World - Baptist Standard: Recent Episodes
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Religious nationalism, mass displacement, authoritarianism, surveillance technology and other trends combine to persecute 300 million Christians globally, International Christian Concern reported in its 2025 Global Persecution Index.
An airstrike on a Baptist church in Sudan less than a week before Christmas killed at least 11 people, including eight children, an organization focused on international religious freedom reported.
A report by Pew Research Center on international religious freedom named Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq as the countries where both government restrictions and social hostility most limit the ability of religious minorities to practice their faith.
Many human rights advocates greeted the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with relief and optimism, but some groups focused on international religious freedom view Syria’s future with more questions than answers.
Christians in Nigeria plan to celebrate Christmas amid fear of a repeat of violence that claimed at least 160 lives in Nigeria’s Middle Belt at Christmastime in 2023 and dozens in northern Nigeria during the holidays in 2022, international religious liberty advocates reported.
Nazareth has few public Christmas decorations this year, marking the second year in a row Jesus’ hometown has been precluded by wartime conditions from traditional celebrations honoring the birthday of its most notable resident of all time.
Ten Catholic priests and a seminarian were murdered during the six-year term of former Mexican President López Obrador that ended Sept. 30, the Catholic Multimedia Center said in its 2024 annual report.
Thirty-six Kenyan teenage boys and young men came together in November for a leadership training camp. At the end, 13 of them accepted a challenge to lead future gatherings locally and start encouraging other boys and men.
Ukrainian Christians are resilient in the lingering war with Russia and yet optimistic of “a just peace,” Southern Baptist Dan Darling said on the heels of a weeklong tour of Ukraine and Poland.
A Baptist church worker was arrested on charges of violating a new law against “magical healing," after praying for villagers in the northeastern India state of Assam.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mike Huckabee may be the first political appointee to come to the U.S. Embassy in Israel from a group known as Christian Zionists, who back Israel for theological as well as geopolitical reasons.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Nov. 12 he will appoint former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee—a Baptist minister—as ambassador to Israel during Trump’s second administration, which will begin upon his inauguration Jan. 20, 2025.
More than 200 have died in flooding around Valencia, Spain, in recent days, and Texans on Mission volunteers are helping respond to the need.
Myanmar—historically known as Burma—is “a disintegrating nation” where leaders of religious minorities continue to be targeted by the military, a report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated.
“Can God trust you?” if you are called to pay a price for following Jesus, an American pastor who was imprisoned in Turkey asked.
Christian Mission to Gaza recently has provided food and clean drinking water to more than 4,000 people in the war-torn country, the former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church reported.
Dallas Baptist University’s Institute for Global Engagement hosted a global gathering to pray for persecuted religious minorities, Oct. 24-25.
In a culture where women often are marginalized and women’s sports are not recognized, a Baylor University group found ways to empower women by using sports to teach leadership skills.
Pastor Eli Abdullah Tinau lives in the charred room that remains of his home after an attack by militant Fulani Muslims, an increasingly violent group accused of killing thousands of Christians in middle and northeastern Nigeria.
As the young Sudanese child, Mariam Ibraheem never planned to end up in the United States, but God had other plans.
Religious freedom conditions worsened considerably in India this year—particularly in the months prior to and immediately following a national election.
In the past decade, Save Ukraine has rescued and returned to Ukraine more than 500 children who had been deported forcibly to Russia and Russian-controlled territories.
Nations identified as some of the worst persecutors of Christians also have some of the most corrupt governments, a new study by International Christian Concern asserts.
More than 30 Baptist families who were forced from their homes in Mexico’s Hidalgo State in April have been allowed to return home, a human rights organization focused on international freedom of religion reported.
Baptist ministries in Lebanon that receive Texas Baptist Hunger Offering funds are offering aid to displaced civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah.
