Our most-read stories from around the world, from Brazil to Cambodia to Germany.
Read 20 of Christianity Today’s most popular international stories of 2023. For regions where the church suffered significant disaster or violence, we’ve added additional context from our wider coverage:
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As the war in Ukraine hit the one-year mark, only a tiny minority of Russian Christian leaders had voiced complaint publicly. The response from authorities has been uneven: Minor church figures were fined or jailed, while others continue to use their names on social media.
Others decided to flee after denouncing the conflict. In August, authorities filed charges against Yuri Sipko for publicly disseminating “knowingly false information” against the Russian military. They raided his home and temporarily detained his son. The 71-year-old former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists escaped to Germany the week after.
Above, read the story of Mikhail Manzurin, a mid-20-something pastor who broke from his longtime spiritual mentor over the war.
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More than five dozen members of Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church made a permanent move to America earlier this year after failing to find long-term asylum in South Korea and Thailand, having collectively escaped from China in 2019. These “Mayflower” Christians arrived as thousands of migrants from the mainland are trying to enter the United States through various countries in Latin America, deeply disillusioned and dissatisfied with the political and economic realities of today’s China.
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