Nigeria’s Orthodox Christians live with the same fear of persecution that the other Christians of the nation must endure. This persecution threatens to overwhelm Nigeria’s growing Orthodox community. According to Naij.com, “In 1966, the first Orthodox Church in the country was built for the Greek community. It happened with the money of the Cypriot brothers Anastasia and Christodoula Levedi. It was dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. The temple is located in the capital of the country. Now it has become the cathedral of the Nigerian Diocese of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, and its parishioners are not only Greeks, but also Russians, Lebanese, Georgians, Bulgarians and, of course, Orthodox Nigerians living in the country….It is worth emphasizing that the appeal of the native inhabitants of the country to Orthodoxy itself began not because of the activity of missionaries but as a result of spiritual searches of the Nigerians themselves.”
Please pray that this spiritual awakening in Nigeria not end, but grow and spread, and that the persecutors of Christians would themselves lay down their arms and embrace Holy Orthodoxy.
“Fulani Muslims kill 7 Christians day after Christmas; media narrative of clashes is false, watchdog says,” by Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post, December 28, 2018:
Islamic Fulani radicals murdered seven Christians in a Nigerian town the day after Christmas, according to persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern.
The ICC, which has been documenting the targeted killings of believers in Nigeria, said that armed Fulani militants attacked the town of Rawuru in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State on Wednesday.
The village suffered another deadly incident in June, when 230 Christians were murdered by militants.
“The size and coordination of those attacks showed that this could not just be another small local clash. It was clearly a well thought out and preplanned attack meant to kill as many people as possible,” ICC said.
“These types of attacks are not the normal farmer-herder conflict that the Nigerian government has been trying to claim they are,” they continued, referring to both government and international mainstream media reports attempting to portray the murders as a result of clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers.
“They are clearly meant to kill, terrify, and displace local villagers from their land. If the Nigerian government does not end this conflict sometime soon, there could be continued violent conflict which turns into a civil war.”
AFP also reported on the attack in Rawuru, though it said that five people were killed, while another two were injured.
State police spokesman Tyopeeve Terna said the victims were returning home late Wednesday from a birthday party in the neighboring Pugu village when they were ambushed….
