Pentecostal Commission on Religious Liberty

A WELCOME WORD

The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF) has led the Commission on Religious Liberty (CRL) for more than a decade. The Pentecostal World Fellowship (PWF), also recognizing the need of persecuted Christians around the world, asked the PWF World Missions Commission (WMC) to attend to the concern. In 2016, the World Missions Commission established a Task Force for Religious Liberty.

In 2015, Pastor Max Schläpfer, Chairman of the Commission on Religious Liberty, invited Dr. Arto Hämäläinen, Chairman of the PWF World Missions Commission, to collaborate on such efforts. This led to a proposal to merge the WAGF Commission on Religious Liberty and the PWF World Missions Commission Task Force for Religious Liberty. Both the WAGF and PWF accepted this proposal, and the joint commission was named the Pentecostal Commission on Religious Liberty. Pastor Schläpfer served as its first chairman in 2019, followed by Dr. Hämäläinen, who was elected at the start of 2020.

OBJECTIVES

1. To help persecuted Christians and the suffering church
2. To empower Pentecostal congregations (and ministries) to assist persecuted churches
3. To bring together Pentecostals globally in partnership with other evangelical initiatives for the suffering church
4. To maximize resources so as to facilitate awareness and advocacy of persecuted Christians
5. To raise the profile of Christian persecution and the suffering church with our respective global bodies

MEMBERS OF THE PENTECOSTAL COMMISSION ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Chairman:
Dr. Arto Hämäläinen, Finland

Secretary:
Rauli Lehtonen, Sweden

Africa:
Dr. Opoku Onyinah, Ghana

Asia & Middle East:
Dikran Salbashian, Jordan
Ihsan Ozbek, Turkey
John Vincely, India

Europe:
Yuriy Kulakevich, Ukraine
Dr. Peter Kuzmic, Croatia
Mervyn Thomas, UK

Latin America:
Cesar Casillas, Mexico
David Lopez, Colombia

North America
Dr. William Griffin, Canada
Dr. Brian Stiller, Canada
Randy Hurst, USA