Prayers and symbols have the power to bind people together, writes a religion scholar, and so it is important to understand the history and context of Good Friday prayers.
A picture taken in the late 1970s shows a group of refugees (162 persons) who arrived on a small boat which sank a few meters from the shore in Malaysia.
UNHCR/K. Gaugler
Forty years ago, the Canadian government applied its new program for private sponsorship of refugees allowing Canada to welcome the largest number of Southeast Asian refugees in the world.
A Christian pilgrim prays at the historic Deyruzzaferan monastery in Mardin, in southeastern Turkey,
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
The percentage of Christians in Turkey declined from nearly 25% in 1914 to less than 0.5% today. Their future looks even more uncertain in today’s political climate.