Sir Fred Catherwood
“Sir Fred Catherwood, eminent British industrialist and politician, died peacefully on Sunday 30 November at the age of 89. Sir Fred gave more than 45 years of faithful service to IFES.
Married to Elizabeth – daughter of pastor and theologian Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones who helped found IFES – Sir Fred held senior offices in both IFES and UCCF Great Britain from 1961 to 2007…”
– Penny Vinden has a fitting tribute to Sir Fred Catherwood on the IFES website. His funeral was on Friday in Cardiff.
Asia Bibi: no release without international pressure, lawyer says
“The human-rights lawyer who is risking his life by defending Asia Bibi has denounced the blasphemy law under which she has been sentenced to death as a ‘tool of oppression’.
Her lawyer, Naeem Shakir, told an audience at Westminster Abbey on Saturday that the international community must put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to reform the law…”
– Story from Church Times.
Related: Barnabas Fund campaign “Save Aasia Bibi: Don’t let her die”.
Aasia Bibi files appeal in Pakistan’s top Court
“The Christian mother of five children, sentenced to death for “blasphemy” in Pakistan, has filed an appeal to the country’s top court on 24 November. After the High Court in Lahore upheld Aasia Bibi’s conviction on 16 October, this appeal is her last recourse in the Pakistani judicial system…”
– Barnabas Fund has the latest for your prayers.
47 killed at Christian school, while Christians forced to flee captured city
“A suicide bomb attack in a Christian secondary school in … north-eastern Nigeria, has killed at least 47 people on Monday (10 November) as the students gathered for morning assembly. …
In a separate incident, trapped residents from the predominantly Christian city of Mubi in Adamawa state report that Christians have been tortured and killed after the Islamist group Boko Haram took control of the town on 29 October.”
– Barnabas Fund has this report in attacks on Christians in NE Nigeria.
Pakistani Christian couple tortured and burned to death
“A Pakistani mob beat to near-death a Christian and his pregnant wife for her alleged ‘blasphemy’, then threw them both into the large kiln where they both worked as bonded laborers. The incident happened on Tuesday 3rd Nov, some 60 kilometers from Lahore…”
– from World Watch Monitor.
Barnabas Fund urges intercession for Pakistani Christian sentenced to death
“Barnabas Fund has today received the sad news that the appeal made by Pakistani Christian mother Aasia Bibi against her conviction under Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” has been rejected and the death sentence she was given confirmed. …”
– Read at Barnabas Fund, including suggestions for how you can write on her behalf. (Report on the UK’s Premier Christian Radio.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…