COLUMNS

G'day from the Sentinel Team

Elizabeth Kendall is the Principal Resesearcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission. You may have already read some of her articles in Link-Zone or on the WEA RLC website.

In her latest newsletter, Elizabeth highlights the intensity and increasingly widespread persecution of the Church using some of the news headlines from around the world in 2006.

She writes:

"Today, nearly sixty years after the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, discrimination against and persecution of Christians is only increasing.

We simply cannot put our faith in human institutions. Mankind's problem is not human will - that needs only to be directed - but human nature which needs to be supernaturally transformed.

That is why the Church at prayer is far more powerful and effective than any human institution."

We have included this newsletter below and a reminder that Sunday 12th November is set aside as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Under His Banner


Bev Holmes-Brown

• Cuba Jails Evangelical Church Leader (Compass Direct [CD] 3 Mar).
  
  
• Broken-hearted missionaries leave Venezuela (CNN 13 Feb).
  
  
  

• Algeria bans Muslims from learning about Christianity (Arabic News 21 Mar)
  
  
• Algeria: severe new penalties for 'proselytising' (WEA RLC 24 Mar).
  
  
• Worshippers attacked in Egyptian Coptic churches (The Ind. 15 Apr).
  
  
• Egypt Jails Christian Convert from Islam (CD 18 Oct).
  
  
• Sudanese Church Damaged by Arson Attacks (CD 3 May).
  
  
• Anglican Bishop in Nigeria Survives Fourth Attack [Kaduna] (CD 20 April).
  
  
• 15 dead in Nigeria as protesters attack Christians [Katsina] (CTV 18 Feb).
  
  
• Eritrean Religious prisoner count tops 1900 (CD 8 Sep).
  
  
• Two Eritrean Christians Tortured to Death (CD 18 Oct).
  
  
• Eritrean Police Arrest 150 More Christians (CD 30 Oct).
  
  
• Thousands in Somalia rally for holy war (CNN 14 Aug).
  
  
• Muslims Attack Christians in Henno, Ethiopia (ICC 19 Oct).

• Christian neighborhood of Baghdad bombed (CNN 4 Oct).
  
  
• 'In 20 years, there will be no more Christians in Iraq' (Guardian 6 Oct).
  
  
• Decapitated Syrian-Orthodox priest laid to rest in Mosul, Iraq (AINA 12 Oct).
  
  
• Iraq: Christians live in fear of death squads (UN IRIN 19 Oct).
  
  
• Two West Bank churches torched (Aljazeera 16 Sep).
  
  
• Saudi Police Arrest Four East African Christians (CD 16 Jun).
  
  
• Christian arrested and imprisoned for his Faith in the North of Iran (voxdei 25 Jul).
  
  
• Iran's intelligence agents arrest daughter of murdered priest (Iran Focus 3 Oct).
  
  
• Catholic priest shot dead in church in Turkey (Reuters 5 Feb).
  
  
• Catholic priest knifed in Turkey (BBC 3 Jul).
  
  
• Converts in Turkey Charged under Speech Law (CD 1 Nov).

• Belarus KGB pressures Christian churches and communities (Axis 20 Mar).
  
  
• Radical Belarus: 19th Day of Hunger Strike - Protestants' Health Declines (C97 24 Oct).
  
  
• [New Life's hunger strike has been temporarily suspended while court action progresses.] Islam Takes Root in the Balkans (World Press 3 May).
  
  
• Kosovo church demolished (B92, 12 May).

CENTRAL ASIA

• Kazakhstan - Unregistered Protestants face fines for worship (Forum18 News 8 Sep).
  
  
• Kyrgyzstan - Intolerance against Christians highlighted by murder (F18 17 Feb).
  
  
• Turkmenistan - Police beat Baptist with Bible and threaten to hang her (F18 29 Jul)
  
  
• Uzbekistan - Protestants face guns, beatings, fines and deportation (F18 6 Sep).
  
  

SOUTH ASIA

• Afghan Clerics Demand Convert Be Killed (AP 23 Mar).
  
  
• Pakistani Woman Raped for Leaving Islam (CD 23 Jun).
  
  
• Pakistan: Fifth church attacked within two months (AsiaNews 4 Apr).
  
  
• Christian missionaries detained in Jammu & Kashmir (ICNS 14 Feb)
  
  
• Attacks against Christians Rise in Karnataka, India (CD 11 Sep).
  
  
• Family in India Driven from Village for Embracing Christ (CD 27 May).
  
  
• Sri Lanka: Pastor beaten up (NCEASL 9 Feb).
  
  
• Christian churches come under attack in Sri Lanka (Tamilnet 17 May).
  
  
• Church Burned Down in Bangladesh (CD 10 Apr).

EAST ASIA

• Itinerant House Church Pastor Murdered in Laos (CD 6 Jan).
  
  
• Another Christian dies in a Vietnamese prison (ICC 11 May).
  
  
• North Korea - Religious freedom non-existent (F18 29 Mar).
  
  
• Disabled Anhui House Church Pastor Sentenced to Two Years for Printing Christian Literature (CAA 21 Oct).
  
  
• Chinese Authorities Demolish Church, Beat Protesters (CD 4 Aug).
  
  
• A Church Leader [Zhang Rongliang] in China Draws 7 Years (NYT 10 Jul).
  
  
• 30 House Church Leaders and Christians Arrested in Sichuan Province (CAA 30 Jun).

SOUTH EAST ASIA

• Sulawesi [Indonesia] Christian priest killed (BBC 17 Oct).
  
  
• Mob Forces Church to Close in West Java, Indonesia (CD 28 Mar).
  
  
• Papua [Indonesia] asylum seekers 'fleeing persecution' (ABC 31 Jan)
  
  
• Malaysia: Once Muslim, Now Christian and Caught in the Courts (NYT 24 Aug).

IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES

• Mother killed after teen rejects Islam (The Australian 12 Oct).
  
  
• Catholic convert, held in NZ jail, fights return to Iran (NZ Cath. 24 Oct).
  
  

Today, nearly sixty years after the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, discrimination against and persecution of Christians is only increasing.

We simply cannot put our faith in human institutions. Mankind's problem is not human will - that needs only to be directed - but human nature which needs to be supernaturally transformed.

That is why the Church at prayer is far more powerful and effective than any human institution.

On Sunday 12 November, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), we unite for extraordinary prayer on behalf of the suffering Church.

Lord, revive your Church to love and pray for each other and for the nations, for the kingdom and the glory of God.

Amen.