The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll led the news in many Middle East states last weekend and prompted messages of condolence from national leaders. Jordan and Lebanon respectively declared seven and three days of mourning. The patriarch of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians, Pope Tawadros ll, led Christian tributes when he said he was “personally thankful for the interaction […]
SAT-7 has called on Christians across the Arab world to join in prayer for Sudan by airing prayers for peace from an interdenominational church service in Khartoum. Below: watch clip of Pastor Hafiz Fassaha and of worshipping congregation in Khartoum A week-long series of clips were shared on social media beginning 20 January. This followed street protests on 17 January […]
From 1 January, the year 2022 has looked very different in contrasting corners of the Middle East and North Africa – from wealthy Gulf nations to countries in crisis like Afghanistan and Yemen. As we look ahead, our Middle East analyst sees some hopeful signs of nations beating swords into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4), but too few leaders using their power, […]
Just over 10 years ago , on 11 November 2011, Christians in Egypt gathered in an extraordinary way to lift up their homeland in an interdenominational night of prayer. A decade on, Egyptian Christians’ ability to gather has been restricted by COVID-19 – until now. Mary Joseph, SAT-7’s Communications Officer in Cairo, tells us more. For the first time in […]
Complex histories, changing borders, migrations, and multiple ethnicities and languages mean that the Church in the Middle East and North Africa is a mosaic of different Christian communities. Sometimes the relationships between them don’t reflect the unity Jesus envisaged for His Church (John 17:21). Sometimes they just don’t know each other! One of the benefits of SAT-7’s ministry over 25 […]
As SAT-7 celebrates its 25th anniversary, International CEO Rita El-Mounayer reflects on how God called her to the ministry and on being in tune with Him for its future. Twenty-five years ago, Rita (pictured below) was standing at a crossroads. She had a job with FEBA radio that she was very happy with, but a chance meeting in Beirut with […]
Senior church leaders from the Middle East have commended the work of SAT-7 on its 25th anniversary of broadcasting on 31 May. In a special Zoom meeting, His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London and Papal Legate to the United Kingdom, shared his introduction to SAT-7 with 150 SAT-7 staff and trustees from around the world. In 1994 […]
Middle East leaders and peoples have been as interested in the outcome of the US presidential elections as have those in the West. Although it is too early to see what a Biden policy towards the Middle East will be, the goals and policies of US administrations for the region affect the lives of millions. It is expected that Biden […]
A 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 […]
The vulnerability of many of the essential ingredients for peace and security – freedom from conflict, basic utilities, health and food security, and freedom of belief– were exposed once again in another challenging month in the region. In Turkey, President Erdogan has ordered that Hagia Sophia, Istanbul’s fifth century basilica and a World Heritage Site, should become a mosque again. The structure […]
