The 2016 Refugee Highway Partnership Europe roundtable in Catania (Italy) gathered more than 80 people from 17 countries. Participants shared experiences, ideas and resources to better serve refugees in their countries. 

Picture the scene. You are a young, enthusiastic, wannabe politician with wonderful gifts. You are duly selected as the prospective candidate for your local constituency. And then it begins.

Local church members “invite refugees to their homes, let their children get to know their children, show them where to get a discount on children’s clothes.” 

The Refugee Highway Partnership (RHP) round tables gathered experts, Christian NGOs and church leaders in Catania to analyse the crisis Europe is facing and find ways to “offer integral help.”

A Spanish Christian ministry for deaf people, organises a Sign Language course in Barcelona. “Our society is not fully dedicated to the integration of deaf people”, one of the teachers says.

They were expelled for refusing to renounce their faith. Christians hope this case will set a precedent for religious freedom in Mexico.

“As I fled, I could see two houses burning. Those who were attacked are Christians. I am very sure that the attackers were looking for Christians”, explains survivor.

The resolution also asks the EU to establish a permanent special representative for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

The British Office of National Statistics research shows that those with no faith report lower levels of happiness, life-satisfaction and self-worth than those who are “religious.”

Building Christian unity on baptism brings several challenges. In my corner of the world (Italy), a vast majority of people have been baptized and yet very few show any sign of appreciation of basic gospel truths.

“In the camp I started a prayer meeting, and preached the gospel – a kind of refugee church with a lot of young people began.” Vimal Vimalasekaran now serves among asylum seekers in Germany. 

“This is the closest language to mean ‘genocide’ without using that terminology”, says EEA representative in Brussels Christel Lamère Ngnambi.

Suicide attacks on two predominantly Christian communities in northeast Nigeria. Many displaced Christians refuse to return to their homes, evangelical pastors told Morning Star News.

The Marrakesh Declaration, signed by more than 200 Islamic leaders, calls for religious freedom for non-Muslims in majority-Muslim countries. Believers of faith minorities should be protected from persecution.

New law could officialise same-sex civil unions and give right to adoption in specific cases. Evangelical pastor Stefano Bogliolo: “If we put our hands on the architrave of a society, the family, sooner or later the building will collapse.”

Our character, relationships and even our spirituality are reflected in these books. Christians, however, have launched a campaign to prohibit the books in schools and libraries, some going as far as to burn copies in public.

“It is amazing how these people are still happy, despite everything they have gone through”, director Fernando De Haro explains.

“The churches in Syria, as they are in Iraq, are facing four main challenges amid the current regional crisis.” An article by a Syrian pastor.

A 2012 UNHCR document by António Guterres already highlighted the central role faith-based organisations play in “making solutions sustainable by helping refugees integrate in their new communities.”

Roundtable meetings in Sicily will bring together experts, organisations serving refugees and churches. The Refugee Highway Partnership in Europe has been offering this platform to share resources and learn from each other for 13 consecutive years.

An American missionary and six Canadian mission workers lost their lives after Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) gunmen attacked hotel and coffe shop in Ouagadougou. Australian Christian doctor and his wife were kidnapped the same day.

The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned all homophobic behaviour, and defended the Primates decision to suspend the Episcopal Church USA for 3 years.

“The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union”, Primates say after crucial discussions.

“We can be the voice of those who cannot cry out by themselves”, the Director of Open Doors Spain says in an interview. “Nigeria is the country where most people have died because of their faith.”

North Korea is still the most difficult place in the world to be a Christian, according to new report by Open Doors. Jihadism, Hindu and Buddhist extremism are the greatest sources of persecution.