Features

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a new consultation and dialogue involving the Labour Party, the churches and faith communities. The move came at a reception held at No 10 Downing Street at the end of last week. Called ‘Believing for a Better Britain’, the collaborators in the process say it is designed to enable Labour to hear the ...

The head of Africa’s biggest church grouping says he is hurt and tormented by a wave of attacks against foreigners in South Africa that have claimed the lives of at least 50 people, causing self-revulsion in a nation that once prided itself for post-apartheid tolerance. "As a South African, I stand truly embarrassed, pained and anguished about the recent developments ...

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a man known for speaking out about injustices from whatever side they come, and for his charismatic preaching peppered with heart-wrenching anecdotes. However, when he visited the United Nations in Geneva on 20 May, he stressed the link between "faith and health". Before his UN appearance, the former leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa ...

Rev Allan Boesak, a prominent South African anti-apartheid activist and former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, has appealed to churches in Zimbabwe to speak with one voice against tyranny. "One of the deepest sources of pain for Zimbabweans must be the trauma of seeing a liberation movement become an undemocratic, oppressive, unjust regime," Boesak wrote in a ...

Having addressed the issues of humanity’s love of war and the dangers he believes are posed by the "religious right" in the United States, author and former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges has now taken on a new generation of atheists who are questioning the need for religious faith. "They’re as deeply anti-intellectual as the Christian right," Hedges said ...

Last year the Maleny Uniting Church helped stage the first National Interfaith Festival.  The event was a huge success and brought attention to the many groups within the Uniting Church in Queensland that are working together with people of other faiths. Rev Garth Reed has been involved in interfaith relations for more than 30 years. As chaplain of Brisbane Boys ...

Citing India and China as the world centres of slavery, a corporate social responsibility guru has called on Queensland Christians to take up the call to be abolitionists. Professor of Ethics and anti-slavery campaigner David Batstone is author of the book Not for Sale: the Return of the Global Slave Trade — and How to Fight It, and estimates up ...

It’s the largest celebration of Easter in the country; it heralds a kaleidoscope of music, debate, art and extreme games in one destination, boasts it’s very own ‘canvas’ city, and has people from across this nation and around the globe flocking to southeast Queensland by the tens of thousands. In 2008, this event turned ten, embraced a new name and ...

Although Mikhail Gorbachev may be a great admirer of St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan friars, and recently visited his tomb, the Soviet Union’s last communist ruler insists he still does not believe in God. "I was and I remain an atheist," Gorbachev told Russia’s Interfax news agency last week. "I think religion is important for society, and ...

Spirituality is much more important in determining whether children are happy than it is for adults reports a new study by the Canadian University of British Columbia. Researchers tested 315 children aged nine to 12, measuring spirituality and other factors such as temperament and social relations that can affect an individual’s sense of happiness. Associate Professor of Psychology Mark Holder ...