Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

came to North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 in the Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 era. Its influence declined during the chaotic period of the Vandal invasions but was strengthened in the succeeding Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 period, only to disappear gradually after the Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 invasions of the 7th century. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Algeria. North Africa is primarily Muslim: Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 is the state religion of Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 and Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

. While the practice and expression of other faiths is guaranteed by law, the same legal framework tends to restrict them insofar as overt proselytising is concerned.

Converts to Christianity may be investigated and searched by the authorities. Although the current number of Christians in North Africa is low, churches built during the French

French Algeria

French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...

 and to a lesser extent Italian rule can still be found. There is some evidence that there has been an increase in conversions to Christianity among North African Muslims in recent years. The total number of Christians remains very low relative to the populations of those countries. The percentage of Christians in Algeria is less than 2% (2009). In 2009, the UNO

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 counted 45,000 Roman Catholics and 50,000 to 100,000 Protestants

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 in the country.

Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie

Kabylie

Kabylie or Kabylia , is a region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia , most of Bouira and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel,...

, especially in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou

Tizi Ouzou

Tizi Ouzou is a city in Kabylia, Algeria, where it ranks second in population after Béjaïa. It is the capital and largest city of Tizi Ouzou Province and of Great Kabylia .-Etymology:The name comes from the Kabylian Berber Tizi n Uzezzu and is pronounced Tizuzzu, commonly...

. In that wilaya, the proportion of Christians has been estimated to be between 1% and 5%. Christians have at times been subjected to religiously-motivated attacks. In 1996, Mgr Pierre Claverie, bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

, was assassinated by terrorists. This murder occurred soon after that of seven monks of the Trappistes of Tibérine

Martyrs of Atlas

On the night of 26–27 March 1996, seven monks from the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, belonging to the Roman Catholic Trappist Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance , were kidnapped in the Algerian Civil War. They were held for two months, and were found dead on 21 May 1996...

, and of six nuns. During that era, commonly known as the black decade, between 100,000 and 200,000 Algerians lost their lives.

Indigenous Christianity after the Arab conquest

The conventional historical view is that the conquest of North Africa by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate between AD 647 and 709 effectively ended Catholicism in Africa for several centuries. The prevailing view is that the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a monastic tradition

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

 and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called Donatist

Donatist

Donatism was a Christian sect within the Roman province of Africa that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries. It had its roots in the social pressures among the long-established Christian community of Roman North Africa , during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian...

 heresy, and this contributed to the earlier obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

. Some historians contrast this with the strong monastic tradition in Coptic Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, which is credited as a factor that allowed the Coptic Church to remain the majority faith in that country until around after the 14th century AD.

However, new scholarship has appeared that disputes this. There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from Tripolitania

Tripolitania

Tripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya.Tripolitania was a separate Italian colony from 1927 to 1934...

 (present-day western Libya) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700 AD. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimages after 850 AD to tombs of Catholic saints outside of the city of Carthage

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

, and evidence of religious contacts with Christians of Muslim Spain. In addition, calendar reforms adopted in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 at this time were disseminated amongst the indigenous Christians of Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, which would have not been possible had there been an absence of contact with Rome.

Local Catholicism came under pressure when the Muslim fundamentalist regimes of the Almohads and Almoravids came into power, and the record shows demands made that the local Christians of Tunis to convert to Islam. There are reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan

Kairouan

Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...

 around 1150 AD - a significant report, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims

Arab Muslims

Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....

 around 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in Catholic Church archives from the 14th century shows that there were still four bishoprics left in North Africa, admittedly a sharp decline from the over four hundred bishoprics in existence at the time of the Arab conquest. Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

 Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua

Nefzaoua

Nefzaoua is a region of south-west Tunisia, bounded by Chott el Jerid to the west, the Grand Erg Oriental to the south and the Dahar plateau to the east....

 in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and the first quarter of the 15th century, the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there.

