Today Aid to the Church in Need commemorated its annual Red Wednesday campaign for persecuted Christians worldwide with an outstanding event held in the Jubilee Room of the annexe to Westminster Hall, UK Parliament. Speakers included Jim Shannon MP, Chair of the APPG FoRB; and the Lord Alton of Liverpool, Vice Chair of the APPG FoRB; as well as Caroline Hull, National Director of ACN UK; Timotho Cho, Chairman of the Secretariat for the APPG North Korea; Archbishop Linus Neli of Imphal, India; and Ribqa Nevash, an advocate for persecuted Christians in Pakistan.

Jim Shannon spoke about the growing spectre of the persecution of Christians worldwide but reminded listeners of the power of faith – combined with hard work and dedicated effort – to move mountains of oppression and persecution. Caroline Hull spoke about a harrowing recent visit to Nigeria in the wake of unspeakable acts of violence against one Christian village, reminding us with visceral detail of the real people who are affected by persecution that is sometimes presented as a mere statistic in political discourse. Timothy Cho, a double escapee of the DPRK’s totalitarian regime, recounted the story of his escape to the West and of the alarming degree to which non-state-sanctioned religion is suppressed in that nation, making it consistently the worst place in the world to be a practicing Christian.

Lord Alton spoke about personal visits to the DPRK and the “Potemkin” churches he encountered there, set up to look as though the government respected religious freedom when in fact the churches are entirely state controlled. He also commented on the importance of grassroots engagement on FoRB by the citizenry of the UK, especially for people to encourage their MP to join the APPG FoRB and become involved, and he remarked on the symbolism of this Red Wednesday event being held in the Jubilee Room, with the word and the tradition of “jubilee” carrying deep symbolic meaning suggesting a release from all bondage and a new beginning. He underscored the high price at which freedom is both won and kept and called for the UK government and other international actors to move from rhetoric to reality when it comes to promoting the freedom of religion or belief.

Archbishop Linus shared personal experiences with the escalating violence and interreligious tensions in Imphal, India, and was evocative of Mohandas Gandhi with his reminder to listeners that all suffering is human suffering, or as Gandhi put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Finally, Ribqa Nevash, who personally experienced significant cultural and workplace persecution for her Christian faith, and who will also be the recipient of ACN’s “Courage to be Christian” award this evening, shared personal experiences as well as relating some of those of Prisoner of Conscience Maira Shahbaz, whom Ribqa visited in her hiding place in Faisalabad, Pakistan.