We pray and hope that this meeting will lead to decisive action to protect and aid persecuted Christians worldwide.
“King hears testimony of persecuted Christians,” by Patrick Hudson, The Tablet, December 12, 2022:
The King met a priest who survived abduction and death threats in Nigeria, at an Advent gathering of Christian charities in London last week.
Fr Alfred Ebalu, who now serves in the Archdiocese of Southwark, was part of a delegation from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), who spoke to the King on his visit on 8 December to King’s House, a mission centre run by the evangelical KXC.
Fr Ebalu described the growing persecution of Christian in his country – violence which ACN has said “clearly passes the threshold of genocide”.
The charity’s delegation, led by its UK director Dr Caroline Hull, provided the King with an overview of mounting attacks on Christians in other parts of Africa.
They also introduced the King to the report Persecuted and Forgotten? published last month, which detailed worsening conditions for Christian communities across the world. Covering the period 2020-22, it found that the persecution of Christians increased in three-quarters of the countries surveyed.
The author of the report, John Pontifex, and the charity’s chaplain, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, also joined the delegation.
Speaking after the event, Dr Hull said: “We are so grateful to the King for giving us the opportunity to introduce him to witnesses of Christian persecution.”…
