Raising prayer, advocacy and awareness

Once again, your support helped Open Doors to grow our engagement with churches, parliamentarians and media, enabling us to raise more prayer and support for our persecuted family.

Open Doors produces several print and digital prayer resources to help supporters to pray regularly for their persecuted family, including a daily prayer diary, weekly emails and the children’s Prayer Passport. What a blessing to connect with the persecuted church in this way.

Across the UK and Ireland, churches invited Open Doors speakers to come and raise awareness, prayer and support for persecuted Christians – with around 132,000 people reached through 1,300 church speaking engagements over the course of the year. Almost a quarter of these were youth and young adults.

You’ve also been instrumental in raising awareness of the plight of our persecuted family with those in power. Like previous years, MPs were inundated with your requests to attend, with 6,828 online invitations reaching 644 MPs – that’s almost every MP in the UK and Ireland. Many more of you sent a postcard invite.

In January 2026, 113 MPs attended the event in Parliament. This year’s event was hosted by Ruth Jones MP. She opened proceedings before handing over to Henrietta Blyth, Open Doors UK & Ireland CEO, who provided an overview of the report’s latest findings.

Escalating persecution in sub-Saharan Africa was a key focus, accounting for 14 of the countries in the top 50. Henrietta said the region is ‘a deathtrap for Christians’, whilst expressing relief that people are finally talking about what’s going on in Nigeria. David Smith MP, the UK Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, touched upon this later, saying, “Now is a moment for Nigeria.”

In an interview with journalist Nitya Rajan, Aweis, a Somali believer, shared his story of persecution by family and Islamist militants, and urged MPs to use their good relationship with Somalia to advocate for those suffering for their faith.

Stories from Syria and Iran

Syria was another focus, after it jumped 12 places to sixth on the World Watch List, largely due to a surge in violence. MPs were shown a powerful film featuring footage and survivors of the suicide bomb attack on at Saint Elias Church, Damascus, that killed 22 people.

Iran was also covered, with the country dominating the headlines at the time amidst widespread unrest, adding to the vulnerability of Christians. Speaking to Nitya Rajan, Bahar* from Iran told MPs, “Every single day, I’m fearing for Christians in the country.”

“We have to be a voice that speaks on these horrendous stories,” David Smith MP told his counterparts. “No one should live in fear because of their faith or belief. The minimum we can do is speak up and I urge you to that.”

The sentiment was shared by many MPs at the event, including David Shannon MP, who sends the World Watch List to all churches in his constituency and the local mosque. He expressed his thanks to those who invited him to the launch, adding, “I urge fervent and frequent prayer, because faith can move mountains.”

Henrietta closed the event with a series of requests to the government around raising violations of freedom of religion or belief, building conversations about religious freedom into discussions on other issues, speaking publicly when silence would be easier, acting early in fragile states, and ensuring the authority and effectiveness of the Special Envoy role.

“When opportunities to protect the persecuted are not taken, silence is not neutral – it is read as permission,” she concluded.

Thank you for your generosity and every step taken on behalf of our brothers and sisters suffering persecution throughout the world.