Breaking Chains and Opening Prison Doors
From APCN Co-Leader Faith McDonnell:
You may know by now that the Anglican Persecuted Church Network (APCN) and the Anglican Freedom Network (AFN) are planning a regional conference on global Christian persecution and human trafficking in September. I hope you will consider coming to this important conference at All Saints Anglican Church, Woodbridge, Virginia!
The conference in the planning stages right now, but we have named it Breaking the Chains: Responding to Christian Persecution and Human Trafficking. I love the title "Breaking the Chains" for many reasons, but one in particular. It reminds me of the great hymn by Charles Wesley, "Amazing Love," that says: "My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."
In our advocacy for persecuted Christians, we have the privilege of helping break literal chains binding our persecuted brothers and sisters. But in reaching beyond ourselves, focusing outside ourselves, on Christians in Nigeria, China, Sudan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere, we also break some chains of our own. And even though they are often broken by what is happening to our fellow followers of Jesus, our hearts are more free.
I also think of another song. In February of 2025 Patricia and I were at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC. I was quite surprised when Summit Co-leader Katrina Lantos Swett quoted a Christian worship song. And it was not just because Katrina is the daughter of late U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor. It was because it was not a famous Christian song. But "Be Ye Glad," by Michael Kelly Blanchard is a powerful modern hymn that speaks to the experience of coming out of the darkness of persecution and imprisonment:
From your dungeon a rumor is stirring
You have heard it again and again,
But this time the cell keys are turning
And outside there are faces of friends.
And though your body lay weary and wasting,
And your eyes show the sorrow they've had.
Oh, the Love that your heart is now tasting,
Has opened the gates, be ye glad.
That was the portion of the song (all of which is worth listening to) that Dr. Swett quoted. She urged Summit attendees — activists from many different religions as well as Christians — to be those faces of the friends that help break open the prison gates and bring our love to those in their dungeons.
How much more should we, as followers of Jesus, who know that He came to bring liberty to the captives, pray and work to open the spiritual, as well as physical, gates that imprison our brothers and sisters! Another line in the song says, "Your cry has been heard and the ransom has been paid up in full — be ye glad!" The cry of the persecuted has been heard by the Lord and He is calling those of us in freedom to do our part to defend them. Help the Anglican Persecuted Church Network to break their chains!
From APCN Co-Leader Patricia Streeter:
As I read Faith’s inspiring words, I also remember our Lord’s words in two passages in Scripture – the first being the day He sat down in a synagogue in Nazareth, read Isaiah 61, and declared that He is the One that Isaiah foretold – the One Who came to set the captives free. The second passage I think about is Jesus’s prayer to the Father right before He suffered on the Cross. In that passage in the gospel of John, He pours out His heart of amazing love to the Father for the Body of Christ for all time – not just His immediate 12 disciples, but for all of us today as well. It wasn’t only a love prayer; it was also a strategic prayer for Kingdom advancement. What was the golden strategy that would cause the maximum Kingdom advancement – the strategy that would free the maximum number of captives? Jesus prayed that all of us in the Body of Christ would love each other with the same powerful love He poured out to us – the kind of love that strengthens those who are persecuted and also draws in a worldly audience whose hearts are softened toward the gospel as they view this amazing love.
Jesus calls us to a powerful love for our persecuted brothers and sisters in the faith – the kind of love that sits in the halls of Congress and cries out to leadership on behalf of Christians suffering genocide in Nigeria, but also the kind of love that meets every month to cry out to our Lord in prayer for Christians in every nation who are persecuted for loving Jesus. Jesus says that the unbelieving world will be impacted by the kind of love that brings us together into complete unity.
Jesus prays to the Father in John 17: 22 – 23: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
We have been called to join Jesus on a joyful and exciting divine mission to set the captives free, through our prayers and advocacy that unify us with persecuted believers on the frontlines of world mission. Please join Faith and me as we rally the troops of the Anglican Persecuted Church Network. Join me, Patricia, in our monthly prayer meetings, and join Faith as she leads the efforts in Washington, D.C. And please especially plan to join us for our regional conference on global Christian persecution and human trafficking on September 18 and 19 in Woodbridge, Virginia!
Faith McDonnell has recently become the Director of Advocacy at Katartismos Global, a Christian non-profit organization founded by The Rt. Rev. Mrs. Julian Dobbs for the purpose of "Equipping the Saints." Previously she directed the International Religious Liberty Program and Church Alliance for a New Sudan at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, Washington, DC. Faith has been an advocate for persecuted believers and for wider human rights issues for over 27 years, speaking, writing extensively, and mobilizing church members. Faith has organized rallies and protests and has drafted legislation on religious persecution for both houses of Congress and for the Episcopal Church. In addition to co-leading the Anglican Persecuted Church Network (APCN), Faith co-leads GAFCON’s Suffering Church Network with the Rt. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail.
Patricia Streeter is a follower of Jesus with a heart for the persecuted church and world missions. In 1998, Patricia founded a ministry to the persecuted church that has grown beyond her church’s boundaries. As a volunteer for Open Doors USA, she has been invited to speak in various venues, and she has organized many events to bring prayer and advocacy to suffering Christians. In Sept. 2019, she, along with Faith McDonnell, founded the Anglican Persecuted Church Network (APCN) that she continues to co-lead. She has also given MAP presentations in several New Wineskins Missions Conferences and served as Co-Leader of several Anglican Persecuted Church Network Pre-Conferences. Patricia also serves as the Global Mission Advocate for the Diocese of Western Anglicans. Please email her here to learn more.
