Queensland Synod News

The Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) of the Uniting Church has today commended the Australian Government’s invitation to State and Territory Governments to work in unity to formulate anti-abuse strategies for the Indigenous community. UAICC National Administrator the Rev Shayne Blackman said that the prevalence of Indigenous abuse, in particular of women and children, was in part a ...

Band FAQ has completed filming a video clip for their new single the gospel inspired Piece of Dirt. The clip was filmed in Wesley Kangaroo Point Uniting Church and features around twenty of the band’s friends in full choir robes. The only thing missing was streamers on the tambourine. FAQ will launch their Testify EP at the Zoo on June ...

TWO MORETON Bay College students got a taste of where gymnastics is taking them when they competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March. Naazmi Johnston, 17, and Chloe Sims, 15, both represented Australia in their respective sports of Rhythmic Gymnastics and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Both gymnasts returned to the Moreton Bay College gymnastics centre of excellence with ...

ACCORDING TO Time Magazine, Dan Brown is one of the 100 most influential people of all time. His novel, The Da Vinci Code, has sold 40 million copies and the BBC claims it is the best selling novel ever and none less than Tom Hanks will star in the Ron Howard film version being released worldwide on May 19, 2006. ...

Mounting protests demanding the banning of showing of the "Da Vinci Code" as blasphemous have pressured the Indian government into putting on hold the release of the movie until Christian leaders have reviewed it and given their approval. "If anything in the film affects their [Christian] sensibilities, we will not allow the movie to be screened," Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, India ...

Some Indian Christians are so incensed with the fictional blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code" they want the government to ban it and one Roman Catholic has offered a bounty of US$25 000 on the head of author Dan Brown, leaving other members of the faithful embarrassed by the reaction. The Mumbai Catholic Council has threatened to stop the screening of ...

Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, for many years a dissident against Soviet communism, has defended an Orthodox church-sponsored document calling for a new concept of human rights to counter Western notions of freedom said to lack "moral norms". "Limitless human rights are what our cave-dwelling ancestor already had – nothing prevented him from depriving his neighbour of prey or finishing him ...

The World Council of Churches (WCC) says it is launching with the Vatican a three-year joint study project aimed at developing a shared code of conduct on religious conversion where charges of proselytising can trigger tensions in some societies. "The issue of religious conversion remains a controversial dimension in many interconfessional and interreligious relations", said the Rev. Hans Ucko, head ...

The present crisis in the Solomon Islands highlights the continuing need for Australian Church support in the unsettled country. The Australian Churches recognise the need to address underlying economic and social justice issues in the Solomons to achieve lasting peace. This year Simply Sharing Week (an annual education program of the Australian Churches) is focusing on physical and mental health ...

A new $1.5 million research centre focused on improving community and aged care was opened by Federal Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro in Brisbane yesterday. The Research and Practice Development Centre will be a joint project between the University of Queensland (UQ) and the state’s largest community and aged care provider Blue Care, best known for Blue Nursing. The Head of ...