The Armenian Apostolic Church is an Eastern Orthodox Church and the second largest Orthodox tradition in Syria. The Church was founded in Armenia where Christianity was established as the state religion in the year 301 CE. With the fall of the Armenian kingdoms in the 11th century and the rise of the Safavids in Iran in the 16th century, Armenians immigrated to cities throughout Anatolia and the Levant. In 1742, Rome officially recognized a separate Armenian Catholic Church and over the next two centuries, Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries proselytized among members of the...

The Assembly of God is Brazil’s largest Pentecostal church, claiming more than 14 million members. Part of the first wave of Pentecostal churches, two Swedish missionaries from Chicago introduced the church to northern Brazil in the 1910s and it retains a headquarters in Belém. Unlike other imports, the church empowered Brazilian converts from its first days and relied on Brazilians to evangelize their compatriots. Brazilians served as church planters, ministers and leaders, independent...

This is the Roman Catholic version of the Creed. Different Protestant and Orthodox communities have slightly altered wording.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the...

Turkey has a small but growing Greek population, most of whom are Greek Orthodox Christians. Greek Orthodox Christianity was one of three main groups under the Ottoman millet system, which dissolved with the creation of the secular state, at which point the Greek patriarch was temporarily expelled from Istanbul and secular education was imposed in Greek schools. Like the Armenians, the Greeks suffered massacres and expulsions from Turkey leading up to and during WWI, and many more were removed to Greece during the 1923 population transfer of Greeks and Turks.

The Greek...

Anglicanism is a Protestant Christian tradition that emerged during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. It includes the Church of England and a variety of others around the world united by shared doctrine and practice under the Anglican Communion umbrella organization. The Archbishop of Canterbury is regarded as the unofficial spiritual leader of the international Anglican community.

The Anglican Church Mission Society (CMS) members Samuel Ajayi Crowther—who would become Nigeria’s first African Anglican bishop—and Rev. J.F. Schön were part of the original British...

A Roman Catholic order named after St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) and founded in the Thirteenth Century.

Christianity is a minority religion in Turkey today, though it was once the majority faith of the Ottoman Empire. The Christian population shrank immensely with the forfeiture of large territories leading up to and during WWI, and with the population transfer between Turkey and Greece that saw the loss of most of Turkey’s Greek Orthodox community. Christians currently make up less than 0.3% of the population, including (from largest to smallest)...

The formal name for this 1925 trial is The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Scopes was a substitute high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee who taught the theory of human evolution to his students in violation of the Butler Act which made it illegal to teach human evolution in any state funded school. The trial is also known as the Monkey Trial. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. 

In the context of Christianity, an autocephalous church is one in which the Bishop or Patriarch is the highest ranking religious authority and does not report to any ecclesiastical authority above him. It is common designation among Eastern Orthodox churches.

In classical Greek, the term means “one who is sent away” as a messenger. In Christianity, the term is often used interchangeably with “disciple” but some scholars interpret Pentecost as a turning point in converting disciples or followers of Jesus into apostles or messengers of his teaching. 

Catholicism arrived in the territory that would come to be known as Nigeria with Portuguese explorers in the 15th century, though their missionary efforts were largely unsuccessful and Catholicism virtually disappeared by the 17th century. Modern Catholic missions were established by priests from the Society of African Missions of Lyon in 1865, beginning in Lagos, and a vicariate was established in Benin in 1870. By 1920, numerous missions had appeared throughout Igboland, eventually outnumbering Anglican Church Missionary Society missions. Holy Ghost priests and priests from the St....

The Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes referred to as the Jacobite Church after the 6th century Monophysite Bishop Jacob Baradeus, traces its history to St. Peter’s establishment of his Holy See in Antioch, the capitol of the Roman province of Syria. The Church is presided over by the Patriarch of Antioch, located in Damascus. The majority of the community of Syriac Orthodox Christians exists today in Kerala, India, as an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church. The Syriac Orthodox Church maintains two...

Roughly 9.6% of Qatar’s population is Christian, the overwhelming majority of which are Filipino, Indian, and Lebanese noncitizen workers though may include some Qatari converts from Islam. Foreign missionary groups are not permitted to work in the country. Prior to the ongoing construction of Churches, Christians met in private homes and community centers for worship. Both the government and Christian leaders promote a need for discretion and friendly communication, and Christian symbols are not permitted on the exterior of church buildings.

Most Christians are Roman Catholic...

There are roughly 14 million Baptists in Nigeria, most of whom are affiliated with churches under the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), an umbrella organization that grew out of missionary work begun in the 1850s by the American Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

American Baptist missionaries began arriving in what would come to be Nigeria in 1850, and included both white and black missionaries. White missionaries were initially deterred by work in Africa and instead focused on Asia, with racism being a considerable factor, followed by fears of malaria. As a result, early...

There are six Christian Eastern Catholic churches in Syria, in order of size: Melkite (Greek Catholic), Armenian, Syrian, Maronite, Latin and Chaldean. The Syrian Uniate and Roman Catholic Churches were favored by the French, themselves Catholic.

Demographically, Syrian Catholics were concentrated in areas where the French were also located, facilitating regular communication between the two...