Tag: Pentecostals

Organised crime is making life worse for Latin America Christians

February 8, 2015 Bolivia, Central America, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, ELN, Evo Morales, FARC, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Organised crime, Pentecostals, Venezuela

About one-quarter of the world’s Christians live in Latin America and, apart from in Colombia, most have enjoyed wide freedom to live out their faith. Christian life in Latin America is getting a bit more difficult, however, according to Open Doors International, creator of the World Watch List. The annual . . . Read More

Tension simmers following attack on Christians in troubled Bastar

November 3, 2014 India Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Pentecostals

Man injured in the attackWorld Watch Monitor Scores of policemen are camping in a remote Indian village following an Oct. 25 attack on Christians by Hindu fundamentalists. Government officials characterize the violence in Madhota village, in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh state in central India, as a “clash between . . . Read More

Tanzanian teacher murdered in church, pastor and wife on Zanzibar attacked by extremists

October 21, 2014 Tanzania Acid attacks, Arusha, Bukoba, Censorship, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Kagera, Mwanza, Pentecostals, Tanzania, Zanzibar

Pastor Crodward Edwar (centre) at a press conference about the Bukoba murderHarakati News blog Unknown attackers killed a Christian man by machete and injured another in Bukoba in northwest Tanzania on Thursday, Oct. 9, according to sources. This followed another recent incident on Zanzibar island in which a pastor . . . Read More

Calling out Hungary

September 26, 2014 Hungary, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists

The says it will haul up Hungary before its European peers to pressure it to restore more than 200 churches to its official registry. Hungary stripped official recognition from the churches in 2011, after it passed a law that created two tiers of churches, the lower of which enjoys fewer rights. . . . Read More

Indonesian Catholic and Protestant groups attacked by Islamists

June 12, 2014 Indonesia Islamic Defenders Front, Java, Pentecostals, Yogyakarta

Muslims protest the building of a church in Java, Indonesia; December 2010.World Watch Monitor Two church group attacks within 3 days of each other in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, have caused concern ahead of Presidential elections in July. They both occurred in Yogyakarta province’s Sleman . . . Read More

Mombasa church gun attack kills at least six, injures 21

March 24, 2014 Kenya Garissa, Islamic extremism, Mombasa, Nairobi, Pentecostals, Westgate

At least six people have died since masked gunmen stormed a church on Sunday in Kenya’s second city Mombasa, injuring about 21 others. The armed men, believed to be three or four in number, struck the Joy Jesus Pentecostal Church in the Sinai area in Likoni, on the mainland just . . . Read More

Nigeria’s churches will not stay silent during violence, leader says

March 12, 2014 Nigeria Berom, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, Pentecostals

Nigeria’s largest church network is calling on the country’s president for more protection from Boko Haram attacks. The president, meanwhile, is calling for more prayer. “We will not keep silence amidst persecution Christians are facing,” Rev. Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told World Watch Monitor on . . . Read More

Indonesian churches remain closed

February 12, 2014 Indonesia Java, Pentecostals

All smiles: A Muslim leader shares a joke with local police officers after protests in West Java that secured the closure of four churches.Courtesy Open Doors International Four churches in Indonesia remain closed two months after local officials yielded to the demands of protesting Muslim hardliners. The Indonesian Full . . . Read More

‘White Widow’ key suspect in Kenyan pastors’ murders

November 21, 2013 Kenya Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Kenya, Mombasa, Nairobi, Pentecostals, Westgate

Fort Jesus, Mombasa.Ricky Thakrar / Flickr / Creative Commons The widow of one of the bombers on the London Tube in July 2005, 29-year-old Samantha Lewthwaite, has been named in connection with the murders of two Kenyan pastors. Lewthwaite is wanted for seven murders in Kenya altogether, including the . . . Read More

Two pastors killed in Kenya

October 29, 2013 Kenya Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Mombasa, Nairobi, Pentecostals, Somalia, Uhuru Kenyatta, Westgate

Mombasa.Lauren Pressley / Flickr / Creative Commons Two pastors from southern coastal towns in Kenya were killed last weekend in separate attacks. Charles Mathole, a leader of Mombasa’s Redeemed Gospel Church in Mtopanga, was found dead in church on the morning of Sunday October 20, shot in the head . . . Read More

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