World in Brief

Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of Mexico’s largest evangelical church, has been sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting three teenaged girls from his church. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for life.

The 53-year-old led the congregation La Luz Del Mundo based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, which runs churches in several locations throughout the United States and Mexico.

The High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, has upheld the death sentence of two Christian brothers, Qaiser and Amoon Ayub, who were charged with posting blasphemous content online in 2011.

They have always maintained their innocence. Amoon believes that the website where the blasphemous material was shared was created by his brother’s Muslim friends to settle a score. They were defended by Christian charity CLAAS, which is now appealing to the Supreme Court.

A church within a 16th-century Orthodox monastery complex has been burned to the ground. The wooden structure of All Saints Monastery of the Svyatogorsk Lavra, in Gorlovka city in the Donetsk region, belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was set ablaze after repeated targeted shelling by Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said Russia should be expelled from the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO: ‘Every church burned by Russia in Ukraine, every school blown up, every destroyed memorial, proves that Russia has no place in UNESCO.’

Reverend Megan Rohrer has announced her resignation as bishop. This comes as the presiding bishop of her denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), Elizabeth Eaton, announced that a disciplinary process would be initiated against her. This was after ‘additional information’ about racist behaviour and other issues had ‘come to light’.

In May 2021 Rohrer became the first transgender bishop of the ELCA, in what was then seen as a major LGBT victory within US Protestant churches. The ELCA supports liberal theological understandings of sexual ethics, marriage and human identity. Rohrer was in charge of overseeing around 200 local churches.

A group of Algerian Christians have had their sentences for ‘unauthorised worship’ reduced.

The 11 Christians, including the owner of the site rented for the occasion, had received suspended sentences of six months in prison and a 200,000 dinar fine (US$1,380) each. On appeal, the court retained the prison sentences but reduced the fine to 100,000 dinars (US$690).

An explosion hit the centre of Havana, Cuba, destroying the historic Saratoga Hotel. Cuban authorities said 27 people died in the explosion which was caused by a gas leak. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel went to the scene to express his sympathy and condolences.

The hotel is next to the premises of El Calvario Baptist church. ‘The roof of the church was blown off but all the [church] workers are fine. Continue praying because there are many injured people in the surrounding area’, said David Espinosa, a worker at the church.

The convicted killer of Archbishop Arsanious Wadid in Alexandria, Egypt has been condemned to death. Nehru Abdel Moneim Tawfiq was sentenced after the Alexandria Criminal Court saw surveillance camera video of the murder. The verdict came after the case was reportedly referred to the Mufti of the Republic for an Islamic legal opinion.

Wadid (see photo), priest of the Virgin and St Paul Church in Alexandria, was distributing Ramadan gifts to passers-by with a group of youths from his church when the assailant stabbed him at least three times in the neck with a knife. He was 56.

A mentally-ill Christian jailed since 2019 on a charge of blasphemy, punishable by death, has been granted bail. Stephen Masih was arrested after a Muslim mob burst into his home in Imranpura Bedian village, beat him and family members and accused him of speaking ill of Mohammed during an argument.

During the attack, the mob also set ablaze the home of his family, members of the Brethren Mission, a Pentecostal branch. Police rescued Masih from the mob and charged him under the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly insulting Mohammed; conviction calls for the death penalty.

Through its proxy militias, Iran is carrying out an ‘invisible jihad’ against Middle East Christians. Its aim is to create Muslim demographic purity by forcing Christians out of the region.

‘Iran’s proxy militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen have played a significant role in the dramatic decline of Christians in the region,’ says The Invisible Jihad: the Treatment of Christians by Iran Proxies, a new report by the Philos Project. The report also says the Shia militias are guided by Iran’s ‘theocratic regime’s vision of Muslim demographic purity’.

The Nazareth Trust, one of Scotland’s largest charities, is set to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the foundation of its medical work in Nazareth, Israel.

To mark the significant milestone, the Trust is hosting an event sponsored by Jackson Carlaw MSP. Carlaw is chair of the cross-party group Building Bridges With Israel. The anniversary is a major step for the Trust as it seeks to reach out to the local population and the wider world, irrespective of faith, political persuasion or tradition, through healthcare, nursing education, Biblical tourism, and volunteering.

The Vietnamese authorities have sentenced 15 ethnic Hmong followers from the Duong Van Minh (DVM) religious community to prison sentences of up to four years. They were convicted on charges of ‘resisting officers on duty’ and ‘violating regulations on safety in crowded areas’.

The sentences relate to an incident last year in Tuyen Quang province when police arrested dozens of people as they attempted to attend the funeral of Duong Van Minh, the ethnic Hmong founder of a religious community not recognised by the Vietnamese Government.

The head of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, Samuel Kanu (see photo), and two other clerics have been freed after they were kidnapped. The attacks took place in Abia state, south east Nigeria. It is currently unknown who was responsible and it is unclear how they were freed.

‘This is the latest in a series of kidnappings which have become an epidemic in Nigeria,’ says Illia Djadi of Open Doors. ‘The issue of security is the central issue for Nigerians. People from all walks of life, from army officers to young children, can be abducted.’

In Yemen, a truce between the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels and the Yemeni Government means that emergency supplies can now be shipped in.

But Yemeni Christians, who are almost all converts from Islam, may not benefit. ‘Christians with a Muslim background seeking emergency supplies are vulnerable to discrimination and mistreatment, if their faith is known,’ says Henriette Katz of Open Doors. ‘Their names can be removed from distribution lists, especially if help is being given out through local mosques.’