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Queensland Synod News

US church body joins UN in call to close Guantanamo facility

The US National Council of Churches is calling on the government in the United States to close its detention centre on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following a United Nations report that recommended the immediate closure of the facility. The NCC’s general secretary, Robert Edgar, sent a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterating a request made in 2003 and ...

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Anglican leader warns on military action against Iran

The head of the worldwide Anglican Communion has cautioned against a military incursion into Iran by Western powers who say they are increasingly nervous about that country’s revived nuclear technology programme. "I hope and pray that the West doesn’t embark on another costly and misjudged military adventure that will further destabilise an already unstable region," the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan ...

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US church leaders denounce Iraq war, confess inability to stop it

A group of religious leaders from the United States has issued a public letter criticising the war in Iraq and acknowledging their churches’ inability to stop it. "We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war," the 18 February letter to the assembly ...

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North and South Koreans pray in Brazil for unity

North and South Koreans have prayed together with world church leaders for the peaceful reunification of their divided country and are urging the World Council of Churches, the world’s largest grouping of Christian denominations, to give that process a boost. They prayed in the chapel of the Pontifical University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre during the WCC’s ninth ...

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Aussie Churches Win Some, Lose Some: Latest Research

Measuring church growth takes more than a head-count across the top of the pews, reports world-renowned Australian researchers at NCLS Research. Busy preparing for another National Church Life Survey in the second half of 2006, NCLS has its eyes on the big and little pictures of congregation size, attitudes and beliefs. A key focus will be helping churches reflect on ...

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WCC Bate-Papo kicks of with lively encounter

The WCC Assembly’s Mutirao Bate-papo on Wednesday was a lively discussion, with a young, lay Protestant woman telling a 70-year-old Catholic bishop that the future of Christianity lay in starting at the grassroots and addressing grassroots problems. For half an hour each day from 12.45, the Bate-papo – or "chat" – is an informal conversation between a leading ecumenical personality ...

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Vatican official urges churches to celebrate Easter on same date

A top Vatican official says it is urgent for churches around the world to find a common date on which to celebrate Easter, noting this would mark an enormous step forward in promoting Christian unity. "Especially for churches in Muslim countries it is a scandal if Christians cannot celebrate together," Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting ...

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Cooperation with Catholics is vital says WCC leader

The moderator of the World Council of Churches has warned against his grouping’s adopting a "self-contained, self-centred" attitude and says cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church is vital for the future of Christian unity. "The World Council of Churches should not remain in a self-contained, self-centred existence," said Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church at a media conference ...

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A new element in migration for churches to deal with

As issues around migration, both voluntary and forced, become more complex, the efforts of churches are becoming increasingly critical to the survival of refugees worldwide, participants at a global church gathering have heard. "We know the long-term solution is peace and stability, so that people can be taken care of in their own homelands," said Georges Mourad of Lebanon. "But ...

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First openly gay bishop in US says he is being treated for alcoholism

Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop of the US Episcopal (Anglican) Church, says he is undergoing treatment for alcoholism. In a letter to the Episcopal churches in New Hampshire state, where he serves as bishop, and made public earlier this week, Robinson said he would spend all of February at a treatment centre, whose location he did not disclose ...

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