Tag: Baptism

China: More church closures and Internet censorship in further religious clampdown

September 12, 2018 China Baptism, Beijing, Censorship, Chengdu, China, House churches, Protestants, Zhengzhou

Senior lady looking at Dongguang Church in Shenyang, northeastern China. (Photo: Open Doors International)

One of China’s largest unofficial “house churches” was closed on Sunday, while new measures have been introduced to curb religious activities online. Beijing’s Zion Church had received warnings following its refusal to place CCTV cameras in its auditorium at the government’s request. On Sunday afternoon, 9 September, around 60 government . . . Read More

Indian state’s ‘anti-conversion law’ to be repealed

June 29, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Arunachal Pradesh, Baptism, BJP, Catholics, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Missionaries, Narendra Modi, Proselytism, Pune

Christian groups have welcomed a surprise announcement by a nationalist chief minister of a state in north-east India that he will ensure that a law preventing conversions from one faith to another is repealed. Pema Khandu, a Buddhist who heads the nationalist BJP-led state government in Arunachal Pradesh, told an . . . Read More

Assessment of religious conversions as genuine or asylum-motivated dismissed as naïve

June 8, 2018 Aideen Strandsson, Asylum seekers, Baptism, Converts, Denmark, Europe, Finland, Germany, Iran, Kurds, Middle East, Migrants, Netherlands, Refugees, Sweden

Revd Mark Miller of St Thomas' Church, Stockton, in north-east England, The Priest-in-Charge of St Thomas’s, Stockton-on-Tees, the Revd Mark Miller, has had up to 100 Persian asylum-seekers in his congregation

Attempts by Western politicians and media to judge whether Iranian migrants and asylum-seekers who ask to be baptised are either genuine or are doing so to boost their chances of being granted asylum are “naïve”, according to an academic who has carried out extensive research among Iranians who profess to . . . Read More

India: Baptism service violently halted by Hindu mob claiming ‘forced conversions’

March 29, 2018 India Baptism, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Uttar Pradesh

Around 20 Hindu extremists in saffron-coloured clothes barged inside a church in eastern India’s Uttar Pradesh state yesterday (28 March), violently assaulting the pastor and two church members. Shouting in extremely offensive language, they entered the Evangelical Churches of India (ECI) building in the Fatehpur district of the city, and . . . Read More

50,000 Catholics baptised in China in 2017

February 28, 2018 China Baptism, Beijing, Catholics, China, Hainan, Hebei, Minorities, Tibet, Xinjiang

Almost 50,000 Catholic baptisms were recorded in mainland China last year, reports Catholic news agency Fides. The 48,556 recorded baptisms “reflect the vitality and the missionary dynamism of a community that fully lives faith”, Fides said, adding that the actual number of people baptised may be even higher, because of . . . Read More

Iranian convert to Christianity – ‘If I went back, I’d be killed’

February 5, 2018 Iran Amin Afshar Naderi, Baptism, Converts, Hadi Asgari, Iran, Shamiram Isavi Khabizeh, UK, Victor Bet-Tamraz

A church in the UK has survived closure because of attendance by a growing number of asylum seekers from a Muslim background, reports the BBC. In the past two years 324 asylum-seekers have been baptised at Tredegarville Baptist Church in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Now 95 per cent of . . . Read More

Kazakhstan deports missionary for conducting baptisms

August 14, 2017 Kazakhstan Almaty, Baptism, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan has ordered the expulsion of a Canadian citizen for conducting “illegal missionary activity” by holding baptisms in hot springs near the country’s commercial capital, Almaty. Hae Taik Kim, a Canadian citizen who leads a church in New York, was also fined 226,900 Tenge (US$680) – about two months’ average . . . Read More

‘Thousands’ of Iranians claiming asylum in Europe as converts to Christianity

July 19, 2017 Iran Asylum seekers, Baptism, Converts, Europe, Iran, Migrants, Refugees

Thousands of Iranian asylum-seekers across Europe are turning to Christianity, though observers are not convinced that all claims of conversion are genuine. A BBC documentary, Praying for Asylum, tells the story of a number of Iranian asylum-seekers in the Netherlands who say they have become Christians and would be exposed . . . Read More

Iranian and Afghan Christian converts face deportation from Germany after ‘clueless’ questioning

January 16, 2017 Afghanistan, Apostasy, Asylum seekers, Baptism, Berlin, Converts, Denmark, Germany, Iran, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Protestants, Refugees, UK

An Iranian convert to Christianity attends a course in Berlin preparing him for baptism. Germany’s Ministry for Immigration and Refugees (BAMF) is rejecting many applications for asylum from Iranian and Afghan converts from Islam to Christianity, following “kangaroo court”-style hearings, according to a Berlin pastor. Rev. Gottfried Martens, who has . . . Read More

Large number of Muslim refugees ‘turn to Christ’

June 6, 2016 Austria, Baptism, Berlin, Catholics, Converts, Denmark, Europe, Finland, Germany, Migrants, Netherlands, Refugees, UK

Several churches across Europe have reported an unprecedented number of Muslim refugees seeking Christian baptisms. This comes as Europe has seen mass migrations, easily surpassing the one-million-mark in 2015 alone. The new arrivals have raised fears and challenges across the continent. The congregation of a Berlin suburb has grown from . . . Read More

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