China has tightened its control of religion, creating such crimes as genocide, mass arrests and enforced disappearances, the U.S. Commission on International Religious said in a Sept. 23 fact sheet, days after China released long-imprisoned American Protestant pastor David Lin.
“The devil is in the world again” Constanze Stelzenmüller quoted a Catholic cardinal friend of hers as stating about growing tension in 2022.
“Pray for the transformation of our nation,” Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary President Yaroslav “Slavik” Pyzh implored Southern Baptists at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s trustee meeting Sept. 10 in Nashville.
When floodwaters inundated southeast Bangladesh, Texans on Mission rushed funds to ministry partners in the region. This week, Baptists from the flooded villages sent photos of the difference Texans on Mission donors are making.
Naming the worst violators of international religious freedom has been a good way to condemn bad behavior but has been far less effective at bringing about changes in policy by foreign nations, a report from the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom concluded.
The Chinese government officially ended its international adoption program, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning announced Sept. 5.
On a recent Sunday morning, a dozen people congregated in a home in the Nyabisindu neighborhood of Rwanda’s capital to ponder their next steps after the government shuttered numerous churches for noncompliance with health and safety regulations.
Primera Iglesia Bautista of Managua is among more than 90 religiously oriented civil organizations that had their legal status revoked by the Nicaraguan government last week.
An interfaith national council is renewing a campaign for Muslim-majority Bangladesh to remove Islam as the state religion.
When late-August flooding caused widespread damage, crop loss and displacement in southeast Bangladesh and in the neighboring Indian state of Tripura, Texans on Mission responded with funding for the Baptist aid organization in the area.
A new Pew Research Center study revealed people around the globe favor leaders who stand up for their constituents with religious beliefs, even if the beliefs are not their own.
A new Taliban law restricting the rights of women even further has led to calls for prayer from Arabic church leaders as well as Afghans who have fled in recent years.
The last Protestants in an indigenous Mexican community dominated by Roman Catholics were forced from their homes Aug. 6 and their lone church set ablaze, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported Aug. 22.
The Ukrainian Parliament passed a bill banning the activities of churches deemed to have ties to the Russian Orthodox Church or the invasion.
Government-fostered misinformation and disinformation are hindering religious liberty in several places globally, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
A global human rights organization called on the United States to enforce sanctions against Azerbaijan for torturing prisoners of war and targeting Armenian Christians.
In a crackdown, Rwanda has shut down more than 5,600 places of worship over failure to meet the conditions required for operation.
Working to advance international religious freedom and combat persecution not only reflects American values, but also advances the nation’s interests, international human rights lawyer H. Knox Thames said.
The leader of a Protestant church in China’s Gyizhou Province received a five-year prison sentence July 24 for charges of fraud and inciting subversion.
BWAid launched the BWA International Humanitarian Action and Development Intensive Course July 5-7 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Religious freedom no longer exists in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, where religious leaders have been abducted and sometimes tortured, several Ukrainian journalists said during a recent visit to the United States.
Attacks on Christians in India—who constitute only 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people—have risen sharply over the last few years.
Sources confirm the former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, Hkalam Samson, was released from prison in Myanmar on July 23.
More than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria over the past two decades, and “the silence from Western nations on this genocide is appalling,” a new report from International Christian Concern asserts.
In spite of “constant danger” from coordinated attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces, Christians sheltered in Gaza churches suffered no injuries in recent days, the former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church reported.
The Baptist World Alliance entered its “collaborative mission era” with the adoption of a new constitution and bylaws at the BWA annual gathering in Nigeria.
Fruitfulness, faithfulness and vision characterize the persecuted church in many parts of the globe, an advocate for international religious freedom told a Houston-area Baptist church.
A Palestinian Baptist reported three Christians in Gaza have been injured in recent days, and the people were “terrified” but still reluctant to evacuate after the Israeli Defense Forces issued a warning.
Baptists from around the world discussed peace and peacemaking during the Baptist International Conference on Theological Education prior to the 2024 Baptist World Alliance annual gathering in Lagos, Nigeria.
