{"id":85045,"date":"2026-07-31T10:19:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=85045"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:21:06","slug":"c-of-e-bishops-appeal-to-saudi-crown-prince-to-halt-executions-of-ethiopian-christians-on-death-r-the-bishops-of-chelmsford-southwark-and-winchester-have-written-to-the-crown-prince-of-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/c-of-e-bishops-appeal-to-saudi-crown-prince-to-halt-executions-of-ethiopian-christians-on-death-r-the-bishops-of-chelmsford-southwark-and-winchester-have-written-to-the-crown-prince-of-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Church of England Bishops Appeal To Saudi Crown Prince To Halt Executions Of Ethiopian Christians On Death Row"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From<em> Church Times:<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"ContentPlaceHolderDefault_MasterContentPlaceHolder_Article_6_pnlAmazonPolly\">\n<div class=\"audioControls\">\n<div class=\"audioControlCell audioPositionCell\">\n<div id=\"positionSliderAmazonPolly\" class=\"ui-slider ui-corner-all ui-slider-horizontal ui-widget ui-widget-content\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">THE Bishops of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/bishop-of-chelmsford\">Chelmsford<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/bishop-of-southwark\">Southwark<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/bishop-of-winchester\">Winchester<\/a>\u00a0have written to the Crown Prince of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/saudi-arabia\">Saudi Arabia<\/a>, Mohammed bin Salman, copying in the UK Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, and calling for an end to the executions and torture of Christians in Saudi prisons.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">+<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleContent\">\n<div id=\"ContentPlaceHolderDefault_MasterContentPlaceHolder_Article_6_pnlMainText\">\n<p>The bishops have appealed for a halt to the executions of 58 Ethiopians \u2014 most of them Orthodox Christians \u2014 currently on death row in the state, some of whom have been convicted of smuggling cannabis into Saudi Arabia, which, the Bishops say, was the result of criminal traffickers\u2019 coercing them into transporting goods inadvertently. \u201cWe do not write to lecture, but to appeal,\u201d the Bishops write in their letter from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/house-of-lords\">House of Lords<\/a>, dated 24 July. The Christians have allegedly been singled out for mistreatment. \u201cWe are aware of accounts from several of these men that during transfers to court hearings, Saudi police officers discovered the crosses they were wearing around their necks, forcibly removed them and physically assaulted them,\u201d wrote Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani (Chelmsford), the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun (Southwark, whose last day in office is next Tuesday), and the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen (Winchester).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Church Times: THE Bishops of Chelmsford,\u00a0Southwark, and\u00a0Winchester\u00a0have written to the Crown Prince of\u00a0Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, copying in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85045"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85049,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85045\/revisions\/85049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}