A Christian labour activist in Hong Kong has urged Beijing to ensure that factories producing merchandise for the Olympic Games to be held in the Chinese capital in 2008 meet basic labour standards. "The labour problem is not just limited to games merchandisers, it is a widespread issue," Rev. Hans Lutz, chairperson of the Christian Industrial Committee, told Ecumenical News ...

In a unique partnership on a new scale, 30 Uniting Church youth workers across Queensland have teamed up with the Synod’s Youth and Children’s Ministry Unit (YACMU) to host a faith forming summer camp in January 2007. Member of the organising executive and Synod Young Adult Ministry Coordinator Tom Kerr said the vision of Summer Madness Momentum is to grow ...

Many Christians in Scotland are irate that Edinburgh University has approved a request by the international Pagan Society for its annual congress to be held on campus grounds not far from the city’s Grassmarket. There, witches and heretics were burned to death in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are angry because only recently the same university vetoed a request ...

On Sunday 19 May, the Synod paused in proceedings to celebrate people in ministry, those who have retired, those who have passed away and those who have been ordained since the last Synod meeting. General Secretary Rev Jenny Timms and the Moderator Rev Dr David Pitman congratulated retiring ministers, 17 in all, and welcomed eight new ministers. Retiring ministers were ...

On the day of David Hicks’ return UnitingJustice Australia, Amnesty International Australia, GetUp and the Australian Lawyers Alliance expressed their relief that his ordeal is almost over. They remain concerned, however, that fundamental questions about his treatment in Guantanamo Bay and the Australian Government’s response to his situation need to be answered. “David Hicks has been held for over five ...

Theological Education Task Group chairperson Rev Bruce Johnson addressed the Queensland Synod meeting on Friday 18 May proposing a theological education network with two areas of focus. “We envisage one integrated institution (provisionally called Network for Christian Formation, NCF), with two arms, Trinity Theological College offering training which may lead to Bachelor’s and Postgraduate qualifications within the Australian Qualifications Framework ...

It is said that by nature Jerry Falwell, the US evangelical Christian leader who died this week, was a compassionate pastor but in his preaching an often ferocious critic of feminists and gays. Now, in the days after his death, Falwell is also being remembered as a brilliant political strategist and organizer. "He was probably the major architect of the ...

I was born in 1960 into a family of four girls. I think the first feminist in our family was my father. He had watched his mother struggle to provide for her sons when widowed in the late 1930s. He knew first hand that if women got equal pay for equal work then the “widows and the fatherless” would not ...

Moderator of the Queensland Uniting Church Rev Dr David Pitman spoke last night at a public forum, Australians against Capital Punishment. The forum was hosted by Just Rights Queensland partnering with Amnesty International and Lee Rush to launch a new national campaign to call for Australia to show more consistency and leadership in the abolition of capital punishment. Other speakers ...

There’s something tribal about worshipping with a few thousand other Christians on the pivot-point of the Church calendar. If ever you have wondered how hymns of praise sound when around 10 000 people belt them out, the Resurrection Sunday evening service in Toowoomba is not to be missed! The congregation sang, “How great is our God,”, as the Bible Society ...