The French government publishes a report revealing that half of all anti-religious acts are directed against Jews, with a sharp rise since the Hamas attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Palestine. Christian places of worship are the most frequently targeted.

Abusers set up new churches, preach again about God’s love, receive official recognition from ‘the good people’, and host lavish meals to celebrate their own success. Victims try to rebuild their own life, in silence.

Marking the eighth anniversary of Leah’s captivity, Christian organisations call for her release amid rising abductions of women and girls in the country.

Evangelical representatives from France, Austria and Italy took part in an OSCE meeting held in Rome. Julia Doxat-Purser, from the European Evangelical Alliance, expressed concern about how evangelicals are portrayed in a ‘toxic atmosphere’ that increasingly fuels hatred towards ‘the other’.

The facts of what happened this week in Northern Ireland cannot, in themselves, determine our response. They must be interpreted with historical and social awareness, and with Christian conviction and moral clarity.

Dozens of masked individuals spread terror in Belfast, shouting ‘foreigners out’ following a knife attack by an immigrant. Christians react to the situation on the ground: “Leaders of diaspora churches are concerned”.

The pastor of ‘Zeal Church’ explains the “very difficult” decision but underlines that nothing will halt “the mission of bringing God’s love to this region”. Critical media coverage only shows that free churches are once again “noticed, heard and seen” in society, says René Wagner.

Pastor Anatoly Kaluzhny recounts the destruction he found when he arrived at his church after receiving an early morning warning of a Russian attack. “I also saw God’s mercy: our worship centre and sanctuary, though significantly damaged, remained standing”.

New Life Church's Sunday School classrooms wrecked, mobile dental clinic for refugees hit, humanitarian aid vehicles affected. After the attack on 2 June, pastor Anatoly Kalushny is appealing for support to rebuild the site.

No one was killed, and on Sunday, members of the church began clearing the rubble from the building. “Even a large fire cannot burn down what is built on the solid rock of faith,” say the church leaders in the town near Kharkiv, east of Ukraine.

The Evangelical Fellowship India expresses “anguish” over the attack in Manipur. “The killing of unarmed church leaders returning from Christian fellowship is deeply disturbing and tragic”.

The attack was carried out by gunmen during a worship service in the south-west of the country.

“This is a deliberate attack on people of faith, those who gathered peacefully to pray”, the embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. said in a public statement.

Suspended in the vast blackness, our planet appeared not as a battleground of competing powers, but as a delicate, radiant sphere—fragile yet hospitable and astonishingly alive. 

The incident took place at the end of the event, when the attendees were gathered in front of the Portuguese Parliament. Evangelicals, among the groups condemning violence and asking for peaceful disagreement.

The law is one of several that Vladimir Putin’s regime has introduced to intimidate religious minorities. Missionary activities are forbidden for other groups as well, including evangelical Christians.

To receive the displaced is to echo the heart of Jesus who “did not come to be served but to serve”. Still, we feel the tension: the urgent needs of today and the long work of tomorrow. By Wissam Nasrallah, president of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut.

In an interview with Evangelical Focus, the secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance urges Christians to be sensitive to the reality of Iranians and to be careful not to impose their perceptions or eschatologies from cultures far removed from the Middle East.

In Jordan, there is “no panic in the streets but definitely a collective awareness that the region can shift overnight”. Churches are “calling for focused prayer gatherings, encouraging believers not to spread fear”, the Christian leader says.

The denial of burial rights is often accompanied by threats of violence, forced conversions and harassment.

Christian leaders partnering in the Middle East lament the conflict after the Israeli and US attacks on Iran. They call to seek reconciliation and pray for the protection of the most vulnerable.

The European Evangelical Alliance invites believers throughout Europe to remain faithful in intercession until peace, justice, and restoration are fully realized.

Evangelicals from Chanal and Ixmiquilpan demand justice, but the authorities ignore them and remain passive in the face of aggression and abuse.

Human rights violations against Iranian Christians include “imprisonment, exile and forced labour”, says a new report.

192 athletes in Milano-Cortina come from one of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, according to Open Doors.