Reverend Franklin Graham is not going to sit around and do nothing while Christian persecution continues to worsen around the world. This is why he announced on Wednesday that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will host The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians this October.
The event will be held from Oct. 28 to 30 in Moscow, Russia with the help of the Russian Orthodox Church.
"2015 was just reported in the media as the worst year for Christian persecution," Franklin Graham writes on his Facebook page. "More than twice as many Christians were killed for their faith than in the previous year—making it the worst in history since these statistics have been tracked."
Graham believes that Moscow is "a fitting and meaningful location for this much-needed summit" because "no church in modern history has suffered more than the church in Russia."
"In the years under Communist rule, virtually all of the priests, pastors, and church leaders in Russia were imprisoned or executed by the Communists, and their graves are on the outskirts of Moscow and throughout the country serving as a reminder," he shares.
When Graham visited Russia last Fall, he met with Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill and they agreed to "work together in order to save our society from de-Christianisation" since "Christians are being squeezed out of public life."
Graham hopes that the upcoming event this October will "shed a global spotlight" on Christian persecution, and put a stop to the senseless killing of Christians from all over the world.
"We will bring delegates from around the world and will be able to join hands with people of other churches and denominations of the Christian faith to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ and to hear firsthand reports of the suffering that is taking place," he said.
