Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide
1 September 2026
The Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem publishes a weekly bulletin providing an overview of the persecution of Christians and Christendom around the world.
Africa
Ethiopia
On 24 August, the Somali Orthodox Diocese reported that an organised group had demolished the Medhanealem Tewahedo Orthodox Church in Jigjiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region. The diocese released footage showing the building completely destroyed and called on the regional authorities to identify those responsible.
Nigeria
On 19 August, unidentified assailants stormed the Castle of Mercy parish of the Celestial Church of Christ in the Waru district of Abuja during a service. They dragged Pastor Onaduja Oluwafemi Gbeminiyi, a Christian cleric, from his residence within the parish compound and beat him severely; he subsequently died from his injuries.
On 25 August, armed men attacked the Christian village of Rim in Riyom County, Plateau State, but the military successfully repelled the attack. Shortly afterwards, in neighbouring Gwarim, soldiers found the bodies of three Christian residents who had been killed while standing guard outside the settlement.
On 28 August, Fulani militants blocked the highway along the Barkin Ladi–Bokkos road in Plateau State, less than a mile from two military checkpoints. They intercepted a commercial minibus travelling from Jos and forcibly abducted two Protestant pastors, Hills Emmanuel and Gabriel Joseph Dipak. Pastor Hills Emmanuel’s body was found at dawn on 29 August 2026, while Gabriel Joseph Dipak remains captive.
That afternoon, Fulani militants launched a two-pronged attack on the Christian community of Manja in Mangu County. This attack was repelled by military personnel, and local resident Markus Yonpus was injured by gunfire. Later that evening, in Batok 2 (Bachi District, Riyom County), Fulani militants ambushed Helen John, a Christian resident, shooting her dead in a cornfield.
North America
Canada
On 24 August, the Catholic church of Saint-Simon, near Caraquet (New Brunswick), was destroyed by a fire which the provincial fire service confirmed had been started deliberately. The building is considered beyond repair.
Asia
China
On 15 August, police officers in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, ordered the wife of Protestant preacher Dai Zhichao of the Early Rain Covenant Church, an unregistered house church, to delete an article she had published in defence of her husband. He has been detained since January 2026 on charges of inciting subversion of state power and organising illegal gatherings. After she refused, her account was closed.
On 18 August, the Yinhai District Court in Beihai (Guangxi) refused to release Wang Zhong and Wu Qiuyu, two Protestant believers from the Zion Church who have been detained for over 320 days. Despite the public prosecutor recommending their release on bail, the court refused to grant it. The trial of eight Zion Church leaders and associates, which was scheduled for mid-August, has been postponed indefinitely.
India
On 22 August, in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, around twenty Bajrang Dal activists, accompanied by police officers, stormed a prayer meeting attended by Christian women in a private residence. They accused the women of carrying out illegal conversions. Three of the women were taken to the police station and charged under the state’s anti-conversion law.
On 24 August, in the same city, the court rejected Arun Pannalal’s application for release. Pannalal is a Protestant leader and president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum. He had been arrested on 7 August, as reported in the 11 August bulletin.
On 25 August, in Kathauli (Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh), the police arrested three Christians under the state’s anti-conversion law following a complaint filed by a local Bajrang Dal official regarding a service held on 23 August. This was reported in the previous bulletin.
Pakistan
On 20 August, Washaal Masih, a Christian man, was abducted in the Gajju Matta area of Lahore by three men. He was beaten and threatened with a firearm in an attempt to force him to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. He refused to renounce his faith.
Europe
Albania
On 25 August 2026, residents of Sinicë, in the Devoll municipality of the Korçë district, discovered that the Orthodox Church of Saint Athanasius, situated at an altitude of 1,300 metres, had been vandalised. The intruders slashed open bags of cement purchased by parishioners for building repairs and emptied them onto the ground. They also broke into the interior and smashed sacred icons and liturgical items, as well as damaging the cabinet containing liturgical books and scattering cement throughout the nave.
France
On 20 August, the Catholic faithful discovered that the door of the Blessed Sacrament chapel at the Church of St Joseph in Joué-lès-Tours (Indre-et-Loire) had been forced open. The perpetrators had used a fire extinguisher to break through the door and had forced the tabernacle, scattering its contents on the floor. However, nothing was stolen. On 25 August, at the start of a Mass of reparation, the Catholic Archbishop of Tours, Monsignor Vincent Jordy, announced that the Catholic church in Monts had also been broken into – the sixth such incident in just over a month.
Between 23 and 24 August, unknown individuals broke into the Catholic chapel of Notre-Dame de la Route in Sainte-Marguerite-d’Elle (Calvados), smashing a stained-glass window and forcing open a door with a crowbar. They damaged the tabernacle and removed the chalice and the consecrated hosts.
Italy
In the night between 25 and 26 August, the Catholic chapel in the Santo Spirito cemetery in Bari was desecrated. The altar was destroyed, the tabernacle was smashed and removed, the consecrated hosts were taken, the statue of the Virgin Mary was damaged, and sacred vestments were stolen.
The following day, 27 August, the Catholic shrine of Sant’Elena Imperatrice in Siniscola (Nuoro) was devastated. The high altar was partially destroyed, the wooden statue of the saint was decapitated and its hands were mutilated, and the walls and altar were smeared with paint bearing sacrilegious inscriptions and satanic symbols. Several liturgical objects are missing from the shrine.
Then, on Saturday 29 August, the Catholic chapel in the municipal cemetery in Pavia was desecrated. Unknown persons forced the entrance, wrenched open the tabernacle and removed the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts, leaving several scattered on the ground.
Russia
On 20 August, the Moscow Regional Court rejected the appeal of Aleksej Kručinin, a Baptist pastor from Krasnogorsk, upholding his conviction for ‘participating in the activities of an undesirable organisation’. The court also finalised an order to destroy religious literature seized from his church, including 178 copies of the New Testament and 74 booklets of the Gospel of John, which were published by the Protestant missionary organisation Mission Eurasia. On the same day, St Petersburg Christian University was fined for holding volumes from the same publisher in its library.
San Marino
On the morning of 22 August, when the Republic was hosting a visit from the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, intruders gained access to the rear of the Servite Friars’ Catholic monastery in Valdragone. The church and sacristy were ransacked; several items were damaged and approximately €1,000 of personal savings and parishioner offerings were stolen. The perpetrators also opened the chapel tabernacle and took the pyx, scattering out the consecrated hosts.
Middle East
Israel
On the weekend of 29–30 August, Israeli police detained four people on charges of having spitted at the Armenian Cathedral of St. James, the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in the Old City. This is not the first time that the cathedral has been targeted; it was also attacked on 2 August, as reported in the 11 August bulletin.
In fervent prayer, the Mother Church turns her loving gaze towards all her sons who are persecuted for the sake of Justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you too;
if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well”
(Jn 15:20)