Christmas for refugees in Lebanon

 

World Watch Monitor, December 31, 2017 

 

Lebanon has absorbed more than a million refugees from conflicts in nearby Syria and Iraq, where Christians either fled general violence or direct targeting.

 

Because of Lebanon’s multi-faith make-up, many Iraqi and Syrian Christians have sought refuge there. They may not be the most materially impoverished, because the Churches there have tried hard to help them find rented accommodation.

 

At home, Iraqi Christians would go to church on Christmas Eve for a host of special events. In Beirut, where many feel scared to go out into a city they do not know, “they’ll only go to church at midnight, then go home.”

 

The Chaldean Charity Association has put on a free Christmas concert in Beirut cathedral for refugees, two Christmas parties for 1,200 children with gifts and food and animators, and is distributing food and hygiene parcels for 600 families for Christmas.

India – Hindu Extremists Disrupt Prayer Service

Morning Star News December 22, 2017 

Hindu extremists have kept hundreds of Christians from a prayer service and attacked those who managed to attend.

2,000 people were expected on Dec. 6, but only 300 Christians made it past Hindu extremist check-points.

Hindu nationalists positioned men at village entry points and asked people where they were headed.

If they said they were going to the church service, they were shooed away, and if they tried to reason with them, they were threatened and manhandled.

Christian women who objected at the check-points were disgracefully manhandled.  They were caught by their throats, and their clothes were pulled to threaten them.

When the worship service began, 700 hard-line Hindus attacked, led by members of the Hindu extremist VHP.  They struck vehicles parked outside the prayer hall with sticks and set two of them on fire.

Cuban Christmas: Silent night

 World Watch Monitor, December 31, 2017 

 Christmas in communist Cuba is a quiet affair. Catholic churches may hold a Christmas Mass, and some Evangelical churches will celebrate Christmas on their own premises but not in public spaces. Other Evangelical churches don’t hold Christmas services because of years of fierce government restrictions.

 For many Cubans, bigger than Christmas is the anniversary of the revolution, 1 January. So, on 31 December, towns come alive with street parties and dancing. Many churches sidestep these festivities by holding all-night prayer services.

 However, Christians watch what they say, even in church. For long after the revolution, Christmas couldn’t even be mentioned in a church. Nowadays such tight controls have relaxed to an extent, but “there continue to be government informants in all church services”.

Why are Chile’s churches under attack?

World Watch Monitor December 15, 2017

Seven hours’ drive south of Santiago, 27 churches have been burnt down in the past couple of years.

The attackers leave messages with the demands of the Mapuches, a tribe whose land was taken from them during Chile’s colonisation by Spanish Catholics.  Many Mapuches now identify as Christian: 55% Catholic, 32% Protestant.

But for some others, Christians are still seen as invaders.

Of the 20 churches burnt down between 2015 and 2016, 12 were Catholic, 8 Protestant. In 2017, a further 7 have been torched. Many belonged to the poorest in Chile, and were attended by Mapuches themselves.

Abelino Apeleo, an Anglican bishop and ethnic Mapuche, said the primary issue is ignorance on the part of some of his fellow Mapuches.  “Those with a more radical, violent attitude blame the Church for creating the problems of the Mapuches,” he said. “This is totally wrong. And of course, we cannot support violence as a response.”

BELARUS – Christians fined for distributing religious literature

 

Barnabas Fund 14 Dec 2017

 

Lepel town police have continued to disrupt and arrest members of a church library ministry for singing and offering Christian books and magazines to passers-by at the entrance to the town market. The local court repeatedly fined one of them to the total equivalent of double his monthly wage.

 

 “I’ve been conducting the street library ministry for 16 years, offering Bibles, children’s literature and magazines for people to read and return,” said a church member. “Over the last 10 years we never had any conflicts.” The street library had not been disrupted for thirteen years until mid-October 2017.

 

A Christian sustained a facial injury during his arrest and detention by the police of Lepel town, north-eastern Belarus. He has lodged a complaint with the “Investigative Committee.”

 

The government in Belarus enforces strict regulations on Christian groups and requires all religious communities to register with the State.

Sudan Takes Over Church Properties

An Islamist judge in Omdurman upheld the eviction of two pastors from their church-owned homes, ruling that Hisham Hamad Al-Neel, a Muslim businessman behind most cases filed to obtain church property, should take over the houses. 60 other Christians have been summoned over their refusal to relinquish property.

The two pastors and their families remain homeless since police raided their houses on Aug. 15 and evicted them. Pastor Abdalla has two children, ages 8 and 10, and Pastor Nalu has a 1-year-old boy.

Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since South Sudan seceded in July 2011.

The government announced in 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan.

Sudan since 2012 has bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese.