Queensland Synod News

The rights of women in Church and society are still not guaranteed, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches is warning as the world marks International Women’s Day on 8 March. "The Church is still slow in recognising the urgent call for women’s equal partnership with men in all areas of ministry and witness," said the Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, executive secretary ...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has warned in a television interview that the worldwide Anglican Communion may "rupture" over the issue of homosexuality. Anglicans have been riven with division since the election in 2003 of V. Gene Robinson, who lives openly in a same-sex relationship, as a bishop in the US Episcopal (Anglican) Church, and the introduction by a ...

Sheikh Dinala Chabulika, head of Malawi’s Islamic Information Bureau, has condemned a Pakistani cleric for announcing a US$1 million bounty for anyone who kills the cartoonist who drew the original caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked global Muslim anger. "Nobody should kill or shed blood in the name of Allah," warned the Malawi cleric in an interview with Malawi’s ...

Indigenous people from around the globe have had a special place the church for much of its life but, all too often, place has been destructive of their physical, spiritual and cultural heritage as the first nations of the colonized world. Seen as objects of mission rather than people of the living God, these first nations are now represented in ...

"To lead is to undertake a journey,"says The Hon. Justice (John) McKechnie, chairperson of the National Christian Youth Convention management team for 2007. Mr McKechnie’s vision for NCYC 2007 is to lead delegates on a journey of transformation. "The noun ‘leadership’ has no content unless the destination is known," he said. "For NCYC 2007, the destination is to transform delegates ...

Britain’s second ranking Anglican cleric, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has compared detention methods used by the United States at Guantanamo to those used by deceased Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, and he says they are a blight on the conscience of America. "In Uganda President Amin did something similar: he did not imprison suspects because he knew that in ...

Redcliffe UC minister Rev Peter Armstrong has been talking a lot lately about church being outside a building. One of the Redcliffe congregation who has been taking God outside the churchyard is Geoff Maskelyne, who recently conducted a service for the Ulysses Motorcycle Club Memorial Day. The Ulysses Club for older motorcyclists is dedicated to those over 50, although anyone ...

A US religious freedom watchdog commission says it is "deeply concerned" about what it calls a worsening situation for religious minorities in Iran. "A consistent stream of virulent and inflammatory statements by political and religious leaders and an increase of harassment, imprisonment, and physical attacks against these groups is clear evidence of a disturbing, renewed pattern of oppression," the US ...

The World Council of Churches ended its once every seven years assembly held in Brazil with calls to reach out to Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches that do not belong to the Geneva-based grouping. "The quest for the visible unity of the church remains at the heart of the WCC," stated a policy document presented on the last day ...

The Progressive Spirituality Network continued its Conversations on Spirituality with a session titled “Perspectives on Spirituality from Generations X and Y”, in February. The group meets at West End Uniting Church on Sunday evenings and is committed to exploring emerging spiritualities, the boundaries of belief, ethics, and spiritual experience especially in the light of contemporary knowledge. Speaking with a panel ...