Berlin: Asylum seekers converting to Christianity

Written by Linda Digby 10 Sep 2015
Berlin: Asylum seekers converting to Christianity

Hundreds of Muslim refugees are converting to Christianity in a Berlin church. Pastor Gottfried Martens has seen his congregation at the evangelical Trinity Church grow from 150 to more than 600 in just two years, describing the number of conversions as a 'miracle.' One of these converts is Mohammed Ali Zonoobi, a carpenter from Shiraz, Iran, who was recently baptised. For Zonoobi and his wife Afsaneh their baptism marks a new beginning. Zonoobi is one of hundreds of mostly Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers who have been baptised at Trinity Church. However, there are concerns that some are not genuine converts, rather professing a Christian faith to boost their chances of staying in the country. Martens acknowledges this possibility, but says that, once in church, most people do engage and that around 90% of converts continue attending after they have been baptised.

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