All posts tagged: Spain

A man shouting ‘death to Christian’ kills one and injured four in a machete attack on two churches in Spain

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A man armed with a machete attacked the members of two Catholic churches in Spain on Wednesday, Jan 25, 2023, leaving at least one dead and four injured, The Telegraph reports. One of the injured, a priest, is in serious condition with a neck injury. According to witnesses, the man entered the churches in Algeciras located in Southern Spain, shouting ‘death to Christians’ and ‘Allahu akbar’. Authorities believe it could be a terrorist attack. Police have since arrested a 25-year-old Moroccan, who they believed acted alone. The man had been issued deportation orders a year earlier. READ: ‘Death to Christians’: 2 churches attacked in Spain; 1 dead, 4 injured AND Migrant suspected of deadly machete church attack was served deportation order

Why are new COVID cases surging in France and Spain?

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Europe is experiencing its second wave of COVID, with France reporting 10,000 new infections a day and Spain hitting 12,000 new cases a day. Several other European countries are also reporting increases as well. The Daily Mail explains: France‘s daily coronavirus cases have topped 10,000 for the first time while Spain’s have rocketed to 12,000.  The countries’ soaring case numbers have led to fears that the UK, which has seen its daily case figures steadily rise since August, could be heading in the same direction.  On Friday, the UK announced 3,539 new daily coronavirus cases – the highest toll in four months. […] And Spain announced a whopping 12,183 cases on Friday, bringing the total to above 566,300 just four months after the country’s low of 132 new cases on May 25.  But fortunately, the number of new deaths is not climbing as fast as the new cases during the second wave. The Daily Mail also explained why: Health bosses said most of the new infections in the UK were young people, many who only had mild or …

Casas colgadas de Cuenca, Spain Credit: Jose Luis Mieza/Flickr/Creative Commons

Spain’s song at Eurovision written by two Evangelical Christians

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Eurovision is an international singing contest held annually in Europe. It started in 1973 and features winners from participating European countries who hold national competitions to select their representative. It differs from North American singing competitions like The Voice in that participants must sing an original song. But it doesn’t have to be written by the people singing it. In fact, the major emphasis seems to be the song over the performers, though obviously they need to be talented as well. With a growing Evangelical population, Spain will be represented at this year’s competition with a song written by two Evangelical Christians, Sylvia Santoro and her nephew Raul Gomez. Sylvia wrote the words and Raul supplied the music. The love song entitled, Tu Canción, won the Spanish leg of the event with 43% of the vote, beating out eight competitors. It was sung by a group called Almaia, composed of two singers Amaia and Alfred. So far the song has over 750,000 views on YouTube. Married with two children, Sylvia is a popular gospel singer among …

Fortified bridge of the town of Besalu, Spain Credit: Mariluz Rodriguez/Flickr/Creative Commons

Evangelical church growing in Spain and France

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Reading reports out of Europe, you get the impression that the Christian church is not doing well. And though it’s true the Roman Catholic and liberal churches are in decline pretty much like they are around the world, the Evangelical church is doing fine. A recent report by the Spanish Government says the Evangelical church is on the upswing in Spain. According to the Religious Plurality report released by the country’s Justice ministry, as of December 31, 2016 there are 3,910 Evangelical churches in Spain, up from 3,769 in 2015, an increase of 141. In other words, last year a new Evangelical church opened in that country every two and a half days. These numbers only included registered churches and do not include unregistered house churches or Bible study/prayer groups. The report added that the Evangelical church is also the fastest growing religion in Spain. Religion analyst Maximo Alvarez who described the increase as a “great upturn,” said the growth has been most pronounced since 2000. With 46 million people, there is still a need …