Fiona Bruce MP
Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion of Belief
For those persecuted simply for what they believe Christmas will be very different
Christmas for me, as for so many of us, means being with family. Being with my own family – I am especially looking forward to seeing the younger of my two sons this year who lives in America. I have not see him for two years due to Covid travel restrictions. It means too being with the Christian family – attending traditional candlelit carol services, and gathering together in friends' homes for mince pies, mulled wine – and more!
But that is not going to be the case for so many other people around the world, and the travel challenges which have divided my family pale into insignificance with the restrictions and suffering affecting others.
There will be no Christmas break with her family for the 70-year-old Jehovah’s Witness woman, Valentina Baranovskaya, in prison in Siberia for breaching the Russian criminal code – as is her son. The JWs are a banned extremist organisation there.
Nor for Maira Shahbaz, a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Pakistan, kidnapped last year from just outside her home, raped, ‘forcibly married’, forced to convert to Islam and even when she managed to escape finding no justice through the legal system there, and now living in hiding with her family in fear of their lives.
Nor will there be a Christmas for Chang Weiping, a lawyer in prison in China for over a year, forced to sit on a “tiger chair” for up to six days at a time and facing round the clock interrogations, subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation, lack of adequate food and hygiene facilities. All because he represented clients in support of their freedom of religion or belief.
And teenage Christian Leah Sharibu, kidnapped along with 113 other schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria, will spend her fourth Christmas apart from her mother Rebecca. Brave Leah is the only one of those schoolgirls not to have been released – because she has refused to renounce her faith.
Nor will Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, leader of the Monte de Sion Independent Church in Cuba be with his wife Maridilegnis and their children. He has been detained in prison, charged with crimes including ‘disrespect’ and ‘public disorder,’ at risk of a ten year prison sentence and subject to brutal beatings. Maridilegnis says “I have been married to Pastor Lorenzo Rosales for more than 20 years and we have served God since then. He is not a criminal; he is a man of God. I am very afraid for his life, my children and I plead for help - cries for help which we lift up to God.”
All of this has happened to these people, and is happening to countless numbers of people of different faiths and beliefs around the world today, because of what they believe. And the extent of this in the 21st century is not only simply staggering but largely unrecognised – it is estimated that over 83% of the world’s population live in a country where their right to practice their faith or belief is restricted, for many severely, and often by their own Government. It is also estimated that 80% of the persecution globally is against Christians. And this gravely disturbing phenomenon is growing. Even during the Covid pandemic, members of religious groups around the world have been scapegoated – blamed and ostracised – for the pandemic in their countries and excluded from health treatments to alleviate it.
Do you remember the campaign started by the churches in this country ‘Stop the Traffik?’ That ultimately led to the Government passing the Modern Day Slavery Act to tackle the scourge of human trafficking – particularly of young girls into prostitution – in this country.
A new campaign has just been started which I hope your church may consider being among the first to join – ‘End The Persecution.’ Please find more about how you can support this at EndThePersecution.uk.
To learn more about this tragic global phenomenon affecting people like those above please visit Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s website – https://www.csw.org.uk. It is my great privilege to work with their Founder President, Mervyn Thomas CMG, as the new Chair of the UK Fin my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief.
More information about FoRB can also be found on Open Doors’ website - https://www.opendoorsuk.org/ and the website of Aid to the Church in Need - https://acnuk.org/.
Let us hope and work for a better Christmastime in years to come for those named above, and others, persecuted simply for what they believe. In the meantime, I hope that whilst you remember them in prayers, you very much enjoy your own Christmas this year with your church family.