Evangelical pastor Hector Peñafiel, a welding master, uses his skills to teach his profession and share the gospel with asylum seekers. “They can plan their future now”, he says.

Since 2014, 27 places of worship have been closed, affecting around 40 Christian communities. Some “bought a premise with a loan, remodeled it, but cannot use it”, says pastor Daniel Magnin.

The pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Alfortville and his wife were sleeping in the first floor when the fire started. It is the third arson attack against an evangelical church in France in the last 12 months.

The French government has confirmed that attacks against Christian places of worship have increased by 20% and anti-Semantic and Islamophobic figures continue to remain high since 2015.

There are 3,759 Protestant places of worship in the country, according to a December 2015 official report. An overwhelming majority of Protestants are evangelical Christians.

New churches in northern Italy will need to have large parking sites and a “minimum distance” to other places of worship. Evangelicals fear “damage to freedom of religion” and denounce new rules might be “unconstitutional.”