Lifeline for Christian families in Turkey
October 2020“Just as Jesus did, we want to embrace children in Turkey with God’s love,” says Ibrahim Deveci. Deveci is the director of Kucak Yayıncılık, a ministry serving children and parents in Turkey. He spoke on SAT-7 TÜRK’s Homemade programme in an episode raising awareness of resources for isolated Christian families. “Being a child from a Christian family in Turkey is not at […]
Unbroken faith: an Iranian Christian reflects
SAT-7 translator Omeed Jouyandé shares why he is inspired by the faith and testimony of fellow Iranian, Farshid Fathi. Fathi was jailed in two of Iran’s notorious prisons for five years for his faith and spoke recently to SAT-7’s Insiders programme. But, far from being broken by the experience, he spoke as someone who had known Jesus with him. The […]
THE BRIEFING – OCTOBER 2020
October 2020A long-contested enclave on the fringe of the Middle East hit the headlines this month as a new upsurge of fighting claimed at least 300 lives in Nagorno–Karabakh. This mountainous enclave (known as Artsakh by Armenians) neighbours Iran, is near neighbour to Turkey, Russia and Georgia, and sits between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite its majority Armenian population, it was made an autonomous zone within Azerbaijan when both states came under Russian control in the 1920s. There have been cycles of clashes since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 1988 decision by the enclave to become as an independent republic. Full-scale fighting between 1992 and 1994 killed tens of […]
Freedom of belief a priority, panelists tell Conservative Party fringe event
October 20207 October 2020 While COVID-19 has increased violations of religious persecution, upholding freedom of religion and belief (FoRB) has become a much higher priority for UK parliamentarians, attendees of a virtual seminar at the Conservative Party Conference have heard. The fringe event, jointly organised by SAT-7 and the Conservative Christian Fellowship (CCF) on Monday, included high-profile FoRB advocates: Rehman Chishti […]
New Door Opens to Armenian Christians in Turkey
September 2020A new door has opened for SAT-7 to expand its programming for Turkey’s Armenian Orthodox Christian community. His Holiness Archbishop Sahak Mashalian, the new Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, told SAT-7 TÜRK last month that he was keen to sign a long-term protocol with the channel. He said he wanted to ensure that “the relationship between the Patriarchate and SAT-7 TÜRK […]
Iranian women: Serving God from house church to prison
September 2020When 13 Iranian Christians were recently arrested in three different cities in Iran, at least four women were among them. As Iranian women play a vital ministry role even under threat of arrest, Mojdeh*, who spent 40 days in prison in Iran, encourages SAT-7 PARS viewers with how God’s “utterly tangible presence” sustained her there. “I was serving in a house church […]
Christian refugees took emergency aid to others who fled Moria fire
September 2020When Greece’s largest migrant camp burnt down on 9 September, recently converted Afghan and Iranian Christians in the camp used their own money to buy and distribute emergency provisions. Yaser, an Afghan Christian who regularly visited the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, told SAT-7 programme Secret of Life how the new believers prepared and took food to those […]
THE BRIEFING – SEPTEMBER 2020
September 2020Parts of the region are seeing welcome signs of peace this month, even as Lebanon struggled to pick itself up from a massive disaster in its capital. August’s explosion at the port in Beirut inflicted unprecedented damage across the Lebanese capital and wrecked its main export and import hub. Over 200 people died, thousands were injured and an estimated 300,000 […]