Religious Liberty Prayer List – No. 080 – Thu 31 Aug 2000

WELCOME to all those who have joined the list recently.

————- AUGUST UPDATE ————-

During August we focused on Christians suffering persecution in India, Maluku, Sudan and Nigeria. Please continue to remember these persecuted believers in your prayers. These are updates –

* MALUKU: Very little news is coming out of Maluku at present and the situation remains extremely critical for all Christians there. The Indonesian government appears incapable or unwilling to rein in the violence, and the international community appears reluctant to get involved at any level. So while the jihad warriors are well connected to funds, reinforcements and arms from Java and the worldwide Islamic community, the Christian community is left virtually defenceless, very vulnerable and totally terrorised.

* SUDAN: Whilst aid agencies in the UN’s Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) were permitted to resume relief flights into Southern Sudan from 16 August ‘in full agreement with the government’, civilians in areas that remain outside the ‘agreement with the government’ continue to suffer aerial bombardment and flight bans. Four OLS relief workers were working in Maiwut when it was bombed on 21 August, though the government had guaranteed their safety.

The Government of Sudan is seen to be preparing to intensify this conflict, to halt the Southern People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) advance on the oil fields. (The SPLA sees them as strategic military targets, with southerners being killed and displaced from the oil regions by the thousands and the oil revenues being used to fund the war). The predominantly Christian population of Southern Sudan face not only the Islamic jihad, but they are also the ‘human price of oil today’. (Amnesty International, ‘SUDAN: The Human Price of Oil.’ 3 May 2000)

OTHER ISSUES OF CONCERN IN AUGUST –

* CHINA: On Wednesday 23 August, another raid against a house-church in Henan Province resulted in the arrest of 109 Christians (3 of them US citizens) on the grounds of illegal religious activity. Fangcheng Church (as it is known) is mainline, conservative and evangelical, and has around 500,000 members. The same church was raided this time last year and several of its leaders remain in labour camps. Whilst the 3 US citizens have since been released, the remaining Christians are being held and questioned in the Xihua Detention Centre.

The arrests coincided with a visit to the US by leaders of the State sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement and the China Patriotic Catholic Association. They are attending the World Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the UN, and have declared that Chinese citizens have full religious freedom, with the dawn of a golden age for religion in China.

* SRI LANKA: Six local indigenous church centres showing the ‘Jesus Film’ were viciously attacked by a mob led by local Buddhist monks. The workers were physically assaulted and the equipment and buildings were damaged. Buddhist nationalism and extremism has grown in Sri Lanka over the past few years as a result of the long running civil war. Pastors and evangelists are preparing themselves and fellow believers to face intensifying persecution.

* KOSOVO: On 18 August, yet another Serb church was destroyed, the beautiful Orthodox Church of St. Elijah in central Kosovo, which was built in 1834. A month earlier the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Srbinje was dynamited, as was the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Pomazatin, 12 km west of Pristina. Some 100 Orthodox religious sites have been either severely vandalised or totally destroyed since KFOR and UNMIK took over the administration of Kosovo.

Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren says two-thirds of his diocesan faithful are displaced; his remaining flock ghettoised; innocent women killed on their way to church at Christmas; monks abducted; clergy put on public hit lists; nuns raped and/or intimidated; Orthodox Christian cemeteries vandalised and desecrated; grenades hurled at Decani Monastery; and international humanitarian aid has been stopped as Orthodox Christian relief workers are harassed because of the Orthodox crosses on their logos.

IN EACH OF THESE SITUATIONS PLEASE PRAY FOR:

* suffering believers to remain strong in their faith and that God will intervene to protect, comfort and minister to them.

* witness to the persecutors. ‘They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.’ John 16:3

* EXTRA PRAYER REQUEST FOR VIETNAM AMNESTY:

On 2 September 2000, Vietnam will celebrate the 55th anniversary of national independence. That day, there will be a general amnesty of more than 10,000 prisoners. About 25 Christians are in prison in Vietnam for their faith and witness. As Christian evangelists and pastors are generally seen as a serious threat to national security they are normally not released in such amnesties. However: ‘The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.’ (Psalm 103:19) Pray for God to intervene as President Tran Duc Luong considers the list of prisoners.

* PLEASE USE ANY OR ALL OF THESE SEGMENTS IN YOUR BULLETIN *

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