Aid to the Church in Need, Word on Fire team up for new series on Christian persecution

Aid to the Church in Need will release a series of livestreams in coordination with Word on Fire Institute in order to better raise awareness of the persecution of Christians around the world, the papal charity announced in a release on October 29.

Word on Fire is a media organization founded by Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. The Word on Fire Institute is the ministry's educational programming arm.

The series, called "The Persecuted Church," consists of conversations and witness testimonies from a variety of perspectives, said Word on Fire Institute's website.

The live streams began on November 3 and will conclude on November 7. The streams are recorded and will be available to watch later for those who subscribe to the Word on Fire Institute.

A free trial subscription is available, said Aid to the Church in Need.

Various session topics include "The Theology of Martyrdom;" modern-day martyrs; the state of Christianity in Iraq, the Middle East, and Nigeria; as well as "Learnings from the Persecuted Church."

One of the episodes features Aid to the Church in Need Ireland Director of Public Affairs Michael Kelly and Bishop William Shomali, an auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem, said Aid to the Church in Need. The two discuss "the fragile peace in Gaza and the experiences of the Christian community in the wider Holy Land," said Kelly.

Today, "some 413 million Christians live in countries where religious freedom is severely violated," said Kelly in the press release. This figure amounts to nearly one in five Christians.

“The aim is to help us all understand the reality of modern-day persecution, and to explore the relationship between martyrdom and evangelization,” he said.

Aid to the Church in Need is a nonprofit organization that "provides pastoral and humanitarian assistance to the persecuted Church around the world," says its website.