Reintroduction of Christianity

The Roman Catholic Church was reintroduced in Algeria after the French conquest, when the diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 was established in 1838. Proselytization of the Muslim population was at first strictly prohibited; later the prohibition was less vigorously enforced, but few conversions took place. The several Roman Catholic missions established in Algeria were concerned with charitable and relief work; the establishment of schools, workshops, and infirmaries; and the training of staff for the new establishments. Some of the missionaries of these organizations remained in the country after independence, working among the poorer segments of the population. In the early 1980s, the Roman Catholic population numbered about 45,000, most of whom were foreigners or Algerians who had married French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 or Italians.

Under French rule

French rule in Algeria

French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...

, the Catholic population of Algeria peaked at over one million, but most of them left following Algeria's independence in 1962. In recent years, there has been a rise of Islamic fundamentalism, culminating in the 1996 murder of Pierre Claverie, bishop of Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/69168.stm.

The country is divided into four dioceses, including one archdiocese.

• Archdiocese of Alger
  Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alger
  The Archdiocese of Alger or Algiers is the Metropolitan See for the Ecclesiastical province of Algiers in Algeria.-History:* August 10, 1838: Established as Diocese of Algiers from Diocese of Islas Canarias in Spain...
  
  
  • Diocese of Constantine
    Roman Catholic Diocese of Constantine
    The Roman Catholic Diocese of Constantine is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Ecclesiastical province of Algiers in Algeria.-Special churches:The seat of the bishop is Cathedral the Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Sept-Douleurs in Constantine....
    
    
  • Diocese of Oran
    Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran
    The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Ecclesiastical province of Algiers in Algeria.-History:July 25, 1866: Established as Diocese of Oran from the Diocese of Algiers.-Leadership:* Bishops of Oran...
    
    
• Diocese of Laghouat
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Laghouat
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Laghouat is a diocese located in the city of Laghouat in Algeria immediately subject to the Holy See.-History:* July 19, 1901: Established as Apostolic Prefecture of Ghardaïa from the Apostolic Vicariate of Sahara and Sudan in Mali* January 10, 1921: Renamed as...
  
   (Immediately subject to the Holy See)

The diocese of Algeria was established in 1838 with the conquest of Algeria by French colonial troops. All proselytism among Muslims has long been prohibited and the role of the Catholic Church is limited to acts of charity

Charity (practice)

The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...

.

Protestantism

Protestants number some 50,000 to 100,000 in Algeria.

This small population generally practices its faith without government interference. However, convert

Convert

The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...

s from Islam can be exposed to the risk of attack by extremists. Missionary groups are permitted to conduct humanitarian activities without government interference as long as they are discreet and do not proselytize openly. Since 2006 missionary outreach among Muslims can be punished with up to five years of prison. The Protestant Church of Algeria

Protestant Church of Algeria

The Protestant Church of Algeria is a small religious body formed in 1972 by the union of several smaller Protestant denominations in Algeria.The church has about 1,500 members, mainly in the northern coastal region of the country...

 is a Reformed Church with about 10,000 members. The Protestant Church of Algeria is one of only two officially recognized Christian organizations in the country. Most Christians meet in homes, to protect themselves, according to ICC

International Christian Concern

International Christian Concern is a non-denominational, non-governmental, Christian watchdog group, located in Washington, DC, whose concern is the human rights of Christians...

. The country's Minister of Religious Affairs has called the evangelical churches "dangerous."
Protestant denominations in Algeria include:

• Armée du Salut
• Assemblées de Dieu
  Assemblies of God
  The Assemblies of God , officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 140 autonomous but loosely-associated national groupings of churches which together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination...
  
  
• Eglise Adventiste du Séptieme Jour
  Seventh-day Adventist Church
  The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
  
  
• Eglise Evangélique Copte
• Eglise Protestante d'Algérie
• Frères Larges
• Mission Baptiste Evangélique
• Mission Biblique de Ghardaia
• Mission d'Afrique du Nord
• Mission Evangélique au Sahara
• Mission Evangélique de Médéa
• Mission Evangélique du Sahara
• Mission Rolland

External links

• Theology in Africa
• The African roots of Latin Christianity by Henri Teissier, Bishop of Algeria
• Muslims Turn to Christ in Algeria - CBN Report
• Statistics relating to the Catholic Church in Algeria