Work on the first-ever church to be built in the modern Republic of Turkey will start next month.

Construction on the church will take about two years, according to The Christian Post.

The church is expected to serve Syriac Orthodox Christians. The church’s capacity is about 700 people. There are some 17,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians living in Istanbul.

“We’re proud of living under the Turkish flag in this land,” said Yusuf Cetin, the Syriac Orthodox Church’s metropolitan for Istanbul and Ankara.

While the country does have older churches, the Syriac Orthodox church will be the first one to be built in modern Turkey since the end of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s. 

“It is the first since the creation of the republic,” a government official said when plans for the church were announced in 2015. “Churches have been restored and reopened to the public, but no new church has been built until now.”

The church will be built in an area near the Ataturk International Airport.

Photo courtesy: Pixabay

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 11, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Muslims in eastern Uganda sent a Christian mother to the hospital with injuries from a beating in one village and tore down a church building in another, sources said.

Both the woman and the pastor of the destroyed church building fear their lives could be in danger.

Deborah Gimbo of Budaka town was attacked the afternoon of Dec. 20 while praying by herself in her home. She prays three evenings a week in her home with two other Christian women, and the assailants told her they did not want them praying loudly in Jesus’ name, Gimbo told Morning Star News.

“Today we have come to warn you that you should avoid noisy prayers and the use of Issa [Jesus] in your prayers,” the four assailants said as they intruded into her home at 2 p.m., according to Gimbo.

A local sheikh (teacher) had instructed the assailants that people who pray in Jesus’ name should be fought and pressured until they accept only worship of Allah, or else be killed, she said.

“I said, ’I cannot stop praying, and more so, Issa is my Lord and Savior, and I will continue praying in His name,’” Gimbo told Morning Star News. “Immediately two of the intruders left the house, and in no time entered the room again with sticks and started beating me. I was hit on my face, and blood started flowing down my face as I started…

A Hollywood director who is known for his faith and for his films about spirituality says Christians are the “core problem” in America.

Scott Derrickson, who directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Deliver Us From Evilas well as the more well-known Doctor Strange, made the comments this week on Twitter. 

“American Christians have long loved their pop culture heroes. I have frustrated attempts to make me one because of this singular heart-felt conviction,” Derrickson wrote Monday. “… In America, we Christians are not the solution. We are the core problem.”

American Christians have long loved their pop culture heroes. I have frustrated attempts to make me one because of this singular heart-felt conviction…

…In America, we Christians are not the solution. We are the core problem.

— Scott Derrickson (@scottderrickson) January 7, 2019

That sparked a debate on Twitter over what Derrickson meant. One person wrote to Derrickson: “I agree with your diagnoses and can appreciate the spirit of your resistance. Curious how you think those of us who are Christians who want to help fix the problem can best help turn the tide (even if the best answer is just to get out of the way)?”

Derrickson responded: “1. Reject Christian nationalism — it’s a straight-up heresy. 2. Read the gospels — Jesus was about aiding the poor, the judged,…

U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage is on a mission to raise the funds needed to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and in less than one month he has already raised more than $20 million.

On December 16, Kolfage created a GoFundMe page called “We the People Will Fund the Wall,” where he is asking the American people to help the government build the controversial border wall. Kolfage wrote, “If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall.”

Since the campaign began just under one month ago, 336,448 people have donated $20,132,662 for the wall. The campaign’s goal is to reach $1 billion, CBN News reports.

In an interview on Wednesday with Fox Business Network, Kolfage said the Democrats in Congress are only fighting against the wall because they want to control the vote and the people. He said, “They’re playing games. They want to have illegal aliens in this country so they can control the people, they want to control the votes, they want to control things.”

“It’s all political agenda,” he added.

 Kolfage went on to say that Democrats saying the border wall is immoral is “Not what this country’s about.” 

The U.S. military veteran said that he started this GoFundMe account because “We need to start protecting the American people.” 

On the GoFundMe page, Kolfage wrote, “I have…

A young mother was kicked out of a United Kingdom pub in recent days after a patron complained that her t-shirt – which listed the definition of “woman” – was offensive.

Rebekah Wershbale, 34, entered the pub wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with the words: “Woman. Noun. Adult human female.”  

An employee at Five Clouds Tap and Bottle asked her to leave, saying she wasn’t welcome because her shirt was transphobic. The pub is located in Macclesfield. 

“She told me that the t-shirt I was wearing was upsetting people because it was transphobic and not inclusive so I was barred,” Wershbale told the Daily Mail newspaper. “What she meant was that I was somehow offending men who say they are women because my t-shirt did not include them in the definition of a woman. There aren’t even any transgender staff or patrons at the pub.”

Wershbale supports Fair Play For Women, a group that opposes reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. The government is considering overhauling the act to allow people to change their gender to the one they self-identity. Doing this, Wershbale believes, “could put women’s safety at risk by allowing men who say they are female access to women-only spaces,” the newspaper reported.

David Davies, a member of Parliament, supports the mom and said the shutting down of free speech is “now spreading from our…