World

South Korean prosecutors arrested the elderly leader of a secretive religious sect Saturday as part of an investigation into allegations that the church hampered the government’s anti-virus response after thousands of worshipers were infected in February and March.

Persecuted Christians in Sudan are safer after the nation decriminalized apostasy, ended flogging and made other reforms through the new Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act.

The president of Turkey on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had made the religious landmark a museum. The decision sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly working on plans to annex about one-third of the Palestinian West Bank into Israel, but Baptists in the region are speaking out against such a move. While many U.S. evangelicals support the modern secular nation of Israel, Baptists who live and minister in that nation or the territory it occupies see the situation much differently.

Five mixed-race women born in Congo when the country was under Belgian rule who were taken away from their Black mothers have filed a lawsuit for crimes against humanity targeting the Belgian state. 

Like many restaurants around the world, Nikos Katsouris has seen his eatery in Lesbos, Greece, close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, he and his partner, Katerina Koveou, have been providing their former customers who are refugees items like toothpaste, diapers, and imperishable groceries. 

Baptists in the Central Asia nation of Kazakhstan have long faced persecution from their government. Now, Kazak officials are using coronavirus restrictions to again target a Baptist church.

As people in Bristol, England, joined global rallies against racial injustices, some protesters on Sunday (June 7) toppled a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and tossed it into the city’s harbor. A British Baptist leader who lives in Bristol told Word&Way the statue should’ve previously been removed.

Workers suspended from ropes will be lowered into the charred remains of scaffolding that melted atop Notre Dame when the cathedral went up in flames and begin the delicate job of dismantling the 200 tons of metal.

Baptists across the world have been impacted by coronavirus as it upended in-person worship services, impacted local economies, and increased ministry needs. But the virus has also infected Baptists in various countries, including recent tragedies in Germany and Cameroon.