Persecuted Church Organisations Form Historical Network

At a conference held from March 6-8 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, fifteen organisations including the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met and formed 'The Religious Liberty Partnership' to find new ways of working together for the persecuted church.

Chaired by Merwyn Thomas from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), based in the U.K., the network will meet annually, while a working group of five members will lead various works during the year. The members of the steering committee are the World Evangelical Alliance, Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Christian Solidarity International.

Johan Candelin, the Executive Director of the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, who joined the meeting said, "This is a historical day. Never ever before has there been this kind of partnership between the main organizations in the world working for the persecuted church. This will make everyone work more effectively, hinder overlapping of work, and strengthen research and information. It also sends a very strong signal of unity to the Christian church. The real winners are of course, our suffering brothers and sisters."

According to Candelin, the creation of this network is a "major victory not only for the organisations, but for the persecuted churches and the free churches that want to work together."