Following is a summary of some of the highlights from 1997 (perhaps we should call them lowlights), as reported by Compass Direct News Service. (For more information on Compass Direct, they may be contacted at <> )

NEW FACES AT THE TOP OF CHINA’S OFFICIAL PROTESTANT CHURCH China’s official Protestants have two new leaders following the retirement of the long-serving Bishop Ding Guangxun. Dr. Han Wenzao takes over as head of the China Christian Council, which oversees pastoral and ecclesiastical functions. Mr. Luo Guanzong becomes the head of the Three Self Patriotic Movement, which oversees church policy and monitors foreign relations. It is feared the two leaders will be even more controlled by the Chinese Communist Party organs that oversee religion than was Ding.

EGYPTIAN ARMY AGAIN ATTACKS CHRISTIAN LAND RECLAMATION PROJECT Egyptian soldiers attacked a Christian farm outside Cairo without warning for the second time in six weeks, destroying 600 meters of the stone walls surrounding the 100-acre land reclamation project on January 30. The surprise attack followed a previous assault on the farm on December 15, 1996, when troops from the same Second Unit Army Camp 15 miles east of Cairo sacked and bulldozed three agricultural buildings and a center designed for mentally disabled children.

RAMPAGING MUSLIMS SET FIRE TO CHURCHES IN PAKISTAN Convinced that unidentified Christians had desecrated a copy of the Koran, a mob of 30,000 Muslim rioters went on the rampage in Pakistan’s Punjab province on February 6, burning down churches, homes and shops of their Christian neighbors. At least three churches in Khanewal and the nearby Christian village of Shantinagar were torched and destroyed by the agitators.

MUSLIM MILITANTS KILL 10 CHRISTIANS IN SOUTHERN EGYPT Ten Coptic Christians were killed at a church in Abu Qurqas, southern Egypt, when suspected Muslim extremists opened fire with automatic rifles February 12.

SCORES OF HOUSE CHURCH LEADERS ARRESTED IN CHINA Chinese authorities arrested and jailed over 100 house church leaders in the first three months of 1997. Some were released after three days, but Compass has learned that approximately 55 leaders still remain in prison.

CATHOLIC CENTER DESTROYED IN SUDAN Police drove a bulldozer through a Catholic church and school in a shanty town south of Khartoum a day after parishioners celebrated Easter. The destruction followed similar moves by authorities in December and January, when a Catholic church, three schools and a community center were leveled in Khartoum North and Omdurman.

NINE BAPTISTS BEATEN BY ORTHODOX MOB IN ROMANIA A group of Baptists meeting in a rented room in the village of Ruginoasa, in northeast Romania, were assaulted and beaten by a furious mob of Orthodox believers on Easter Sunday. During the service, a crowd of about 700 Orthodox, led by their priest, surrounded the house they were using for worship. The crowd was joined by another 150 people carrying crosses and icons from a neighboring village. When the Baptists came out of the building, When the Baptists came out of the building, the crowd started to beat and kick them.

A KURD WHO DARED TO CONFESS CHRIST OPENLY Mansour Hussein Sifer, a Kurdish convert to Christianity in Northern Iraq, was murdered by an unknown assassin on the morning of April 21 in the Christian bookshop where he worked in Arbil. No clear motive was known for the killing, apart from the victim’s profession of faith in Christ which had provoked some threats against his life.

TWO FILIPINO CHRISTIANS BEHEADED BY SAUDI ARABIA Two Filipino Christians involved in Bible studies and Christian prayers in the Saudi prison where they were jailed were beheaded by the sword on May 4 in Riyadh.

SECURITY AGENTS EJECT CHRISTIANS FROM NIGERIAN CHURCH Nigerian security agents, in collaboration with Islamic leaders, stormed Victory Christian Church in Maiduguri town in northern Nigeria on May 15. The pastor and church members were forcefully ejected from the church by a contingent of the Nigeria Police Force.

PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN ETHIOPIA ATTACKED BY ORTHODOX MOB At least 51 Ethiopian Protestants were seriously injured May 17 after a stone-throwing mob of Orthodox church members and street youths attacked a spiritual conference in the southern Ethiopian city of Arba Minch.

TWO HUNDRED HOUSE CHURCHES CLOSED IN WENZHOU, CHINA Two hundred house church congregations in Wenzhou, southern Zhejiang province, have had their church buildings demolished or closed by government officials since the beginning of 1997, when a campaign to force unofficial churches to register was kicked into a higher gear. Approximately 40 Christians have been arrested during the month of June, though many were released after a 500 Yuan ($65) fine.

