World in Brief

BBC Panorama has, it claims, uncovered evidence of widespread abuse and torture by T.B. Joshua over nearly 20 years, before he died in 2021.

Joshua founded of one of the world’s biggest Christian churches, the Synagogue Church of all Nations, based in Lagos. A number of ex-members allege atrocities, including torture, child abuse, rape and forced abortions. The BBC said that the Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the allegations but did say that previous claims have been unfounded.

Abortion has topped several infectious diseases as the world’s leading cause of death for the fifth year in a row, despite the restrictions imposed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Worldometer reveals almost 45 million abortions were performed worldwide in 2023. The second leading cause of death, communicable diseases, took the lives of over 12.9million people last year. Cancer was attributed to more than 8.2million deaths, while smoking contributed to the deaths of over 4.9 million people.

Sri Lankan pastor Jerome Fernando was jailed for ‘outraging the religious feelings’, citing comments he made in an online sermon. The authorities arrested Fernando, senior overseer of The Glorious Church in Colombo, even after a court had ordered officials not to. He was subsequently released, but banned from leaving the country.

Many Sri Lankan churches issued statements standing in solidarity with Pastor Fernando and demanding his release. One anonymous pastor who issued a statement said that the authorities and other religious leaders are gradually turning attitudes of Sri Lankans against Christians.

Two evangelists in eastern Uganda, Joseph Omadi and Isaac Napakol, spent Christmas in jail. They were charged under a blasphemy law after Muslims, upset at their street preaching, beat them and called the police.

During a three-day evangelistic campaign in the city of Soroti they were preaching on the street when many Muslims appeared. Pastor Robert Omodingi, who was also evangelising, said: ‘We thought they had come to listen to the word of God, but they just grabbed my colleagues and started beating them before police came and arrested them.’

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked a Coptic Christian monastery in Wad Madani, Gezira State, Sudan before Christmas ,and are now using it as a military base. At least five priests, five novices and four labourers have been missing since the RSF released footage of militia men harassing the monastery’s residents.

The RSF has recently expanded its military operations in Gezira State, which is currently home to thousands of people who have been internally displaced by the ongoing conflict between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

3,000 Christians from across Europe have taken part in the Revive Europe Movement conference in the Tauron Arena Kakow, Poland.

The theme was ‘Prepare the Way for the Lord’ and ‘dived into the lives of Elijah and John the Baptist’, said Sarah Breuel, Revive Europe’s director. ‘It is time for this generation in Europe to come together and seek God’s face with a holy defiance that God is not done with Europe yet.’

A metal detectorist has found a rare and important gold coin in the mountains of Norway depicting Jesus Christ holding a Bible. The authorities in the city of Vestre Slidre, Innlandet County, say it is a histamenon nomisma, a Byzantine coin introduced around 960 AD.

They believe the coin was minted in Constantinople between 977 and 1025 AD. Its other side shows Byzantine emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII, co-rulers of the so-called the Eastern Roman Empire.

Evangelical Christians in Nicaragua are experiencing ‘harassment and intimidation’ throughout the country, says a report by the Never Again human-rights group.

Of over 3,500 NGOs closed down by the government of Daniel Ortega in the last two years, 342 are religious organisations. Among these, at least 256 were evangelical associations, 43 Catholic, and another 43 were part of other faith groups. Lawyer Wendy Flores said that ‘in Nicaragua the church is persecuted’, but there is a ‘more silent persecution’ of evangelicals.

The Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of New York City’s most prominent Black Churches, has been accused of gender discrimination by one of its former pastors.

Eboni Marshall Turman, a professor at Yale Divinity School, was not selected as a finalist for the senior pastor position after the death of the previous pastor in 2022. Her lawsuit alleges that inappropriate questions were posed to her at interview and that the search committee chair, Valerie S. Grant, demonstrated gender bias.

Former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis has been ordered to pay over £200,000 in legal costs for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Lawyers for the evangelical Christian, from the religious-rights firm Liberty Counsel, plan to appeal the jury’s verdict and the amount of the fine, as they say the decision was based on insufficient evidence.

Sixty-year-old Iranian Christian convert, Mina Khajavi, is on the brink of a six-year prison sentence, having been accused of ‘acting against national security by promoting “Zionist” Christianity’.

Khajavi’s ordeal began in 2020 when she was first arrested. She was sentenced two years later, but had a temporary reprieve after a car accident which left her with a severely broken ankle, needing metal plates. Despite now walking with a limp and developing arthritis, Khajavi has been instructed to report to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Iain Taylor