Seeds of faith and hope in crisis-hit Lebanon
Christian Today speaks to Ali Wood, Tearfund's country director for Lebanon, about how Christians are responding to the many challenges affecting the crisis-hit country.
Christian Today speaks to Ali Wood, Tearfund's country director for Lebanon, about how Christians are responding to the many challenges affecting the crisis-hit country.
A former terrorist who was associated with the Fatah political party and the Palestinian Liberation Organization before converting to Christianity in the 1990s believes the Israel-Hamas war is preparing many Muslims in Gaza to become Christians.
As we have watched the news over the last few years, we have seen many stories of refugees fleeing strife or persecution in the Middle East, from Iraq, from Syria, and now Gaza. Some are displaced and seek sanctuary in safer parts of their own countries, and others flee their own country for other lands. At Christmas time, we also remember that after the birth of Jesus, he too was a refugee from Bethlehem to another land. The story is recorded in Matthew 2:13-23.
"A ceasefire and peace - these are the two things I want for Christmas," says Brendan Metcalfe, chief executive of Friends of the Holy Land. Months of war between Israel and Gaza are taking a "terrible" toll on the entire region, with devastating consequences for people in the West Bank and Bethlehem who rely on tourism.
Jerusalem church leaders have met Israeli President Isaac Herzog to appeal for "an immediate and permanent humanitarian ceasefire". They said that their meeting with Herzog was "not a mere exchange of Holiday Season pleasantries" but was held with the purpose of "conveying the global ecclesiastical stance, demanding, on behalf of Christians worldwide, an immediate cessation of the bloodshed in Gaza".
The killing of an elderly woman and her daughter in Gaza City’s Holy Family Church on Saturday (Dec. 16) was the sixth attack by Israeli Defense Forces on the compound since war in Gaza broke out, a relative told The Washington Post.
Noting a widespread wave of arrests of religious minorities in Iran since June, the U.N. General Assembly last month adopted a resolution calling on the Islamic regime to “cease the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrests and detention.”
The uptick in anti-Christian acts in Israel that began last December continued last week when police arrested five suspects accused of harassing Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City.