AP

SUDAN JAILS 19 CHRISTIANS ON UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS
Morning Star News – At least 19 Christians were arrested in Sudan’s city of Madani (capital of Al Jazirah state – 136 kilometre southeast of the capital, Khartoum). on various occasions in January and February. Seven Christians were arrested by security personnel associated with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) on Jan. 21 and were accused of being supporters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has been fighting the SAF since April 2023. The members of different churches belonging to the Sudan Council of Churches were on their way to a thanksgiving prayer meeting of a body known as the Inter-Church Committee.
Church leaders in Sudan said there was no evidence that the arrested Christians had ties with RSF and called for their immediate release. “A group of Church leaders in the area requested that the Christians be released since they are not supporters of RSF through a letter from the churches in the area, but the Christians remain in prison,” Mugaddam told Morning Star News. Some 94 kilometers from Madani, a further 12 Christians have been arrested, also  on the pretext of being supporters of the RSF, Mugaddam said. Their whereabouts were unknown, he said.
“This is systematic targeting of Christians who are arrested without taking them to a court of law to get justice,” Mugaddam said. Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Bashir in 2019, the spectre of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021. Conditions in Sudan worsened as civil war that broke out in April 2023, intensified. Sudan registered increases in the number of Christians killed and sexually assaulted; and Christian homes and businesses and Churches were and are still being attacked, according to the Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List (WWL). Both the RSF and the SAF are Islamist forces that have attacked displaced Christians on accusations of supporting the other’s combatants. The conflict between the RSF and the SAF has terrorized civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere, killing tens of thousands and displacing more than 12.9 million people within and beyond Sudan’s borders, according to the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR).
The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million. Sudan was ranked No. 5 among the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian in Open Doors’ 2025 WWL.

SAUDI ARABIA’S CONCESSION
In Saudi Arabia, where most Christians are foreign workers, any overt evangelism is punishable by imprisonment or deportation. To leave Islam is officially punishable by death, though no executions are known to have taken place in recent years. In this stronghold of Islam, one notable acknowledgement of religious diversity recently became evident when the authorities allowed worship services for Egyptian and Eritrean Christians. This has encouraged both Saudi and expatriate Christians to pray that official restrictions on expressions of faith may be eased.

AN EXCITING NEW DISCOVERY IN JUDEAN DESERT FROM TIME OF MACCABEES
A structure from the time of the Ptolemies and Seleucids containing 2,200-year-old weapons and fabrics has been unearthed north of Nahal Zohar in the Judean Desert. The excavation, led by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Ministry of Heritage, found what they described as a “mysterious pyramid-shaped structure” with a way station beneath it. However, perhaps even more exciting than the structure itself is the treasure it contains. The discovery of a stash of silver coins dating back 2,200 years to the time when Seleucid king Antiochus III had wrested the control of Palestine from Ptolemaic rule, has provided the first evidence from the Judean desert in support of historical accounts of the Maccabean Revolt in the 1st and 2nd Books of Maccabees**. This uprising — which took place between 167–141 BC — saw Jewish rebel warriors push back against broad Hellenistic influences and decrees calling for the suppression of Jewish religious practices .
“What we have here is one of the richest and most intriguing archaeological excavations ever found in the Judean Desert,” the excavation directors announced on behalf of the IAA. “This pyramidal structure we discovered is huge, and made of hand-hewn stones, each one weighing hundreds of kilograms. We still do not know for certain what the building’s purpose was.”  At first, the remains were thought to date from the time of the First Temple, but it soon became clear that the site dates back to the Hellenistic period. Papyrus documents written in Greek were unearthed, along with bronze coins of the Ptolemies and of Antiochus IV, and weapons, wooden tools and fabrics from the Maccabean era. They also found sewing items, such as beads, buttons and a needle, and ancient seeds that could potentially be regrown.
The excavation efforts are part of a broader initiative by the Ministry of Heritage to prevent archaeological treasures in the entire Judean dessert region from being looted. Thanks to this systematic search, thousands of rare items have been discovered, including papyrus fragments, wooden utensils, weapons, leather items, hoards of coins and ancient scrolls hidden away in caves. [Source: Charisma News, Express (UK) and My Jewish Learning. **1st and 2nd  Books of Maccabees are part of a collection of books known as the Apocrypha, which have not been recognized by the Protestant Church as part of the inspired and infallible Word of God – the Bible.]

TEACHER FOUND GUILTY FOR SHARING BIBLICAL BELIEFS IN ‘A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL’
A Christian teacher in the U.K. has been found guilty of “‘unacceptable professional conduct” by a high court for telling students about her biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality, all while teaching at a Christian school. Glawdys Leger was a Modern Foreign Languages teacher for 12 years before she was suspended from Bishop Justus Church of England School in Bromley in February 2022. The reason? Sherefused to promote LGBTQI+ ideology to her seventh-grade students which included introducing them to “gender identities such as pansexual, asexual, intersex, and transgender,” Christian Legal Centre reports. Instead, she told students that Christians believe sex outside of marriage is sin and that as a Christian you need to “live your life for God.” She also said, “There is no place to hurt or exclude anyone because they are LGBT, Christians should pray for people who are LGBT, And that she ‘spoke about God’s love and how we are all loved and precious,'” Christian Concern explained in a statement.
According to the school’s professional conduct panel (PCP), Leger’s comments were recorded by one of the students who complained that the teacher said being LGBT was a “sin” and that transgender people were “just confused”. In December 2023, the PCP removed Leger from her position and deemed her conduct to be “unprofessional.” Not only that but the Aquinas Church of England Education Trust then reported Leger to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA). The TRA also found that Leger was guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” and labelled the expression of her beliefs as “inappropriate”, despite evidence showing Leger to be “trustworthy, professional and approachable”.
Leger challenged the allegations in a UK high court arguing that the school’s duty to provide a balanced curriculum did not apply to her personal beliefs as an individual teacher. But the high court sided with the “guilty” verdict of the PCP while stopping short of banning her from teaching for the rest of her life. “I am relieved to not be banned from teaching in the UK. The message from the TRA is that Christian teachers must not only be silent about their beliefs, but they must actively promote LGBT ideology or risk being severely punished and even losing their careers.” Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said it is only getting worse for Christian teachers in the U.K. [Source: CBN News]

– compiled by Guido Kettniss