Pakistani Supreme Court recognises the civil value of Christian marriages

From Pakistan-

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has restored the value and the civil effects of Christian marriage, by ordering the “National Database and Registration Authority” of Pakistan and the Punjab government to reactivate the official registration of marriages celebrated in churches by Christian citizens.

‘Zenit’ reported that the decision was welcomed by Christians in Pakistan. “This marriage registration provision existed before 2013”, said Kashif Aslam, coordinator of the program of the National Commission for Justice and Peace. “Local governments had suspended it, along with a package of other measures, but now the Supreme Court has restored it. The registration of Christian marriages will help to complete the data of marriages in Christian communities.”

The order of the Supreme Court is the result of the appeal presented by Pastor Shahid P. Meraj, dean of the Anglican Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore. “The lawsuit began in 2018 because the fact that marriages celebrated by Christians had no legal and civil value was considered serious,” Pastor Shahid Meraj told Fides News Agency.

Anglican Bishop Alexander John Malik, at the head of the Anglican Church in Pakistan said during the trial: “According to the Christian Marriage Act of 1872, marriages celebrated in the Church, once completed the register of marriages, are transmitted to the General Chancellery of Births, Deaths and Marriages. This process went on for many years without any problems, however, once the Union Councils on a provincial basis were established, births, deaths and marriages records are transmitted to the Councils of Union, which started, however, not to register Christian marriages anymore.”

More here-

https://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2019/02/01/pakistani-supreme-court-recognises-the-civil-value-of-christian-marriages/?lang=en

Pakistan Acquits Christian Woman Facing Death Penalty For Blasphemy

From Huffington-

A Christian woman who was sentenced to death in Pakistan eight years ago on blasphemy charges has been acquitted by the country’s top court.

Asia Bibi’s release was ordered by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in a landmark ruling which could ignite mass protests or violence by hardline Islamists.

Bibi had been held at an undisclosed location for security reasons and is expected to leave the country.

The charges against her date back to a hot day in 2009, when she went to get water for herself and her fellow farm workers.

Two Muslim women refused to drink from a container used by a Christian, and a few days later, a mob accused her of blasphemy. She was convicted and sentenced to death.

More here-

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/pakistan-acquits-christian-woman-facing-death-penalty-for-blasphemy_uk_5bd96ad4e4b019a7ab58748f?s2&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__103118&fbclid=IwAR0CWOqwxyNJRQapPVE4CTSrmT7-yRWddP9gtgYb_bIiKsSf4HEiWMqET-I&guccounter=1

Nine killed as terrorists target Church Nativity service in Quetta, Pakistan

From Anglican News-

The Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop Humphrey Peters, is to visit the Christian community in Quetta after terrorists killed nine people attending a pre-Christmas service. The terror group Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Bethel Memorial Church in the Pakistan province of Balochistan. The full details of the attack remain confused, with conflicting accounts. It appears that four terrorists were involved in the attack. One detonated his suicide vest at the entrance to the church compound. Another opened fire at the entrance to the church before being shot by security officials. Two terrorists fled the scene and a security operation was underway to locate them. The security operation succeeded in preventing the terrorists from entering the church itself. In addition to the nine dead, around 60 people were injured.

Speaking to a local pastor attached to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), one of the victims described the attack: “I heard loud gunfire and people screaming, some of them fell dead after being shot through the walls others were riven in blood, then a loud explosion occurred,” she said. “There was dust everywhere; people were rushing to help those injured. It was terrifying.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/12/nine-killed-as-terrorists-target-church-nativity-service-in-quetta-pakistan.aspx

They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Drinks

From Christianity Today-

The deadliest incident faced by the persecuted church last Christmas wasn’t radical Islamists. It was alcohol.

Liquor mixed with aftershave killed about 50 people at Christmas parties in a Pakistani village, and sickened about 100 more.

In Pakistan, as in many Muslim-majority nations where Shari‘ah law forbids drinking, alcohol is closely identified with Christianity. The nation’s primary alcohol producer, for example, riffs on the Bible in advertisements. Founded in 1860 by the British, Murree Brewery’s slogan, “Eat, drink, and be Murree,” echoes the repeated biblical idiom for short-term pleasures.

