World in Brief

International Christian relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse is opening an emergency field hospital in Ukraine. Disaster response specialists have already been in Poland, Romania and Moldova conducting rapid needs assessments and preparing a strategic response.

The hospital, together with doctors, nurses, and support staff, is providing specialised trauma care to people impacted by the conflict. This unit has the capacity to treat more than 100 patients each day, and comprises 30 beds, an operating theatre and an Intensive Care Unit. Two medical clinics will also be deployed to meet minor trauma needs and provide general medical care for 200 patients.

People in Ukraine are turning to Psalm 31 to bring them hope and comfort as they shelter in bunkers in fear of their lives.

Oldi Morava of the Bible Society said: ‘Our colleagues in Ukraine have noticed that, during this particularly difficult time, many people want to find strength and rest, but also comfort in their faith and in God’s word. They’re reading the Book of Psalms for their own particular context. One of the Psalms that is becoming almost a Psalm for the whole of Ukraine is Psalm 31’.

City to City Europe says: ‘Tragedy has once again struck our continent. We hardly have words for the shocking pictures from the streets of Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities. But God is at work and He is building his kingdom. We are asking Him for mercy and praying for our sisters and brothers.’

City to City’s prayer for Ukraine reads:

‘Lord, have mercy on us! We weep and lament with the people of Ukraine. They are suffering under an evil and inexcusably violent act of war. In prayer, we stand alongside our brothers and sisters. Let them be faithful and strong. Amen.’

Suspected terrorists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have killed three Christians and destroyed a church in an attack on Kautikari, a Christian village in Chibok, northeast Nigeria. The building of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was also destroyed,

The Kautikari community, which lives on the fringes of Sambisa forest, an ISWAP stronghold, was also attacked a few weeks earlier when 24 Christian women and children were captured. Four managed to escape in late January but 20 are still held captive.

Judge Boulos Fahmy, a Coptic Christian, has been appointed head of Egypt’s highest court. Fahmy is the 19th person to head up the Supreme Constitutional Court since it was established in 1969 and the first Christian ever.

Dr David Landrum, director of Advocacy for Open Doors, said: ‘President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi has taken a daring step in swearing a Coptic Christian into the highest court in the land. It seems he is keen on showing the Christian community – and the whole world – that he is taking some serious steps to engage Christians in public life.’

New president Paul-Henri Damiba of Burkina Faso has pledged to tackle the Islamist insurgency that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.

The lieutenant colonel led a military coup in January that ousted Roch Kabore, the country’s elected president of more than six years. Damiba’s first speech in office began with a moment of silence for the militants’ victims, who include many Christians. Since 2015, jihadi violence has spread from neighbouring Mali and Niger to affect most regions of Burkina Faso.

A Sri Lankan pastor has been served a notice barring him from holding church services in his home. The pastor in Padavi Sripura (Anuradhapura District) received the letter from the Divisional Secretariat.

Quoting communications between the police and Sri Lanka’s government, it asserted that express permission is required for a building to be used for religious worship and that the local authority overseeing Buddhist affairs had objected. The pastor said he sought the necessary permission several times, but has received no response from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

A Hindu mob has attacked two pastors in northern India, setting the Bible of one on fire as he blacked out from the beating.

Pastor Sanjay Kumar and Pastor Inderjit were assaulted as they came down from praying with the family on the roof of their home in the Anand Nagar area of Haryana state. The mob questioned them in coarse language without letting them answer, while their gestures made it clear they meant to physically attack them, Pastor Kumar said. They also filmed the attack on their mobile phones.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden slammed ‘the onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families’ as ‘simply wrong’.

Delivering a message to ‘our younger transgender Americans’ he said ‘I’ll always have your back as your president so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.’ Those laws include measures designed to prevent biological males who identify as females from competing in women’s sports and state legislation banning gender reassignment surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs for minors with gender dysphoria.

A court in China’s Hubei province has sentenced female Christian pastor Hao Zhiwei to eight years in prison on charges of ‘fraud for preaching the gospel’, after her house church refused to join the state-controlled body that regulates Protestant churches.

The 51-year-old had also been charged with receiving donations from church members without approval from the state-run Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches and the Christian Council.

Facebook has now restored the pages of Christian ministries it says were ‘incorrectly removed’ amid a purge of content offering ‘services that aim to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.’

Denise Shick, the head of Christian ministries Help 4 Families and Living Stone Ministries, which aim to help those seeking to live in accordance with Christian sexual ethics, said Facebook removed their pages following a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism that compiled a list of groups and organisations that minister to and counsel people struggling with unwanted sexual attractions or gender confusion.

Two months after the massive La Palma eruption, which destroyed over 3,000 buildings, the Evangelical Baptist Church of La Palma continues to help its victims.

The church has raised €85,000 and established a voucher system with ten small local shops so that people can get what they need. Local mayor Noelia Garcia gave ‘recognition and gratitude to the evangelical churches, who have contributed everything they could’.

Pastor Matthias Haghnejad and eight other Christians from the Church of Iran have been acquitted of charges of ‘endangering state security’ and ‘promoting Zionism’.

The nine men had been released pending a review of their five-year sentences. However, Pastor Haghnejad was re-arrested on charges of ‘acting against the security of the country by forming a group and propagating Christianity, and giving information to the enemies of Islam’, which were initially levelled against him in 2014. He faces six years in prison if convicted.

The 11th anniversary of the assassination of Pakistan’s former Federal Minister for Minority Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, has been marked with an online event celebrating his life and legacy in the struggle for freedom of religion or belief in Pakistan.

Bhatti was assassinated in Islamabad in 2011 after many years of campaigning for freedom of religion or belief. He was particularly critical of the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, and had continued his advocacy despite receiving multiple death threats from Islamic extremists.

A Christian YouTuber arrested last year in Bali, Indonesia for uploading a YouTube video which allegedly offended Muslims is facing a ten-year jail sentence. He is charged with spreading fake information to intentionally cause unrest.

Since his conversion from Islam to Christianity in 2014, former Islamic cleric Muhammad Kace has posted over 400 videos on YouTube responding to criticism about Christianity from Muslim preachers. Last year one went viral, resulting in his immediate detainment by the Indonesian government.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, has offered his resignation to Pope Francis over his handling of allegations of child sex abuse committed by priests.

An 800-page report into the abuse cases in the archdiocese between 1975 and 2018 found more than 200 abusers and more than 300 victims, mostly under the age of 14. The Pope has not yet said if he will accept the resignation.

Church leaders in Sudan have been detained and questioned after Muslim extremists, upset about the presence of their worship building, locked it shut.

Hardline Muslims locked the building of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) in Al Hag Abdalla, about 85 miles southeast of Khartoum, said an SCOC evangelist, arrested but later released that day along with the church pastor. Church members were accused of hostility toward Islam for holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer; for giving children food to win them to Christianity and for taking their land for the worship building.