When a group from Crosspoint Church in McKinney recently traveled with Proclaim Cuba to minister in that Caribbean country, they took with them water filters provided by Texans on Mission.
A bill aiming to increase punishment for abortion after 22 weeks has spurred controversy in Brazil, leading to demonstrations against it.
Millions continue to suffer religious persecution globally, with wars and civil conflicts exacerbating already existing ills in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the U.S. State Department documented in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom.
In East Asia, people are leaving their religion at rates among the highest in the world, according to a recent survey by Pew Research Center.
An East Texas church’s year-end surplus enabled Baptist World Alliance partners to deliver thousands of Bibles to people in a rural area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Four deacons from Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas recently spent two weeks in Ukraine, helping a Christian ministry there convert shipping containers into housing for displaced people.
Three people—a Haitian man and an American couple who all worked for a Christian mission organization—were killed by gang members near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 23.
After civil war forced a school for refugee children in Sudan to close, the Texas Baptist Eritrean church that founded it has launched another similar school in Uganda.
Más de 150 bautistas forzados a abandonar sus hogares debido a su fe están protestando contra un plan del gobierno local que les permite regresar a casa solamente si pagan a sus perseguidores $9,026, dijo CSW (anteriormente Solidaridad Cristiana Mundial) el 16 de mayo.
As a 15-year-old high school student in Nazareth, Arab Christian Yasmeen Mazzawi wanted to learn the history of the Jews she met volunteering as a paramedic with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical services.
Marking the upcoming 20th anniversary of three Protestant pastors’ arrest and continued imprisonment in Eritrea, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the Biden administration to call attention to religious freedom violations in the northeast African nation.
A humanitarian aid group is urging U.S. Christian donors to refrain from worsening the situation in Haiti by donating to orphanages and to redirect their efforts instead toward initiatives helping parents support their children.
International Christian Concern estimated 25 percent to half of the 900 to 1,000 Christians who lived in Gaza before the war have fled, and an additional 25 percent are applying to leave.
Wissam al-Saliby, a Lebanese Baptist with experience advocating for human rights and international religious freedom, is the new president of 21Wilberforce.
Nearly 50 Christians have been killed in a series of militant attacks on villages in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna states in late April through early May, with dozens more wounded and displaced, according to news reports.
A Texans on Mission team recently brought water and the gospel to a village on Rio Itaya, a tributary of the Amazon River in northern Peru.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom added Azerbaijan to its list of 17 “worst of the worst” violators of freedom of religion or belief in 2023.
More than 100 Baptists in Hidalgo State, Mexico, were forced to leave their homes in the villages of Coamila and Rancho Nuevo on April 26.
A Kachin Baptist leader in Myanmar who briefly was released from prison last week after 16 months behind bars was taken into custody again by authorities and continued to be detained a week later.
More than a dozen Christian leaders—including the executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention—sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson April 17 urging Congress to protect religious liberty in Eastern Europe by supporting Ukraine.
Hkalam Samson, former president and general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar, has been released from Myitkyina Prison in Burma’s Kachin State.
Lott Carey, a historically Black Baptist missional organization, expressed “unwavering solidarity with the people of Haiti during this time of unprecedented crisis.”
In a March 26 letter, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches urged U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to vote on providing aid.
Some Baptist leaders have written to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson—a fellow Southern Baptist—urging him to support Ukraine in Russia’s war against its Eastern European neighbor.
Elected officials who differ on most issues broadly agree about the importance of global freedom of religion and belief, two former ambassadors-at-large for international religious freedom asserted.
Unanswered questions continue to surround the violent death of a Baptist minister in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state.
Texans on Mission’s long-time ministry partner in Haiti shifted gears in recent days to respond to immediate hunger needs.
Baptists sheltered in the remnants of Gaza Baptist Church are so worn out they “no longer have the energy to suffer,” a leader there told the Christian Mission to Gaza.