Perhaps as surprising as the existence of a Pakistani brewery is the fact that 12 Muslims were among the victims of the fatal Christmas parties. But in 2007, then–Murree CEO Minnoo Bhandara told The Telegraph that 99 percent of his customers are Muslims. And in the Middle East, alcohol sales increased 72 percent from 2001 to 2011, according to market research.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/april/they-will-know-we-are-christians-by-alcohol-muslim-world.html

How the Pakistani government just helped an enslaved Christian community

From Fox News (Interesting map showing persecution of Christians world-wide)

Accused of not doing enough to protect the Christian minority, the Pakistani government has taken steps to improve the quality of life for a community of poor Christians living in squalor as bonded laborers in a rural area of Jaranwala in the Punjab Province.

According to the London-based charity British Pakistani Christian Association, the High Commission of Pakistan in London authorized the construction of 10 brick washroom facilities that will serve roughly 100 Christian families who live in mud homes and are too poor to afford their own toilets, plumbing and clean drinking water.

Prior to the existence of washroom facilities, which were completed in February, the impoverished people in the community were forced to use open fields as toilets and even get their drinking water from unsanitary sources, such as puddles.

More here-

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03/10/how-pakistani-government-just-helped-enslaved-christian-community.html

Even Chamberlain never spoke in terms of “interfaith relations.”

From The American Spectator-

Celebrated British columnist Michael Wharton (“Peter Simple”of the Daily Telegraph) once wrote to the effect that the Anglican Church seemed determined to drag itself down to a level so far beneath contempt that there was no expression to adequately describe it.

Readers may contemplate the following story — I mean “narrative” — and decide for themselves whether or not he was exaggerating.

In Sheikhupur, Pakistan in June, 2009, a poor Christian woman, Assiya Noreen, mother of five children, who were the only Christian family in her village, was harvesting berries in a field with a group of Moslem women. She was asked to fetch water for the others. She did so, but stopped to take a drink from an old metal cup she had found lying next to the well. It turned ouit this was a Muslim cup and her fellow workers attacked her for this. She was said to have declared “I believe in my religion and Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?”

More here-

http://spectator.org/an-anglican-narrative/

Massive cross rises in violent Pakistan port city, home to an often-fearful Christian minority

From Minnesota-

Now towering over this violent port city in Pakistan, where Islamic militant attacks and gangland shootings remain common, is an uncommon sight in this Muslim-majority country: a 42-meter (140-foot) Christian cross.

The cross, being built by a businessman who said the idea came to him in a dream, is rising as Christians here often face discrimination. A tiny minority of Pakistan's 180 million people are Christians who eke out livings in menial jobs like garbage collection.

Christians have faced mob violence in blasphemy cases, which often turn out to be false allegations over personal disputes. Under Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, anyone accused of insulting Islam, the Prophet Muhammad or other religious Islamic figures can be sentenced to death.
More here-

http://www.startribune.com/giant-cross-rises-in-pakistan-home-to-a-christian-minority/305598141/

Church of Pakistan supports those affected by bombings

From Anglican News Service-

Prayer, trauma counselling and security are top priorities for the Church in Pakistan (United) in the aftermath of the bombings of Christ Church and St John's Catholic Church in Youhanabad, Lahore, during Sunday services on 15 March, Bishop Irfan Jamil told the Anglican Alliance in a recent conference call.

The Bishop of Lahore Diocese reported that he and his team had been visiting those who had lost loved ones or had been injured in the attacks, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 70.

The church would continue to respond to those affected by the attacks, said Bishop Jamil.

A first priority would be to build capacity and gain official support in the area of security in order to ensure better protection for the people, he said, and a second priority would be to provide culturally-appropriate trauma counselling for those most affected.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2015/04/church-of-pakistan-supports-those-affected-by-bombings.aspx

The dam of self-restraint bursts for Pakistan’s Christians

From The Washington Post-

The smell of burned cloth, wood and plastic lingered in the silent ruins eight months after a mob torched the row of modest homes. Nothing had been removed. Leaders of the small Christian community in Gojra, a district near Lahore, Pakistan, had preserved what they could as a shrine to their victimhood. In one abandoned home, a charred birdcage still hung in the kitchen; in another, a blackened Bible lay open on a table.

Muslims and Christians had lived together, though on separate blocks, in this working-class neighborhood for generations. But the comity vanished in a matter of hours after a rumor spread that someone at a Christian wedding had torn up a copy of the Koran. Muslims surged into the streets, furious at the supposed blasphemers. By the next morning, numerous houses had been gutted and seven people had been burned alive.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dam-of-self-restraint-breaks-for-pakistans-christians/2015/03/20/13f8c7d6-cdb5-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html

Into the Fiery Furnace: Christian Couple in Pakistan Burned for Blasphemy

From Christianity Today-

In the most provocative incident since Pakistan’s highest court ruled this summer that blasphemy law abuses should be reigned in, a Christian couple were beaten and burned to death on Tuesday following accusations that the wife—five months pregnant—had burned the Qur’an.

