Local officials have begun legal proceedings against church leaders in the province of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria with the aim of closing the church.
On February 2, the provincial governor filed the case against the pastor of the church in Ait Atteli and his father, who owns the land where the church building stands.
The case is based on a 2006 ordinance stipulating that permission must be obtained before a building is used for non-Muslim worship. No date for a court hearing has been scheduled yet.
The reluctance of Algeria’s National Commission for Non-Muslim Worship to issue licences means that churches remain vulnerable to closure
The church was founded in 2006 and has been a member of the EPA (Église Protestante d’Algérie), the officially recognized group of Protestant churches in Algeria, since 2011. The congregation has more than 90 members.
The province of Tizi Ouzou has the highest concentration of Christians in the country.
Several churches have been closed under the 2006 ordinance in recent years. The licensing commission established at the time has yet to grant a single license.
Some church buildings have been physically sealed, including a church in the nearby city of Tizi Ouzou, which had a congregation of around 700 members.
In July 2021 three churches in Oran, Algeria’s second largest city, were closed, and each building was sealed.
Pray that the leaders of the Ait Atteli church will be granted wisdom in dealing with this court case. Ask that the church will avoid closure, that all churches closed by the government campaign will reopen soon, and that the government will begin to grant licences allowing Christians in Algeria to worship freely.
