Christian doctor and wife kidnapped in Burkina Faso

A CAMPAIGN has been launched in Burkina Faso to secure the release of an Australian missionary couple who were abducted on Friday by suspected Islamist extremists. The couple, Ken and Jocelyn Elliot, were kidnapped on Friday. On the same day, 29 people were killed in a terrorist attack in the capital, Ouagadougou. They included six Christians from Canada on a short-term mission, and a missionary from the United States. People in Djibo, the town where the Elliots have run a hospital since the 1970s, have started a Facebook page to share messages of support and news.

CSW calls for release of Chinese human-rights lawyers

A CRACKDOWN in China against lawyers who defend Christians and other religious minorities has led to the arrests of at least six lawyers on suspicion of “subverting state power”. Hundreds more have been detained and interrogated by the Chinese authorities since the crackdown began in July, Christian Solidarity Worldwide says. The charity was one of 108 NGOs and civil-society groups to sign a statement this month demanding the release of the lawyers, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Honorary fellowship is ‘recognition of progress’

THE first woman priest trained in the Church of England to be ordained as an Anglican bishop has been granted an honorary fellowship by her old Oxford college. The Bishop of Waikato, in New Zealand, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, was elected an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, where she studied between 1998 and 2005, on Sunday. Dr Hartley, who described the Fellowship as an “immense honour”, and a recognition of the work to enable gender equality in the Church, moved to New Zealand in 2012 before becoming a bishop in 2014.