Westminster Cathedral was lit up in red on 24 November to mark Red Wednesday, an annual day highlighting injustice, discrimination and persecution against Christians. A choir from St John Bosco College, Battersea, sang on the cathedral steps as the crowd gathered for a vigil. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) UK director Neville Kyrke-Smith introduced Coptic Archbishop Angaelos, who said it was vital to defend people's right to practise their faith. His own St George Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Stevenage also turned red.
After Mass, celebrated in the cathedral by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, ACN Chaplain, a reception in Westminster Cathedral Hall launched ACN’s report: Hear Her Cries: The kidnapping, forced conversion and sexual victimisation of Christian women and girls.
In his address, Fr Nazir-Ali, former Anglican Bishop of Rochester and now a Catholic priest, said: “There should be pressure on the UN to add forced conversion and forced marriage to the UN's list of crimes of violence against women.” In his native Pakistan, where forced conversions are common, he suggested that UK aid programmes “should directly address violence against women, specifically abduction and forced marriage”. Professor Michele Clark, a human rights advocate who has researched the plight of Coptic Christian women in Egypt, described forced conversions as “a war of attrition against Christians using women”.
John Pontifex, head of iress and information at ACN, and one of the authors of the report, said: “Every day, girls and women go about their lives under the daily threat of being kidnapped, raped, forced to convert and marry their abductor.” An ACN petition was launched calling on the UN and the UK government to take more effective steps to tackle sexual violence against Christian women and girls, and those of other religious minorities.
Lambeth Palace and the London Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office were amongst other buildings in London lit up red. Around the country, schools where pupils dressed in red and held special prayers included St Kentigern’s Academy in West Lothian, Scotland, St Christopher’s RC Primary School in Ashton-Under-Lyne and St Helen’s RC Primary School in Barry.
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