Queensland Synod News

The US Episcopal Church’s diocese of Virginia is preparing for an all-out legal battle over the ownership of the property in 11 parishes that broke away from the denomination over its tolerance of homosexual clergy. The case involves two of the oldest, largest and most prominent parishes in Virginia and pits church members against the diocese in a struggle over ...

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, seen by many Orthodox Christians as their spiritual leader, has told European politicians that dialogue between followers of different religions is essential, ”especially in times such as ours when our planet is facing many warfronts all over the world". Both in the past and in the present, "religious reasons were put forth to edge individuals, or ...

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has warned it is not possible to win the war on terror as long as conditions that drive people to desperation continue to persist. "There is no way anybody is going to win the war on terror as long as there are conditions in so many parts ...

Communities around Queensland will have stacks of fun with Pancake Day this year, as they cook and sell $2 pancakes to help raise money for those who need it most. Over 600 groups and businesses around Queensland will be supporting UnitingCare’s Pancake Day on Tuesday 20 February, to help the elderly, homeless and vulnerable members of the community. All funds ...

The US National Council of Churches, a long-standing critic of US military involvement in Iraq, has criticised President George W. Bush’s call for additional US troops to be sent to the region.  "Sending more troops is not a change in policy, nor is it even a change in strategy; it is more of the same," the NCC said in a ...

A Chinese monk from the Trappist order, the Rev. Nicholas Kao Se-tsean, who is believed to be one of the world’s oldest Roman Catholic priests, has celebrated his 110th birthday with family and friends in Hong Kong. Kao concelebrated a special Mass on 15 January at the Lady of Joy Abbey (Hong Kong), the place where he has lived and ...

Changes to Education Queensland policies for both Religious Instruction and Chaplaincy in state schools will have significant consequences for schools, parents, ministers, church councils and RE volunteers. Uniting Church representative on Education Queensland’s Religious Education Advisory Committee (REAC) and Queensland Churches Together RE/Chaplaincy Committee Rev David MacGregor says this is the culmination of over five years work, and comes within ...

Almost one week after the new archbishop of Warsaw resigned after admitting contacts with Poland’s communist-era secret police, commentators in Rome said the church was reeling from the implications of the affair. The Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper reported that Pope Benedict XVI was "furious" about those who had withheld information from him about Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus. In Warsaw, leaders of ...

Former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are backing a new grouping of Baptists in a centrist organization that will tackle broader social issues and counter a perceived image of the Southern Baptist Convention as an exclusionary church. At the same time the new grouping has invited the Southern Baptists to its foundation convention a year from now. "This ...

The Boonah Uniting Church and community has been shocked by the accidental death of an elderly church member who was knocked over by a car after worship last Sunday. Mavis Bell was getting into a car to be taken back to the Fassifern Retirement Village when it suddenly reversed knocking her to the ground. A well know resident of the ...