Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

Tens of thousands of Christians in Hong Kong gathered online and offline at various locations to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre with prayer and worship.

We can learn much from this beautiful revelation, and it is my hope that such display becomes, without compromise, a commonality.

“It’s not fair that my deeply held convictions are portrayed as those of a narrow-minded bigot.”

50 days has passed since Pastor Raymond’s abduction took place on February 13, 2017. The authorities remain mum on the situation as no new developments have occurred since, and each day signals an ever slimmer hope of finding him safe and sound, reunited with his family and friends.

Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Purification of the Blessed Virgin, is being observed today (Feb. 2) by Christians around the world. While it is customary for Christians in some countries to remove their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve), those in other Christian countries historically remove them on Candlemas. On Candlemas, many Christians (especially Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, Orthodox and Roman Catholics) also take their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year.

In what some people are calling the most high-profile religious persecution case since the Cultural Revolution, the former pastor of China's largest state-run megachurch was arrested on Saturday by a local public security bureau in China's coastal Zhejiang province, according to persecution watchdog China Aid. Authorities reportedly re-apprehended Gu "Joseph" Yuese sometime before Christmas; on Jan. 7, his family received an announcement he had been arrested on charges of embezzling funds.

Senior Pastor T.D. Jakes of Potter's House who has recently been on Tamron Hall's MSNBC segment to discuss the "shock, grief over election outcome," offers five critical actions Americans should be taking now to heal the nation.

Potter's House Senior Pastor T.D. Jakes joins Howard Fineman of Huffington Post on Tamron Hall's MSNBC (Microsoft- National Broadcasting Company) segment to discuss the shock and grief that's befitting many Americans over the recent election outcome.

Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini has made claims that President-elect Donald Trump is a modern-day Cyrus.

Monday, October 31, Pope Francis visited Sweden on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. He did not attend in support of the Reformation itself Martin Luther, though he did have plenty to say in favor of Doctor Luther's courage and role in part towards restoring the sacred view of Scripture for peoples and generations to come. Rather, his motive was one more of humility and ecumenical respect, urging Christ's followers to "look with love and honesty at our past, recognizing error and seeking forgiveness."

Pope Francis has called for unity among evangelicals, Catholics, and Christians from other denominations, emphasizing that "we are one in Christ" and warning that division between the groups is the work of the devil.

Today is the first anniversary of Pope Francis' election, and he has marked the occasion by repeating the simple request that he originally asked of his flock one year ago, "Pray for me."

In the first-ever greeting to the Pentecostal World Conference by a general secretary of the World Council of Church, the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse expressed how Pentecostals and members of his ecumenical group have a common call in God’s mission and need each other to fulfill the call.

A Norwegian theologian was formally installed on Tuesday as the new head of the World Council of Churches.

Six delegates from China Christian Council and Chinese Christian Church Three-Self Protestant Movement visited Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) headquarters on November 16. The delegation included associate general secretaries from both organizations and a few seminary presidents from different regions of China. This occasion marked the first time that leaders from these two Chinese church organizations visited the PCT.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Saturday to discuss relations between Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.

A delegation of 24 leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance met with leaders of China’s state-run church bodies Monday, building upon the relationships formed during the first visit by the alliance’s head, Geoff Tunnicliffe, in 2008.

National Council of Churches Taiwan (NCCT) has confirmed it will hold a Christian sports meet on November 7 at a YMCA in Taipei. NCCT members include Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Orthodox churches. In addition, it will hold a forum on “Modern city churches and their ministries” focusing on churches in China and Taiwan in particular on November 13~14 at Taipei Methodist Church.

More than 120 theologians from various Christian traditions concluded on Tuesday a meeting in Greece where they discussed ecumenism and the call to be one church.

Relevance, aggressive secular attacks, and the threat of extremism are challenges for all people of faith, said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a major Muslim-Christian dialogue conference this past week.

Protestant and Catholic leaders are gathering in Chicago on Thursday to mark the tenth anniversary of a landmark ecumenical agreement made between the two faith traditions.

Both the incoming and outgoing heads of the World Council of Churches this week stressed honesty as the basis upon which people of different faiths can have meaningful encounters.

The World Council of Churches on Wednesday called on Israel to cease and dismantle its settlements in the occupied territories.

On Pentecost, May 31, Taiwan and 213 countries held the 2009 Global Day of Prayers in unison. Christians from the 19 counties and cities of Taiwan held prayer meetings for Taiwan in their respective areas. In Taipei metropolitan area, 700 pastors, market place representatives, and prayer intercessors gathered on the 84th floor of Taipei 101, the world’s highest point to pray for the transformation of Taiwan country and the churches.

On May 31, Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Christians in Hong Kong gathered at the Hong Kong Football Stadium, uniting in one heart with Christians from 220 countries around the world to participate in the 5th annual Global Day of Prayers (GDOP), which is by far the largest prayer movement in the world.