Shahzad Masih and Shama Bibi were bonded laborers (seen by many as a modern form of slavery) at a brick-making kiln who lived in a small Punjab town named for the first Anglican missionary to Pakistan. After a mob threw them into the same kiln, protests erupted in the provincial capital, Lahore, and the nation’s capital, Islamabad.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/november/into-fiery-furnace-christians-pakistan-burned-blasphemy.html

Tight security for Archbishop Welby in Pakistan

From the Church Times-

THE threat facing minorities in Pakistan was laid bare on Monday, the day of the Archbishop of Canterbury's arrival in the country, when an American doctor was shot dead in the Punjab province.

Mehdi Ali, a volunteer cardiologist born in Pakistan, was a member of the minority Ahmadi community, which faces persecution in the country.

Security is tight for Archbishop Welby's visit to the country. On Tuesday, he met the diocesan bishops of the Church of Pakistan, the Governor of Punjab, and leaders from a range of faith communities.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/30-may/news/world/tight-security-for-archbishop-welby-in-pakistan

Interfaith harmony: Anglican leader on trip to Pakistan

From International New York Times-

The Archbishop of Canterbury met church leaders in Pakistan on Tuesday as he began a week-long visit to the region.

Justin Welby, the leader of the world’s Anglicans, will meet Muslim leaders and senior government officials during his stay, part of a week-long tour that will also take in India and Bangladesh.
Christians are a small minority in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Muslims.

They have suffered attacks in recent years, most notoriously last September when a double suicide attack at a church in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 82 people.

Welby met Bishop Samuel Azariah, Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, in the eastern town of Raiwind on Tuesday, a spokesman said.


More here-


http://tribune.com.pk/story/714199/interfaith-harmony-anglican-leader-on-trip-to-pakistan/

Pakistan Christians Targeted Specifically for 'Their Faith in Jesus Christ,' Says Global Anglican Leader

From Christian Post-

Citing the recent Pakistan church bombings and violence against Syrian Christians as an example, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby asserted this week that "Christians have been attacked simply because of their faith."

"I think it is true in Peshawar that we have seen more than 80 martyrs in the last few days and they have been attacked because they were testifying to their faith in Jesus Christ by going to church, and that is outside any acceptable expression in any circumstances for any reason of religious difference," he said on BBC Radio's The World at One, as he gave an update on the various challenges confronting Christians around the world.

The archbishop called the Peshawar church bombing that killed over 80 Pakistanis on Sunday "an absolutely appalling attack."
More here-

http://www.christianpost.com/news/pakistan-christians-targeted-specifically-for-their-faith-in-jesus-christ-says-global-anglican-leader-105413/

Christians protest in Pakistan streets after mass murder

From The Church Times-

CROSSES were held aloft, tyres were burned, and roads were blocked in cities across Pakistan this week, as Christians demanded better protection from the government, in the wake of the one of the worst attacks ever on the country's Christians.

Eighty-five people were killed in a suicide bombing at All Saints', Peshawar, part of the United Church of Pakistan, on Sunday. Victims included 34 women and seven children. More than 100 have been wounded. On Tuesday, the Archbishop of Canterbury described the dead as "martyrs".

Security sources have reported that two suicide bombers carried out the attack as worshippers left the church after the service for refreshments on the lawn outside.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/27-september/news/world/christians-protest-in-pakistan-streets-after-mass-murder

Christians now suffering mass martyrdom, says Archbishop of Canterbury

From The Telegraph-

The Most Rev Justin Welby said that there had been more than 80 Christian “martyrs” in the last few days alone.

He was speaking about the bombing of All Saints Anglican church in Peshawar, Pakistan, in which 85 were killed and more than 200 injured.

But he said that Christians were also being singled out for violence in a string of other countries.
Christian communities which have existed “in many cases since the days of Saint Paul” are now under threat in countries such as Syria and Egypt, he said.

Last month around 100 Christian sites were attacked amid the turmoil in Egypt, with 42 churches burnt to the ground. Ancient Christian communities in Syria have also been singled out for violence.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10334556/Christians-now-suffering-mass-martyrdom-says-Archbishop-of-Canterbury.html

Anglicans worldwide expresses shock, sadness over Pakistan bombings

From ENS-

Anglicans in Pakistan and around the world have expressed shock and sadness after two suicide bombers killed about 150 people and injured 200 at a church in Pakistan.

