Features

When Samantha Jockel thought about engaging her local community, it wasn’t in the normal way one would think. Ms Jockel wanted to connect with local isolated elderly ladies, use the skills they already had and share them with the world. She did this through handbags, though not your average bag. Biddy Bag is a non-profit public company “limited by guarantee”, ...

The Uniting Church in Australia has joined a world-wide call by many Christian churches for a re-evaluation of the so-called “war on terror”. In a document named Uniting for Peace: a Christian perspective on the war in Afghanistan, the National Social Responsibility and Justice Agency of the Uniting Church claims the USA and its allies may have committed “grave breaches” ...

Peace is one of the most deceptive terms in public discourse. Consequently, it is not at all clear to me that people know what they are referring to when they talk about peace. Take the current political climate: peace most commonly refers to not having been part of the invasion of Iraq in the first place, or now getting the ...

Easter message from Rev Dr David Pitman Moderator of the Queensland Synod Mark 16:8 says of the women who found the tomb empty on Easter Day: “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Many biblical scholars agree that this was the original ...

Chocolate is a luxury that adds to our waistline and often makes us feel guilty. Yet if people knew about the exploitation and dangers kids in the cocoa fields are forced to endure, chocolate would also make them feel sick. It is estimated that in the West African nation of the Ivory Coast alone more than 600,000 children work on ...

The Honourable John Howard Dear John, Like you, I do not feel personally responsible for decisions which resulted in breaking up thousands of Australian families and exacerbating the hurt which Aboriginal Australians have experienced as a result of the actions of those of us whose families came to this country as migrants. I did not do it and I am ...

You’re the character in a video game, aliens from another planet are attacking you, enemies from another country are killing slaves, and an evil corrupt ruling power just keeps on sending their troops after you. Your character Striker needs to fight through the hoards of aliens, bullets, dead bodies, landmines, tanks, smoke and fighter planes in order to save the ...

The Japanese government and Christians should support the rights of the Ainu indigenous people in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, the Rev. Tadao Miura, the director of the Ainu People Information Centre of the United Church of Christ in Japan, has said. "God created each one of us as unique beings. So, we should care for each other," Miura said ...

Long haired American musician, singer, songwriter, producer and Christian radical from the 60s and 70s Larry Norman died yesterday. His second studio album, Only Visiting This Planet, produced with assistance from Beatles producer George Martin became theme music for the Jesus Movement and caused controversy among many conservative Christians when it was released in 1972. Born in Texas in 1947 ...

Churches should be prepared to confront their differences honestly and to examine them in the light of the scriptures, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I has said at a service to celebrate 60 years since the World Council of Churches was founded with its goal of Christian unity. "The bonds of friendship between divided churches and the bridges to overcome our divisions ...