Queensland Synod News

Religion’s influence is declining in the United States, 59 per cent of Americans believe, but they are also unhappy with calls to action by people deemed to be religious conservatives or liberals, a new survey finds. The annual survey on attitudes about religion in the United States, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and ...

News that the Prime Minister has withdrawn the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006 has been received with relief by the National Council of Churches in Australia. There is caution, however, that the Bill was not withdrawn on grounds of its injustice, but because it was unable to pass through Federal Parliament by the narrowest of margins. Nevertheless the ...

“It is no exaggeration to say, I am living in a powder keg of emotion in the Mary Valley,” said Uniting Church Minister Rev Iain Watt. The Uniting Church is supporting Mr Watt’s work and has released him from his role as Blue Care Chaplain Gympie so he can more fully support people in the Mary Valley affected by the ...

PASTOR ANDY Pawican, aged 30, was murdered by soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Fatima village, in the mountainous town of Pantabangan, around 180 km from metropolitan Manila. Andy Pawican dedicated his life to spreading the word of God. He was a licentiate pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), a partner church ...

The International press freedom body, Reporters Without Borders, is calling on Chinese authorities to release a journalist detained after posting an online report about a church demolition. Zan Ai-zong, the Hangzhou bureau of Beijing-based China Ocean News, who is said to be a Christian, was arrested on 11 August, the day after being sacked by the news outlet. "This new ...

Churches in Sri Lanka have called for an immediate halt to an upsurge of violence between government forces and rebels seeking autonomy for Tamil-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist island nation of mainly Sinhalese speakers. "We are in a boiling pot with both going for each other’s throat. The only way out is an immediate cease-fire," the Rev. Kingsley Perera, ...

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation to the Middle East has urged a stepping up of talks between Christians, Jews and Muslims to help promote a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue that it sees as the root of the violence in the region. "We need to speak truthfully with each other now," delegation leader the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, ...

Christian leaders are protesting against a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a Tokyo shrine that commemorates the country’s 2.6 million war dead, including a number of criminals. Such high profile visits at this time of the year are seen by China and Korea as supporting his country’s aggression before and during the Second World War. The Rev. ...

Continued Israeli bombing of Lebanon is strengthening support amongst the Lebanese people for the Hezbollah movement, says an international church delegation in Beirut. They reiterated the appeal of local religious leaders for an immediate cease-fire as aid workers said fear is gripping everyone in the Lebanese capital. "There’s one word that has to be spoken and voiced as clearly as ...

An African church leader has added his voice to those calling on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to mediation, and urging the international community to intensify the search for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, while a Ghanaian cleric has warned the Middle East conflict could have a negative impact in African countries. "It is disturbing that again military intervention ...