1. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is an independent, self-supporting, self-governing Canadian mission. All of the decisions about our mission are made here in Canada. Our board of directors are made up of Canadians (and one member from the UK) and our staff is Canadian. Our financial support comes from Canadian individuals, businesses, and churches.

This specifically means, among other things, that, despite what is often assumed by those outside of Canada, VOM-Canada is not a branch office of The Voice of the Martyrs in the United States or any other internationally based mission. While VOM-USA is today the largest of the missions started by Richard Wurmbrand, it is not our international headquarters. Actually, there is no international headquarters for The Voice of the Martyrs anywhere in the world!  There is no VOM-International!

2. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is part of an international association of independent missions started by or through the influence of Richard Wurmbrand called the International Christian Association (ICA). While we are bound together by five common purposes, history, and cooperate in projects around the world, and our executives meet together at least annually to share vision and ministry outcomes, no mission may dictate policy to any of the other missions worldwide, nor is any one mission empowered to represent any of the other missions or to speak on their behalf worldwide. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada speaks with our own voice and represents our own interests.

3. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada has its own distinct vision and set of core values, quite apart from some of our other missions in our ICA family. There are similarities and differences between the various ICA missions, as is to be expected as each mission is independent. Some of these distinctions are due to differences in core values; others due to logistical, geographical, cultural, or philosophical differences. Hence, The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada has programs and resources that our sister missions do not have and the opposite is also true.  We also do not feel the obligation to support or to make available Canadian alternatives to programs run by any of our sister missions.  For example, we do not operate programs that financially support indigenous church leadership due to our commitment to avoiding dependency creating projects.  Our Legal Defense Fund, on the other hand, is one example of a program that is distinctly Canadian.

4. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada strongly believes in working in partnership with like-minded organizations. Hence, while we do work closely with our sister missions in the International Christian Association, we do not exclusively work with them. We also have key partnerships in place with organizations such as the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Forum 18, Mission Network News, and others. We are seeking to strengthen our own ties with the World Evangelical Alliance and the Lausanne Movement, quite separately from those of our sister missions. We are a founding mission of the Religious Liberty Partnership, a partnership of other ministries worldwide that is seeking to build bridges and discover ways of working together rather than in competition in serving persecuted Christians.  We have worked hard to maintain excellent, cooperative relationships with the other persecuted church ministries who also have representation here in Canada. We praise God that we have been able to resist the tendency to view them as competitors but enjoy warm, friendly relationships on personal and organizational levels. This commitment to partnerships, we have found, is a Canadian trait that we are proud to exhibit.

5. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is making a unique and significant commitment to theological education, most especially in developing programs of teaching regarding persecution from both a missiological and theological perspective. This has become one of our true distinctions and one that we are continuing to uphold and develop.

6. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is committed to accurate and timely reporting and research. While we cannot and do not claim perfection, we take seriously our obligation to be a reliable source of information and support of persecuted Christians worldwide. We try hard to get the facts straight, without sensationalism and giving credit where credit is due. We hope that this commitment is evident in our monthly newsletter, our websites www.persecution.net and www.persecution.tv, and our weekly email news service, The Persecution and Prayer Alert.

We believe that Canadians want a mission that is dedicated to being a distinctly Canadian voice for and to persecuted Christians around the world. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is trying hard to be that voice. Thank you to the increasing number of Canadians who are standing together with us.