Prince Charles gave a gift to Aid to the Church in Need for Christians in the Middle East during an Advent reception. He said, in part:
At this traditional time of prayer and reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation, it seems to me vital that we pause for more than a moment to think about the plight of Christians in the lands where the Word was actually “made flesh and dwelt among us”. For, despite what the brainwashed militants would have people believe, Christianity is not a “foreign” religion. As the atmospheric Chapel of St. Ananias in Damascus and countless other holy sites bear witness, Christianity has been part of the rich tapestry of life in the Middle East for two thousand years. And it was the early Middle Eastern church communities in places such as Antioch, Alexandria, Bosra in Syria, and Mesopotamia which eventually brought Christianity to Asia and the West. To take just one example, the Armenian Apostolic Church – which, of course, is the oldest Established national church in the world – traces its origins to the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddaeus. And, ladies and gentleman, it is, perhaps, worth remembering that those of us who are members of the Church of England will be only too familiar with the Nicene Creed, whose words were first formulated in the Middle East in the fourth century. Far from Christianity being a “Western” religion, Christianity was born in – and shaped by – the East…!
This is what makes the plight of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ so especially heart-breaking. Their suffering is symptomatic of a very real crisis which threatens the very existence of Christianity in the land of its birth. In fact, according to Aid to the Church in Need, Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq within five years, unless emergency help is provided on a greatly increased scale at an international level. This affects us all. Consequently, the greatest challenge we face is how to ensure that the spiritual and cultural heritage of Christianity in the Middle East is preserved for future generations – quite apart from doing all we can to provide practical support to those who are persecuted.
Please continue to pray for the persecuted church in the land of its birth.
God Squad 
Russia Bans Evangelism
Posted in News & Commentary, tagged christian, church, evangelism, persecution, prayer, protestant, religious freedom, russia, Yarovaya laws on July 25, 2016|
Forget military aggression. Russia just made it illegal to talk about Jesus outside of a church!
Russia recently passed a set of anti-terrorism laws known as the Yarovaya package, which places broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and any activity designed to recruit people into a religious group. When it became a public law on July 20, it rolled back 19 years of religious freedom.
While Christians have enjoyed great freedom since the Iron Curtain collapsed, these laws are Russia’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history. The new laws contain several heavy restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism. The changes include laws against sharing your faith in homes, online, in writing, or any public space except a recognized church building.
As it now stands, Yarovaya requires missionaries to have permits, makes house churches illegal, and limits religious activity to the premises of registered church buildings. The rules are so tight that Christians in Russia cannot email their friends an invitation to church under the new surveillance and anti-terrorism laws. Anyone who disobeys could be fined up to $780 and organizations could be fined more than $15,000. Foreign visitors who violate the law can be detained and ultimately face deportation.
Russia’s Baptist Council of Churches wrote an open letter calling Yarovaya, “the most draconian anti-religion bill to be proposed in Russia since Nikita Khrushchev promised to eliminate Christianity in the Soviet Union.”
As fellow believers, we should all be appalled and upset with the Yarovaya laws. When religious freedom is swept away with the stroke of a pen, it affects the entire church. Now is the time for Christians across the globe to seek the Lord and pray that God will intercede for our brothers and sisters in Russia. Ask that God will unite Russian Christians and that this time of trial can be used to strengthen and grow the church.
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