“Antisemitism, Christian persecution, anti-Muslim hatred, and other forms of intolerance are on the rise,” Rashad Hussain, President Joe Biden’s nominee to fill the role of U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In fact, he said 80 percent of the world’s population live in places with serious religious liberty restrictions. As an example, Hussain highlighted “the plight of the patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church unable to leave his home to tend to his flock.”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)

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Hussain was referring to Patriarch Abune Antonios, who refused to bow to the Eritrean government, particularly when it demanded the excommunication of thousands of worshippers and when he protested the arrest of priests. Government agents placed Antonios under house arrest in 2006, abducted him from his home in 2007, and continue to force him to live detained to this day.

Sadly, Antonios’ suffering is only one example of many in that small nation by the Red Sea. Open Doors ranks Eritrea, a small nation in the Horn of Africa, #6 on its list of most dangerous nations for Christians, and it says the situation for non-Orthodox Christians is even worse. According to Open Doors:

Government security forces monitor phone calls, scrutinize activity and conduct countless raids which target Christians, seize Christian materials and damage house churches. Christians can be arrested and imprisoned without trial. Many Christians are held in inhumane prisons because of their faith, and their loved ones often do not know where they are or even if they are still alive.

The non-Orthodox, as well as those who have converted from Muslim backgrounds, also face discrimination when they seek social services.

Eritrea’s case is, unfortunately, just a taste of the increasingly intense persecution around the world. Open Doors says over 340 million Christians are facing this extreme peril for being followers of Christ. To put that in context, that is 1-in-8 Christians worldwide! It’s also a number bigger than the entire population of the United States.

So what can we do to help? Well, we can certainly advocate for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we can press our national leaders to actively do the same in international arenas.

But right now — this weekend, in fact — you can join a global call to prayer.

Sunday, November 7, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This annual event is in its 25th year after being launched in 1996 by the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). It’s now a rallying point for churches and ministries around the world.

“When you meet with persecuted Christians, the first thing that they ask of you is to pray for them,” said Godfrey Yogarajah, WEA’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom, in a recent press release.

WEA added, “Discrimination and persecution take on many forms, such as being outcast from society, verbally or physically abused, slandered, wrongly accused of coercing others to change their faith, abducted, forcibly married, imprisoned and even martyred.” And those attacks can come from both government agents directly or societal antagonists allowed to mistreat their Christian neighbors.

Yogarajah, added, “As a global family of believers, let us not miss this opportunity to unite in prayer for our brothers and sisters who share our faith, but not our freedoms.”

We know there is power in prayer! This Sunday, let’s pull out our prayer points (like this resource from Open Doors), and pray in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ facing intense fire around the world.

How are you praying for the persecution that is happening in the world? Let us know in the comments below!

Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. Photo by Getty Images.