INDIAN EVANGELIST KILLED IN BIHAR STATE Anti-Christian groups in the East Indian state of Bihar attacked a group of Christian evangelists in July, killing their leader, Mangal Pande, and injuring five others seriously. Pande was conducting gospel meetings when the attack occurred.

NEW TRIBES MISSIONARIES STILL HELD July 31 marked four and one-half years of captivity for Charles David Mankins, Mark V. Rich and Richard L. Tenenhoff, all missionaries of New Tribes Mission. Mankins, Rich, and Tenenhoff were abducted in southern Panama on January 31, 1993, where they, along with their wives, worked as church planters. Sources in Colombia have confirmed that they are being held by a guerrilla movement known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

VIETNAMESE HOUSE CHURCH RAIDED, LEADERS BRACE FOR MORE TROUBLE A major house church meeting point was raided in Ho Chi Minh City in late July. Police seized over 500 Bibles, training books and videos from the District One site of the 16,000-member Assemblies of God (AOG) in Vietnam. The AOG is recognized by AOG worldwide, but not by the Vietnamese government.

XU YONGZE GIVEN 10-YEAR SENTENCE IN CHINA China’s most famous Protestant Christian prisoner–Xu Yongze–was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp on September 25. This is believed to be the harshest sentence handed to a Christian believer since 1982. Fifty-six-year-old Xu [also known as Peter Xu] was arrested on March 16 along with seven other Chinese Christians.

ATTENTION FOCUSES ON HOW NEW RUSSIAN RELIGION LAW WILL BE IMPLEMENTED Members of Russia’s minority religious communities made unsuccessful attempts to prevent the adoption of the Russian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, which received approval from President Boris Yeltsin on September 26. Critics within Russia and abroad have charged that the law is unconstitutional and will lead to persecution of some minority religions.

MESSIANIC SYNAGOGUE FIREBOMBED IN ISRAEL A messianic synagogue in a Haifa suburb was badly damaged on October 21 in what investigators believe was a deliberate arson attack. Violent attacks against messianic Jews have increased dramatically.

TURKMENISTAN CHURCHES RELEGATED TO ILLEGAL STATUS In November, government authorities in Turkmenistan intensified a nationwide crackdown of harassment and intimidation against the Protestant Christian churches in the country, according to reliable sources within the small Central Asian state. Due to a presidential decree requiring a minimum of 500 adult members to be registered as a church, only the Russian Orthodox Church has been allowed to maintain its official status with the Ashkebad government.

CASTRO MEETS WITH PROTESTANTS In anticipation of the upcoming January visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba, President Fidel Castro held his first meeting in seven years with the island’s non-Catholic leaders. Castro met with Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Pentecostal, Baptist and Jewish leaders in a nine-hour session on November 24. The last such meeting between Castro and Cuban Protestant church leaders took place in 1990.

The Cuban president told the leaders that the country needs the prayers and efforts of all of its Christian citizens to help solve its economic problems. The Protestant church leaders raised issues such as the construction of new churches and the question of participation in the distribution of humanitarian aid to the population. They also discussed social issues such as prostitution and abortion.

MOB BURNS DOWN CHURCH NEAR INDONESIAN CAPITAL A mob burned down a church outside the Indonesian capital of Jakarta Dec. 24. No one was injured, police and church leaders said. The Rev. Frank Magnis-Suseno of the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, said the small church was set on fire in the Bumi Serpong Damai district by a crowd that attacked and ransacked the building. Magnis-Suseno said he had not heard of any casualties in the attack, whose motive was unclear. Other officials said police had been dispatched to the area and tensions had waned, Reuters news reported. Magnis-Suseno said the congregation in the Protestant church had celebrated Christmas on Tuesday. “This morning, the church was burned down. I don’t know why,” he said Wednesday. “It was attacked by a mass of people.”

Churches often are the target of rioters in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation of 200 million people. About a year ago, at least four people were killed when mobs rampaged through the Central Java town of Tasikmalaya and set churches on fire after reports that police had attacked Muslim teachers. In October 1996, a temple and 25 churches were burned down and five people were killed in riots in the Situbondo area of East Java.

============================================ This information was forwarded by the WEF Religious-Liberty e-mail Conference <> It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of World Evangelical Fellowship, or of the WEF Religious Liberty Commission.