The death toll from the major Sept. 8 earthquake in Morocco has approached 3,000. Send Relief leaders and partners are on the ground, meeting needs and assessing a long-term response.
Religious freedom and human rights conditions in Iran—which already were bleak—have “sharply deteriorated,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported in a Sept. 11 update.
Religious freedom in Afghanistan has deteriorated since the Taliban seized control two years ago, and Afghan women have suffered most, a report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated.
Buckner International recently gave away its 5 millionth pair of shoes through its Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls program.
An outlawed Islamist group has been charged with inciting destructive riots in Pakistan after two Christian brothers were accused of blasphemy there.
The former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists—a critic of Russia’s war against Ukraine—recently fled his homeland when authorities pressed criminal charges against him.
A United Nations report presents evidence the Burmese military and associated militia groups increasingly are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
American politicians are under increasing pressure to account for their courtship of Indian Prime Minister Modi, while ignoring the Indian regime’s oppression of religious minorities.
Randel Everett recently told the board of 21Wilberforce he plans to retire at the end of the year as the organization’s president.
Pastor Samson Doreliens ministers in the midst of violence in Port Au Prince, the site of the July 27 kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter who remain missing.
International religious freedom advocates from East Texas departed Aug. 3 bound for Laos to participate in peaceful demonstrations protesting the detention—and possible deportation—of a Chinese human rights lawyer.
Some Texas-based advocates for persecuted religious groups fear Lu Siwei—a Chinese human rights lawyer arrested in Laos last week—could be deported to China, where he likely would be imprisoned.
Blasphemy laws, along with restrictions on religious clothing and broadly worded legislation criminalizing hate speech, are among the practices of some European Union member states that discriminate against religious minorities, a new report notes.
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on authorities in India to stop ongoing violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, where more than 250 houses of worship have been destroyed or damaged.
A Russian airstrike targeting civilians in Lviv damaged the home of a Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary worker about a half-mile drive from the campus.
Persecution of religious minorities with Russia has escalated since the invasion of Ukraine, where Russia’s military has destroyed houses of worship and tortured religious leaders, according to two reports.
Michael Domke spent nearly 15 years planting churches in Ukraine until war forced him out. Today, he typically drives 1,700 miles to several cities in Ukraine from Budapest, Hungary, continuing his work.
God has given his people a mission to come alongside him to stand against the monstrous forces that oppose “God’s homemaking project,” theologian Miroslav Volf told participants at the Sent 2023 Mission Summit.
At least 450 Christians have died in a series of attacks on Christian villages in three north central Nigerian states since May.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged President Biden to raise concerns about religious freedom and human rights during Prime Minister Modi’s state visit.
More than a month after mob violence began in the Manipur State of northeast India, at least 250 churches have been burned, and casualty reports grow daily.
Ukrainian Baptists may not be beating swords into plowshares yet, but some have started by converting a weapon of war into a pulpit to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Sixteen members of Bege Baptist Church of Masala in central Nigeria were released June 4 after being kidnapped nearly a month earlier.
When a dam in Ukraine was destroyed and a deadly train crash in India left vast humanitarian and spiritual needs, TBM responded to both tragedies through existing local partnerships.
East Texas Baptist University women’s basketball team taught sports skills to schoolchildren, competed and shared their faith on a recent trip to Northern Ireland.
At least 60 infants and children have died in a Khartoum orphanage since the civil conflict began in Sudan, the Associated Press reported May 31 amid an extended ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian aid.
TBM sent a psychotherapist to a women’s conference in Warsaw, Poland, to lead sessions on emotional healing and overcoming post-traumatic stress.
U.S. State Department officials continued to point to atrocities in Russia, China and Afghanistan as they released their annual report on threats to religious freedom.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom compiled 2,000-plus names on its Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List. But the names of millions of others who face persecution remain unknown.
