Baroness Berridge, the chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, today is encouraging Christians in Britain to write letters of solidarity to persecuted fellow believers across the world. The call comes as part of the 40acts programme, which prompts people do a different act of generosity each day during Lent.
This multi-award-winning campaign from the charity Stewardship has more than 70,000 people across the UK signed up to take the challenge. Every day during Lent, a Christian figure blogs about generosity and then suggests a random act of kindness to encourage participants to think outside of themselves and ‘give out’ rather than just giving something up.
Today Baroness Berridge writes: “Research suggests that every 11 hours a Christian is killed simply for being a follower of Jesus. It is shocking to those of us in the West that a person might be killed or persecuted simply for their faith, but it is true. Research indicates Christians are the most persecuted faith group in the world — facing persecution in over 60 countries (and discrimination in over 100).”
One of the suggested actions is to write to a persecuted Christian to encourage them to stand firm.
Last year the 40acts challenge caused a wave of over 1.8 million acts of generosity as Christians worldwide chose to celebrate Lent through living generously. Bear Grylls, adventurer, Chief Scout of the Scout Movement in the UK and contributor to this year’s 40acts, said: “I’m proud to be able to contribute to 40acts this year. As a Christian and a leader of the Scouts, I believe we can all have an impact on our communities by living life with generosity and compassion.”