Adventists in Azerbaijan Miss Out on First-Round Re-Registration

Baku, Azerbaijan ... [ANN] A Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan, was not among the more than 100 religious groups to receive re-registration from the Azerbaijani government earlier this month, reports Keston News Service. The State Committee for Relations with Religious Organizations said April 8 that it had granted re-registration to 107 Muslim communities, 11 Christian groups, and four Jewish groups. A spokesperson for the committee said that the Nakhichevan Adventist Church application was among a number that had been sent back for “corrections.”

Adventists and other minority religious groups in Azerbaijan have faced increasing legal difficulties over past months. Local authorities broke up a meeting at an Adventist church in Gyanja, western Azerbaijan, February 24, saying the church has failed to obtain a necessary re-registration certificate. Prior to the recent government drive to re-register religious groups, 406 faith communities operated legally in Azerbaijan. So far, the government has only re-registered 125 groups. [ANN Staff]

Students Gather in Nigeria

Ikeja, Nigeria ... [ANN] More than 2,500 university students met March 28 to 30 at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Babcock University, in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. Organizers of the convention, sponsored every two years by the Nigerian Association of Adventist Students, say this year’s event attracted the largest-ever number of students from state-run universities. The students came from more than 90 campuses across the country to meet with peers, attend lectures focused on real-life issues such as marriage and AIDS, and participate in worship programs. [Jean-Emmanuel Nlo Nlo/ANN Staff]