Rioting mobs have destroyed at least two dozen churches and forced thousands of Kuki, Zomi and other minority tribes—most of them Christians—from their homes in the Manipur State of northeast India.
At least four churches have been destroyed and a congregation directly assaulted in Sudan, signaling the earliest reports of religious suffering in the fight for governmental control that erupted in mid-April.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom voiced “extreme disappointment” the State Department failed to designate Nigeria and India as "Countries of Particular Concern."
More than 200 Christians have been killed in terrorist attacks in Benue and Kaduna states in Nigeria since the election season ended in March.
Thanks in large part to Texas Baptist Men, 39 pastors in South Sudan now have bicycles to make regular visits to their multiple congregations.
Six Texas Baptist Men volunteers journeyed to Turkey to put together simple shelters for families who had lost their homes to an earthquake.
The Mariupol Baptist church where Trent Blackley last performed is rubble, the city hard hit by Russian military forces who have killed 8,500 Ukrainian civilians in the war on Ukraine.
Police raided an unregistered Baptist church in southern Uzbekistan during a worship service and detained 10 worshippers after beating and using electric shock prods on some individuals, the Forum 18 human rights organization reported.
The Easter promise of new life holds special meaning for members of a persecuted Chinese church who arrived in Texas on Good Friday, in preparation for resettlement with the help of Tyler-area churches.
Members of the Mayflower Church—a group of Chinese Christians who have been living in Thailand—are on a flight scheduled to arrive in Texas on Good Friday evening.
On Good Friday, the international community learned a Burmese court sentenced the former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention to six years in prison.
Authorities in Thailand fined but did not immediately deport members of a persecuted Chinese church, but the Christians continue to be detained three days after their deportation hearing.
Chinese Christians who have been living in Thailand after fleeing persecution in their native country have been arrested, and they face a March 31 hearing that could result in their deportation.
Texas Baptist Men volunteers will journey to Turkey the first week in April to help build shelters for families who lost their homes in the Feb. 6 earthquake.
A former Russian Baptist union leader, speaking from Moscow, voiced an apology for his countrymen who are “participants in this crime against Ukraine.”
Russia has amplified its persecution of Christians, Muslims and Jews in its war on Ukraine, participants in a U.S. government hearing said March 15.
India’s anti-conversion laws violate international human rights standards and worsen already-poor religious freedom conditions in India, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated.
Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has added more children to an initial count of 100,000 Ukrainian orphans at risk of abduction, sex trafficking, criminal adoption and long-term trauma.
Long-persecuted Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is among at least three Christian prisoners released in Iran’s national amnesty marking the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Two high-capacity Texas-made water filters are providing clean water for earthquake survivors in Turkey, and more will be used both in Turkey and Syria in coming days, thanks to a Texas Baptist Men-led team.
A half-dozen Christian families who fled China due to persecution have been adopted by East Texas churches, but another 10 families need resettlement sponsors.
A Texas Baptist Men-led team in Turkey has set up the first of two water filter systems shipped from Texas to the earthquake-ravaged area this past week.
Pastor Leonid Regheta had planned to enjoy a sabbatical last year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine turned the past 12 months into anything but sabbath rest.
People in Syria displaced by recent earthquakes need blankets. Now, 10,000 blankets are on the way, thanks to efforts by Texas Baptist Men, in cooperation with key partners in the United States and Syria.
The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering is joining with Baptist World Alliance to raise funds to provide critical resources and aid to meet the needs of those injured and displaced by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
From Hungarian Baptist Aid search-and-rescue missions to Texas Baptist Men providing generators and other supplies, global Baptists have responded to earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that claimed more than 36,000 lives.
Documented violations of religious freedom in Cuba more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, a new report revealed.
A massive earthquake that claimed at least 2,700 lives in Turkey and Syria left a Baptist church in Aleppo severely damaged, the Baptist World Alliance reported.
