Christians in Libya request continued prayer for the Union Church in Tripoli. After a 15 February court hearing, the subsequent verdict ordered their eviction from their current premises.
The Union Church, established by expatriate Christians in 1962, is one of five denominations recognised by the government. When their premises were expropriated by the former Ghaddafi regime in the 1970’s, the church rented a building from the government on land that had been expropriated from others. For more than 50 years the Church (and three other Protestant multi-national churches) has used this building.
Since 2011 a government committee has been returning many expropriated properties to their original owners, with the building used by the Union Church being returned to the heirs of the original owner. In December 2020 they applied to evict the church, with the court ordering the eviction following a hearing on 15 February 2022.
The Union Church has tried to reach an agreement with the new owners to continue to rent the building for a year and then buy it. They have raised money for a down payment, but they face difficulties in transferring the funds to the owners’ bank. They have appealed the verdict to gain time to sort out the banking problems.
Prayer Points
The Union Church requests prayer:
-
- for the members and leadership of the different congregations using the building to know the peace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit
- for the government to provide the Union Church with an existing vacant building to use for worship (as happened when their building was confiscated in the 1970’s) or;
- for the Lord to enable the church to buy an appropriate church building (either the existing one or another building)
