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2023-01-05

• Fatalities During the Christmas Season

  

  As a local church was about to begin their service on Christmas Day in Angwan Aku, Kaduna, Fulani militants entered the village on motorcycles. Shooting sporadically, one Christian was killed. Before leaving, the attackers also kidnapped 53 other villagers.

• Conflicting Responses to Christmas Celebrations

  

  Christmas Day of 2022 became a historic one in Indonesia as the country's president, Joko Widodo, visited two churches. The unannounced visits made by the Muslim president that day marked the only times he officially attended Christian services. Speaking to the congregants at the Cathedral of Bogor, he called for peace between differing religions. "Together, let us foster tolerant relations," he announced to all those who were present. His gesture was in line with an emphasis of tolerance that was being promoted by the Indonesian Ministry for Religious Affairs during the holidays.

• Ministry Leaders Appeal for Pastors' Release

  

  A group of pastors in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is appealing for the release of 30 fellow pastors who are being detained in prisons around the state. According to Pastor Jitendra Singh, General Secretary of the Pastors' Association of Uttar Pradesh, all of the detained church leaders have been falsely charged under the state's anti-conversion legislation which was enacted in February 2021.