Belief in God seems to be making way for a modern form of ancestor worship in the Netherlands, says a Dutch academic who has embarked on research into non-religious death rites. "The priest and the pastor are increasingly sidelined, but the need for rites related to death remains. People are now negotiating with funeral companies about their own rites," Eric ...

A DECISION of the Council of Synod will see the annual Lent Appeal fundraising venture expanded to provide a range of resources including educational and community building resources for children, youth and adults. In the Uniting Church, Lent has traditionally been marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. While some churches still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days ...

You may not be a member of any church. You may be Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. Whatever your race, whatever your religion, I’m going to ask you to come. Get up from your seats, hundreds of you, just get up out of your seats and come and stand quietly, right here, quietly and reverently. THESE WERE familiar words to those ...

Every year, at the end of September, many Churches around Australia celebrate Social Justice Sunday.  This year the theme is Australia as a Global Citizen. “Christians have a responsibility to be useful and productive members of society,” said the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia, the Revd John Henderson, commenting on the theme for 2007. “In ...

Black Inc. Books RRP $29.95 Hillsong is a big church by any standards, so when an exposé is offered it’s bound to get big attention. That’s exactly what People in Glass Houses has achieved. Tanya Levin has been written up in The Bulletin and The Monthly and interviewed by the many including Andrew Denton and Philip Adams. Adding to the ...

THE MID-YEAR school holiday is the season of Day Camps around the Uniting Church in Queensland. This year the Oxley Uniting Church Day Camp celebrated 30 years with 125 campers, 55 high school-aged leaders and 40 adult helpers. Gail Rankin grew up attending Day Camp, then became a leader and is now co-director with Jenny Hudson. Ms Rankin said the ...

A peaceful stretch of the Bruce Highway just to the north of Yandina was shattered on the evening of 7 December 1978 when eight people lost their lives in a tragic multi-vehicle accident. June Ehrenberg is a mother who’s life was changed forever as a result of the accident. Our daughter Annette was going to see the film Jesus of ...

On Sunday 28 November 1993 while driving to Giru to conduct the 9.30am worship servce I was involved in a vehicle accident. I was told that the engine came through the firewall – whatever that means – and the driver’s door had to be cut open to release me. I was initially attended to in Ayr but within 24 hours ...

Roman Catholics in Ukraine have appealed for international support after a U.S.-owned company began converting a church into a casino. "The authorities are laughing at us, thinking we can do nothing as they take the church to pieces under our eyes," said the Rev. Jan Sobilo, vicar-general of the Catholic church’s Kharkiv-Zaporizhia diocese. "We have to do something. This is ...

Media doomsayers have been quick to highlight the 2006 Census data showing a significant decline nationally in those who listed their religious affiliation as Uniting Church (down by 15% to 1.1 million since the Census of 1996). The data for Queensland was more encouraging and showed less than 8% decline (to 282,103). While the Sunday Mail was quick to stereotype ...