Within hours of the news of the deadly attack on All Saint’s Church in Peshawar, members of the Anglican Communion had spoken out against the attack, called for prayers, and, in India, even arranged a solidarity march.

On the Peshawar diocese website, Bishop Humphrey Peters condemned the attack and expressed his condolences to all the families who lost loved ones. He appealed for Christians in Pakistan and around the world to pray for the affected families.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/09/23/anglicans-worldwide-expresses-shock-sadness-over-pakistan-bombings/

78 killed, over 100 injured in Peshawar church attack

From Pakistan-

The two attackers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in  Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has borne the brunt of a bloody Islamist insurgency in recent years.

Sahibzada Anees, one of Peshawar’s most senior officials, told reporters the bombers struck when the service had just ended.

“Most of the wounded are in critical condition,” Anees said.

“We are in an area which is a target of terrorism and within that area there was a special security arrangement for the church. We are in a rescue phase and once it is over we will investigate what went wrong.”

Former minister for inter-faith harmony Paul Bhatti and provincial lawmaker Fredrich Azeem Ghauri both said the attack was the deadliest ever targeting Christians in Pakistan.

More here-

http://tribune.com.pk/story/607734/fifteen-dead-in-suicide-attack-outside-peshawar-church/

Pakistan: Open-air services bring healing to Peshawar Christians

From ENS-

The healing ministry of the Diocese of Peshawar in Pakistan organized an open-air two-day healing services program at St. John’s Cathedral Church lawn at the end of August.

These healing services were jointly organized by the Rev. Samson Anwar, who is in charge of the diocese’s healing ministry, and Pastor Anwar Fazal from Isaac TV, Lahore.

The basic theme of the program was taken from the parable of the courageous woman, a widow who kept on seeking justice from an unjust judge. Eventually her resistance against injustice, her hope, and waiting meant she was rewarded with justice (Luke 18:1-8).

The priests during the healing services encouraged people to keep on praying continuously, saying, “Jesus assures his followers that God will do justice in the end.”

Hundreds of people attended the services; large crowds of the faithful came from all over the province to hear the word of God.

A good number of non-Christians were there as well, seeking His blessings and were looking forward to receive healings, and to witness the miracles in the Holy name of Jesus Christ.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/09/03/pakistan-open-air-services-bring-healing-to-peshawar-christians/

Pakistan's only Anglican college receives £2m government grant

From ACNS-

Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) reports that one of its member institutions, Edwardes College in Peshawar, Pakistan, has received a development grant in the amount of PKR 300 million (US$ 3.1 million) from the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. CUAC’s General Secretary, the Revd Canon James G Callaway noted, ‘This significant grant to Edwardes, the only Anglican college in Pakistan, recognizes the vital role our colleges are playing in non-Christian societies: modeling an embracing of diversity for the common good, which is part of the DNA of their Anglican identity.’

Edwardes College, an Anglican-founded undergraduate and graduate institution, is located in the troubled border region of northwestern Pakistan. The school’s Principal, the Revd Canon Dr Titus Presler, explained the potential impact of the award: ‘This grant of 300 million Pakistani rupees will assist Edwardes with the academic programs and physical facilities vital to the degree-awarding status that will enhance our educational contribution to the province and the nation.’ He continued, ‘Amid the extremist violence of the region, it is heartening that this province in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has expressed such confidence in the higher education offered by a church institution. Lots of bad news comes from this area, but there is ground for hope.’

More here-

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2013/2/5/ACNS5304

Repression of Christians in Pakistan

From California-

I chatted a few days ago with the Rev. Khushnud Azariah, the first Pakistani-born woman ordained as a clergy member.

Azariah has been serving at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Riverside since May.

Azariah first started living in Southern California in the early 1990s, when she and her husband moved their three daughters to West Covina. The couple divided their time between California and Pakistan for years, but Azariah moved here full-time in 2001.

Azariah said the main reason the couple wanted their daughters to grow up in the United States was because of pervasive discrimination against women and Christians in Pakistan.

Azariah said she has many Muslim friends in Pakistan and has long worked on interfaith efforts. But repression against Christians remains common, she said. Some hard-line Muslim fundamentalists want to purge Pakistan of all Christians.

Christians comprise less than 2 percent of the population in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan.

More here-

http://blog.pe.com/multicultural-beat/2012/09/09/repression-of-christians-in-pakistan/