The Coptic Church community in the UK today launched an appeal for support to assist the families of the 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt recently executed by the so called Islamic State in Libya.
These men were all bread winners for poor rural families and the church now wishes to support the families in their time of grief.
For more information about the appeal see When left behind and to make a donation simply click here and add “When left behind” to the notes.
You may also be interested to read a very challenging article by Graeme Wood which has just appealed in The Atlantic. In his article “What ISIS really wants” Graeme provides us with a very careful analysis of the theological, deeply Islamic, worldview that underpins the leadership of ISIS and which seems to have drawn in so many young people from across the Middle East and Europe. He argues that we cannot simply dismiss ISIS as naked violence, or power crazy terrorism, but must rather engage with the end-times theology their leaders espouse. This is a theological and security crisis which Orthodox and evangelical Christians must face together – and it will require a great deal of hard work theologically and well as socially and militarily.