Tag: Protestants

Bomb scare intimidates another church in Turkey

February 7, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Armenians, Balikesir, Bursa, Churches, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Human rights, Istanbul, Izmir, Malatya, Mersin, Middle East, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Trabzon, Turkey

Trabzon church in a 2007 photo (World Watch Monitor)

Turkish police were called to Trabzon’s Santa Maria Catholic Church on Sunday morning (4 February) to examine a smouldering device spotted in the garden by alarmed church staff. After discovering a partially burned homemade pipe bomb, which had failed to explode, local authorities promptly checked the church’s security camera footage. . . . Read More

Evangelical churches in Turkmenistan want official registration

January 26, 2018 Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Protestants, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Turkmenistan

Six Evangelical churches in Turkmenistan have submitted a letter to President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, asking to be allowed to register as official religious communities. Following the adoption of a new Law on Religious Organisations and Religious Freedom in March 2016, all religious entities are required to re-register in order to operate . . . Read More

Prominent China church demolished – second in month

January 12, 2018 China China, Churches, Communism, House churches, Protestants, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Three-Self Patriotic Movement, Xinjiang

Explosives are set off in the Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, Shanxi province, in a still taken from a video.

Chinese authorities demolished a church in northern China this week, the second in less than a month, ahead of new regulations on religion due to come into force on 1 February. Explosives were set off inside the Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, Shanxi province on Tuesday (9 January). According to . . . Read More

Chinese priest missing after ‘brief chat’ with authorities

January 11, 2018 China China, Peter Shao Zhumin, Protestants, Wenzhou, Zhejiang

China's Communist Party is trying to suppress rapid growth among religions.(Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Chinese priest has been missing from his home town in China’s eastern Zhejiang province since government officials took him away just after Christmas “for a brief chat”. Father Lu Danhua was taken from a priest’s dormitory on 29 December by officials of the State Administration for Religious Affairs to . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic church reopens 8 months after Palm Sunday bombing

December 4, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Catholics, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Gharbia, Palm Sunday, Protestants, Tanta

A Coptic cathedral has been restored and reopened eight months after a suicide bombing there on Palm Sunday killed 28 and injured 74 others. St. George’s Cathedral in Tanta, the capital of the Gharbia governorate north of Cairo, has been renamed the Cathedral of St. George and the Martyrs, and . . . Read More

Egypt: 21 churches receive long-delayed government approval to build

November 29, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Anba Macarius, Cairo, Churches, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Minya, Pentecostals, Port Said, Protestants, Religious freedom, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Upper Egypt, USA

Twenty-one churches in Egypt’s southern rural Minya governorate can restore, expand and rebuild their churches after receiving approval from the Minya Governor. Governor Essam al-Bedeiwi approved the 21 applications over the last six months. Some of the churches had been waiting for more than 20 years for a permit to come . . . Read More

Is Putin’s ‘education to patriotism’ bill another endorsement of Russian Orthodox Church?

November 29, 2017 Russia Churches, Communism, Patriarch Kirill, Protestants, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Putin

A new law on “education to patriotism” set to be introduced in Russia on New Year’s Day is a further sign of Russia distancing itself from the West, but is not necessarily a sign of President Vladimir Putin favouring one Church over another, according to an analyst for the Christian . . . Read More

Turkish Protestant church vandalised a second time in Malatya

November 27, 2017 Turkey Coup, Malatya, Protestants, Turkey

Malatya’s Kurtulus (Salvation) Church posted this message on the broken glass after an attacker heaved a brick through the church’s display window on November 24, 2017: “’Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.’ – Jesus Christ.” (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A vandalism attack last week in Turkey’s south-eastern city of Malatya damaged a small Turkish Protestant church. The assault came just two days after the targeting of 13 minority Alevi families in a nearby neighbourhood. Rising sectarian tensions over the two incidents quickly prompted local police investigations, followed by a . . . Read More

Vietnam’s religion policy and practice – contradictions continue

November 23, 2017 Vietnam Binh Phuoc, Catholics, Central Highlands, Communism, Evangelical Church of Vietnam, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Protestants, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Vietnam

Optimists are hard to find ahead of Vietnam’s impending introduction of its new Law on Belief and Religion, scheduled to come into effect on 1 January, 2018. Vietnam’s Catholic and Evangelical leaders, as well as Buddhists and Caodaists, say the main benefit of the law, two years in the making, . . . Read More

Cautious welcome to Russia’s praise of Protestantism

November 9, 2017 Russia Protestants, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Putin, Yarovaya Law

A senior official in the Putin administration has acknowledged the “value” Protestants bring to Russian society, reports Radio Free Europe. Marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, First Deputy Chief Sergei Kiriyenko said: “The followers of the Reformation idea appeared in our country immediately after it started. Those people contributed . . . Read More

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