The news comes after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted the UK must do more to help persecuted Christians around the world.

Andrew Boyd from Release International told Premier that attacks in several countries were intensifying.

He said: “In the first six months of 2018 [in Nigeria] 6,000 people were killed and 50,000 Christians were driven from their homes.

“In China we’re seeing a growing number of attacks against unregistered house churches, and the bigger higher profile churches that are now being closed down and the pastors arrested.”

“One of the reasons the partners on the ground gave is that “there are very few protests from the West against this behaviour.”

This Christmas, militants attacked Christians in Nigeria; a planned attack was foiled in Karachi, Pakistan, and security has been tightened around churches in Egypt ahead of the Coptic Christmas, on January 7.

Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review into an estimated 215 million Christians who face violence and discrimination. According to official figures, violence against Christians is rising, with 250 killed each month.

Andrew Boyd told Premier this was a sign of hope.

“If you get the UK government along with other governments saying these are countries of particular concern, then the message to those who are running those countries is ‘we are watching you, we want to help you, help you deal with the…

The grave located on a farm near the coastal city of Sirte was found on 23 December by Libyan government authorities.

The Libyan interior ministry has confirmed the bodies discovered have been exhumed and will be repatriated to Ethiopia.

The terrorist organisation gained control of the city in 2015, but lost control again thanks to United Nations-backed forces a year later.

However Islamic State and other terrorist groups still retain control of parts of the North African country.

According to the Libyan Express newspaper, a propaganda video shared on social media in 2015 showed Islamic State members shooting and beheading Ethiopian Christians on a beach.

The incident occurred just months after the decapitated bodies of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians killed by Islamic State militants were found in a mass grave in Libya.

Hundreds of Coptic Christians started fleeing Libya in the face of these attacks from Islamic State in 2015.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed Bishop Gayle Harris at number eight claiming she fabricated Israeli atrocities.

It said: “During a speech in Massachusetts last July, Bishop Gayle Harris reported that she witnessed an Israeli soldier arrest a three-year-old Arab child on the Jerusalem Temple Mount and gun down a 15-year-old Palestinian teen in the back.

“After the Simon Wiesenthal Center exposed the claims as fabrications, Harris, the #2 Episcopal clergy in the state, backtracked, saying that she had only heard the stories from a third party (a Palestinian). ‘The fault is solely mine,’ Harris said. ‘I was ill-advised to repeat the stories without verification’.”

The human rights organisation claimed the fabrications “generated widespread outrage in the Jewish community”.

The massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue which killed 11 worshippers was number one on the list while the actions of Jeremy Corbyn in response to anti-Semitism in the Labour Party came in at number four.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

Charles House, from Tyler, managed to escape his home after it caught fire.

He lived in a small storage unity that he had converted into a house while he was looking for a long term property.

Explaining his situation, Charles said: “I was living in a storage building while looking for a house. Unfortunately, the building caught on fire with all of [my] things in it.”

All of Charles’ possessions were destroyed in the fire bar one.

House’s bible survived the flames.

Talking about his bible, Charles told local newspapers: “He said his word would not perish, and the Bible did not burn…it was scorched, but it did not burn.”

He added: “You can take it away, but you can never stop his word. I’m a witness to that right now. Seeing that Bible, in the middle of that fire…it didn’t burn that Bible.”

Investigators on the scene determined that hazardous wiring in the building was the cause of the fire.

To help with the loss of his home, a GoFundMe page was set up and so far over $5,300 has been raised.

Charles’ faith has inspired others online. Clyrissa Nathan donated saying: “It brought me joy to see u still praising God and giving a testimony about His word! God bless u!”

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said the country is “wonderfully much more diverse than we used to be, Yet we disagree on many things. And we are struggling with how to disagree well”.

“Turn on the television, read the news, and you see a lot that could tempt you to despair”, he said in a message delivered at Lambeth Palace, on the South Bank of the Thames in London.

But, he went on: “Hope lies in our capacity to approach this new year in a spirit of openness towards each other.

“Committed to discovering more of what it means to be citizens together, even amid great challenges and changes.

“That will involve choosing to see ourselves as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as communities each with something to contribute.

“It will mean gathering around our common values, a common vision, and a commitment to one another.

“With the struggles and divisions of recent years, that will not be easy. But that difficult work is part of the joy and blessing of being a community.”

It comes after the archbishop used his Christmas Day sermon to highlight the importance of forgetting “tribalism” and “political advantage”.

The leading Church of England cleric made a number of political interventions during 2018, criticising issues like the gig economy and zero-hours contracts, which he labelled the “reincarnation of an ancient evil”.

Mr Welby provoked controversy among some Conservatives in…

For the former army captain, the New Year’s Day inauguration was the culmination of a journey from a marginalised and even ridiculed congressmen to a leader who many Brazilians hope can combat endemic corruption.

Tuesday’s festivities in the capital Brasilia began with a motorcade procession along the main road leading to Congress and other government buildings.

Mr Bolsonaro and his wife, Michelle, stood up in an open-top Rolls-Royce and waved to thousands of onlookers.

They were surrounded by dozens of guards on horses and plain-clothes bodyguards who ran beside the car.

Once inside Congress, Mr Bolsonaro and his vice president, retired Gen Hamilton Mourao, took the oath of office.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro, left, and Vice President Hamilton Mourao and his wife Paula Mourao

Mr Bolsonaro then read a short speech that included many of the far-right positions he staked out during the campaign.

He promised to combat the “ideology of gender” teaching in schools, “respect our Judeo-Christian tradition” and “prepare children for the job market, not political militancy”.

“I call on all congressmen to help me rescue Brazil from corruption, criminality and ideological submission,” he said.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro…