Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide

1 June 2026

The Universal Christian Church of New Jerusalem remains committed to denouncing the recent reports coming from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East which reveal a pattern of persecution linking geographically distant regions that are gruesomely close in their hostility against Christianity. From Nigeria to China and Iran, Christians continue to face threats to their freedom amid global indifference.

Nigeria

On Thursday, 21 May, during the night, jihadist militants raided the Kurmin Bongo mission station, which is part of the Saints Peter and Paul Parish of Kurmin in the Dangana district of the Kagarko Local Government Area, Kaduna State. Five worshippers were killed and ten others abducted. This massacre is the latest in a series of an unbroken wave of attacks targeting local Catholic communities in recent months.

China

On 21 May, the Zengdu District Court in Suizhou City handed down the first sentences on thirty-one members of a Christian house church, marking one of the most extensive and coordinated crackdowns in recent years. In an attempt to deflect international attention, the authorities split the defendants into multiple separate trials. Among those sentenced was 77-year-old Pastor Yang Zhijin, who was convicted of “using a sectarian organisation to undermine law enforcement” and sentenced to three years and two months in prison, alongside an 8,000-yuan fine. The courts cited Bible study sessions, prayer meetings and instances of mutual pastoral support as evidence of guilt.

On 20 May, the Guandu Branch of the Public Security Bureau in Kunming (the capital of Yunnan Province) notified the respective families with arrest warrants issued for preacher Yu Shaolin and two congregants, Li Qin and Luo Ping, of the “Century New Town” Church, who are accused of “organizing illegal gatherings”. The three were arrested during a Sunday service and are currently being held at the Guandu District Detention Centre. The congregation consists of little more than thirty members, many of whom suffer from serious illnesses. Yu Shaolin himself is reportedly in critical health.

Indonesia

On Sunday 24 May, a mob of Muslims led by Islamic Jihad Front (IJF) militants stormed the newly leased premises of the Prosperous Mission Church (GMS) in the village of Panggungharjo just before a service was due to begin. Amid shouting, shoving and threats – including a warning that they would burn the church down – more than a dozen hooded men wearing jackets bearing the FJI logo blocked the entrance, while local police stood by passively. Terrified by the plight, the congregation, which included children and the elderly, was forced to evacuate the premises.

India

In Chhattisgarh State, persecution has taken the form of economic discrimination. For approximately three weeks, over one hundred and eighty Christian families across thirty-two villages in the Kanker district of the Antagarh region have been denied access to communal water sources and basic livelihood opportunities in retaliation for refusing to renounce their faith in Christ. Twenty-six families have been denied access to water, forty-one have been excluded from the state-guaranteed employment scheme, and more than a hundred have been banned from collecting tendu leaves. Some have even had their firewood confiscated. The openly stated objective of these boycotts is to force Christians to participate in programmes aimed at reconverting them to Hinduism.

During the same period in Uttar Pradesh, following a complaint filed by a Hindu activist, authorities launched legal proceedings against a group of Christians gathered for Sunday prayer in a private home, invoking the state’s stringent 2021 anti-conversion law. As in numerous previous cases, the pretext was the allegation that those in attendance were being subjected to illegal conversion.

Iran

On 22 May, it emerged that Ghazal Marzban, a Catholic convert and former prisoner of conscience, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison by Judge Iman Afshari of the Revolutionary Court. She was convicted of “propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security”. She was arrested in January at her home in Tehran, and her Bible and Christian literature were confiscated.

Only days prior, on Saturday, 16 May, the human rights lawyer Bahar Sahraian, who has defended many Christians, was arrested in Shiraz while checking her cases at the Revolutionary Court. She was taken to Adel Abad prison and faces charges of “collusion against national security”, “propaganda against the Islamic system” and “dissemination of falsehoods”.

As we enter the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem commends all believers – whose lives have become one with the Saviour’s Sacrifice on the Cross – to the pierced Heart of the Redeemer, the ardent source of Charity. The affliction and the blood of those who offer everything for the love of Christ find refuge in His Heart pierced by the sins of the world.

“It makes me happy to suffer for you,
as I am suffering now, and in my own body
to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ
for the sake of his body, the Church”
(Col 1: 24)