Author: Editor

Frightened people have been soul-searching and looking for answers to the threat of COVID-19 across the country.  However with Churches throughout Britain being asked not to hold services on Sunday, many citizens of the UK are left with the dilemma of not being able to go to the usual bastion of peace and hope that is a natural go to when seeking some divine inspiration. We spoke to several Pastors across the country to see what was on offer to their local communities and what help local churches were doing in response to COVID-19. Revd Paula Preston who is Acting…

A homeless people’s support group in Ilford is raising deep concern over the lack of advice and support for charities working with these vulnerable people through the current COVID-19 Pandemic. British Asian Christian Association has been supporting over 26 people through a ‘Meals for the Homeless’ project.  They have also been helping some of the same individuals and other deprived families in the borough with a foodbank facility (click here). However, in recent weeks the food being received via Tesco under a ‘Fareshare’ Charitable distribution has reduced due to the selfish hoarding of a few, that has resulted in panic-buying…

Yesterday BACA began to share details of their COVID-19 community volunteer group for Ilford and Chigwell, for which we have partnered with various groups including All Saint’s Church (Chigwell), East Ilford Betterment Partnership and Chigwell Row Residents Association. Today after a call to our office from a man known to BACA we were able to provide our first community needs response.  Joel Kyari who lives not too far from our offices and was aware of our foodbank, asked if there was any food available for him. Joel has been a local resident for some years and due to poor kidney…

Here is an encouraging video from Brother Leighton our Missionary to Pakistan, who reminds us that the church  during the Coronavirus pandemic.

British Asian Christian Association is collaborating with Chigwell Row Residents Association and Reverend Paula Preston of All Saints Church, Romford Road, Chigwell on a number of projects to help retain community identity and provide support whatever COVID-19 measures are introduced. The outer wall of All Saints Church has already been decorated with a number of prayers for the ‘Chigwell Row community, written by the congregation of the church. Reverend Paula will today be adding further cloths pinned by a ribbon and is inviting people from the community to add their messages and prayers to the church wall for the duration of the…

Juliet Chowdhry (bottom left) can be seen buying a tea urn, plastic boxes and one package of Kitchen rolls for our homeless feeding centre. Panic has set into the people of London, as concerns about the spread of Coronavirus has stimulated a wave of hoarders. Last night in the London Borough of Redbridge, shops through the borough were missing many regular produce. At the Goodmayes Tesco branch, shelves could be seen to be bereft of any tissues, rice, chapatti flour, pasta, sanitizers and medicines such as paracetamol and cough/flu remedies. Whereas Lidl and Farm Foods in Ilford town centre were…

Image of our former Chairman Wilson Chowdhry presenting a BPCA report on Christian persecution by Desmond Fernandes, to a Senior Protection Officer at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees at Sri Lanka in 2017. We detail below the importance and significance of the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on violations of freedom of religion or belief in Sri Lanka. In September 2015 after a landmark investigation the United Nations released a major report on serious human rights violations committed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war and the surrounding period (2002-2011). The ‘OISL Report’ [1] asserted that…

Image of Suriya Masih mother of Saleem Masih (RIP) with BACA officer Edward Masih. A Christian man was beaten to death after he rinsed himself off in a Muslim-owned tube-well in Chunian Village, Kasur. Saleem Maish (22 yrs) a Christian labourer, had finished his shift unloading chaff collected from fields in Baguyana village on 25th February and rinsed himself at a local tube-well. Saleem had bathed at the location previously which is frequently used by local Muslims for the same purpose. This time however, the landowners of the field in which the well was installed were offended that a ritually…

By Hannah Chowdhry Sometime in the 1920’s a struggling author named Eric Arthur Blair wrote an account of his near homelessness in France and experience of washing dishes in Paris restaurants. He later coupled the publication with a further description of a period of time he spent homeless in London, using artistic licence to create the impression he was actually homeless and not simply living as a vagrant for his research. His publication met with rave reviews and 55,000 copies of  ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ were eventually printed by penguin books in 1940. Read more (here) The author many…

We previously reported on the double shooting and axe attack on the Christian community of Sahiwal near Lahore, following attempts to build a church.  You can read the full article (here)   Azeem Masih (32 yrs) who was shot in the head before his entire 38 family Christian community who were forced to stay back and watch has undergone specialist brain surgery at a hospital in Lahore.  He is now out of critical condition but is unable to speak and is recovering many of his other senses slowly.  The family have asked for support for the costs of now necessary muscular and…