In spite of continued missile attacks, widespread dislocation and the threat of a major Russian assault in coming weeks, Ukrainian Pastor Igor Bandura insisted, “God is good.”
Second Baptist Church in Gdańsk, Poland, has helped meet the needs of more than 100 refugees from Ukraine in the past 11 months.
A call for accountability from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and announced sanctions punishing the Burmese army marked the two-year anniversary of a military coup in Myanmar.
More than five dozen Christians remain in Thailand, where they fear deportation to China unless they are granted refugee status by the United Nations or humanitarian parole by the United States.
Pakistan’s lower house of parliament passed a bill strengthening punishment for blasphemy despite international outcry.
North Korea returned to the top spot on Open Doors' World Watch List after scoring its highest level of persecution ever, following an increase in arrests of Christians under its “anti-reactionary thought” law.
A Baptist woman in Mexico remains hospitalized in serious condition after being tied to a tree and beaten before Christmas. A representative for an international human rights organization says it was "not an isolated incident."
Even before Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to observe a 36-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas, the European Baptist Federation and Ukrainian Baptists planned a Christmas Eve prayer vigil for peace.
Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, about 1 million people—most of them members of religious and ethnic minorities—have been internally displaced, a recent report revealed.
Light is scarce as Ukraine suffers a bombed-out power grid. Yet, women there are using their light this Christmas to crochet angel ornaments to send churches and other supporters in the U.S.
Jordan has launched a $100 million master plan aimed at attracting 1 million Christian pilgrims in 2030 to celebrations of the second millennium of the baptism of Jesus.
Missionary pilot pilot Ryan Koher was arrested in southern Mozambique. Six weeks later, he remains in jail, with no end to his imprisonment in sight.
The past president and former general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar was detained by the Burmese military junta and is being held.
Sixty-four Christians currently in Thailand face deportation to China—which they fled to escape persecution—unless U.S. officials allow them to resettle in East Texas with the help of area churches.
About one-fourth of nearly 200 nations studied by the Pew Research Center used force to prevent religious gatherings during the COVID pandemic.
An Oct. 21 automobile accident claimed the lives of the longtime former president of Zimbabwe Theological Seminary, his son and the seminary’s current president.
The U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom called on the Biden administration to establish a commission of inquiry at the United Nations to examine Iran’s brutal suppression of protests.
A Baptist pastor and his wife remain missing after being kidnapped Sept. 21 from their church in Russian-occupied Mariupol, Forum 18 News Service reported Oct. 6.
Dozens of Christians were murdered and 6,000 displaced in terrorist attacks in Nigeria’s middle belt in September.
Each week, in a hulking warehouse in a small town in North Carolina, Samaritan’s Purse employees load semi trailers full of supplies for the people of Ukraine: medicines, food, tarps, blankets, hygiene kits and school bags for kids.
Elizabeth II of England, Britain’s longest-serving monarch and official head of the Church of England, died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96.
Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Baptists inside the embattled nation and in neighboring countries continue ministry in a war zone and begin preparation for what could be a hard winter.
Violence by Islamist groups, mob violence against people accused of blasphemy, identity-based violence and violence targeting worship threaten freedom of religion in Nigeria, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom states.
A United Nations report found China has committed “serious human rights violations” and possibly “crimes against humanity” toward the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities.
Advocates for human rights and religious freedom marked the fifth anniversary of the genocidal campaign against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims by calling for an end to military rule in the nation.
Christians in Afghanistan are forced into greater secrecy and largely cut off from humanitarian aid, International Christian Concern said in its report on the first anniversary of U.S. withdrawal from the Muslim country.
About 400 Ukrainian Baptist congregations have been lost in Russia’s war on Ukraine, seminary president Yaroslav Pyzh said. The real challenge is to rebuild pastoral leadership in places where ministers have been displaced, he added.
Christians largely remain displaced from the once vibrant Nineveh Plains eight years after the Islamic State decimated the region, a Christian charity working in the area said.