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.
“Three Children among 13 Christians Killed in Attacks in Two States in Nigeria,” Morning Star News, June 20, 2019:
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Monday (June 17) killed four Christians in north-central Nigeria’s Kaduna state, including three children, on the same day nine other Christians were slain in neighboring Plateau state, area sources said.
Christian residents in Kaduna state’s Kauru County told Morning Star News that between 3 a.m and 4 a.m. well over 200 armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded predominantly Christian Ungwan Rimi Kamuru village, killing 8-year-old Monday Yahaya, 9-year-old Zhime Danladi and Samson David, 15.
“They were all buried today after a brief prayer at the grave site,” area resident Thomas John told Morning Star News in a text message.
A Kaduna police spokesman reportedly confirmed the killings but identified the 9-year-old as Ashimile Danladi and cited Samson David’s age as 17.
Also in Kauru County, that evening herdsmen attacked predominantly Christian Kikoba village, killing Audu Gara, kidnapping a Christian woman, Asabe Deme, and burning houses, according to area resident Matthew Nasamu, 51.
“The Fulani herdsmen attacked Kikoba, a Christian village in Kauru LGA of Kaduna state, in the evening, around 5 p.m.,” Nasamu said in a text message to Morning Star News. “All houses were burned and razed down, farms were destroyed, and all the villagers are now displaced.”
In all, 93 houses belonging to Christians were burned, and farm crops were destroyed, he said….
Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.
Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.
