Release International

Tight security surrounds the court in Istanbul where two Turkish Christians are standing trial for insulting their Turkish identity and reviling Islam. The trail revolves around the offence caused by their conversion to Christianity. (For more details, see Compass Direct News).

In Burma, Release sources say the military government has closed down two house churches in Mandalay. A pastor who runs an underground Bible school says he’s forced to hold classes before sunrise and after sunset to avoid the attention of government informers. Pastor Joshua – not his real name – says the government is clamping down on Christianity…

‘We are not allowed to have worship service at house; we are not allowed to build a church building. We are not allowed to build a building for Bible college. So we are oppressed. So many times we tell our people: 'Don't sing loudly, don't pray loudly’.

For a video report on Burma’s Underground Believers download February’s World Update from the Release International website.

A British MP has delivered a petition to the North Korean Embassy in London protesting against abuses of ‘fundamental human rights’ in the country. Some observers believe North Korea is the world’s worst persecutor of Christians. Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea helps refugees leave the country:

‘Christians are not allowed to have a Bible, they're not allowed to gather and if it is revealed that a family is Christian, then not only the one who has committed this state crime would be taken off to reform institution or a political prison camp but that individual's children and their parents - three generations.’

In the UK, Christians are fighting for the right to exercise their freedom of conscience in the face of new legislation.

Two Christian doctors say a new law effectively forces them to give positive references for homosexual couples seeking to adopt children. They claim GPs who refuse on grounds of conscience could be struck off the register.

And a Christian fostering and adoption support service has announced that it faces closure because of the new rules.

The Cornerstone agency says it cannot in all conscience recommend homosexual couples to adoption agencies. But the new law gives them no choice – it overrules their religious and moral objections (For more details, see Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship).

Release International serves the persecuted Church in 30 nations. Additional sources in this bulletin were Compass Direct and the Lawyer’s Christian Fellowship. For video reports from the persecuted Church download our monthly webcast – World Update – available from the Release International website: www.releaseinternational.org

ENDS

Notes to the Editor 

For further information, please contact Andrew Boyd on 01730 301905, or Release International on 01689 823491 or by email at info@releaseinternational.org 

Through our international network of missions RI serves persecuted Christians in 30 countries, supporting pastors and Christian prisoners and their families, supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice. RI is a member of the UK organisations Global Connections, the Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network.

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