Queensland Synod News

For Rev Tofiga Falani, president of the Christian Church of Tuvalu, the worry of his Pacific nation has been the risk of rising sea levels. Climate change in the tiny island nation, most of which lies only a few metres above sea level, has been a severe worry. However, now he has to explain how Tuvalu is facing a drought. ...

Faith groups in southern Africa have condemned irresponsible mining practices by corporations they say have claimed lives, damaged the environment and impoverished communities.  "Africa is poor because of its rich resources … This blessing must not became a curse to its people," said Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, the former Cape Town Anglican diocese head. He was speaking at the opening of ...

Once again many church members have been announced on the Australia Day Honours List. Three Uniting Church members received the Order of Australia (AM) including Professor David Black from Western Australia, Philip Bruem from New South Wales and former New South Wales and ACT Synod moderator James Mein. 10 Uniting Church members received the Medal (OAM) of the Order of ...

Christians around the world are remembering the 1910 World Missionary Conference in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh as a key initiative that led to the ecumenical movement seeking the unity of the Church. "The unexpected intuition to flash forth from the conference was the awareness that Christian disunity is destructive to the very mission of the Church, and the corresponding ...

Britain might soon have its first female Anglican bishop, serving the 38 000-member Scottish Episcopal Church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Rev. Alison Peden, aged 57, is one of three candidates for the post of bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. The election is scheduled for 16 January. Observers say that if Peden is elected it is likely to ...

Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia,  is responding to the catastrophic earthquake that has crippled Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. More than 100,000 people are feared dead and many more are left homeless. Act for Peace’s church partners on the ground described the situation as “very chaotic” and ...

Jordan has complained to a United Nations agency after Canada refused to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls, which had been on display in an Ontario museum on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Jordan says the ancient manuscripts were stolen from a museum in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized from Jordan during the Six-Day War of 1967. Some of the ...

The global ecumenical movement must bring the hope of peace and justice to a suffering and divided world, says the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit. "As we enter into the second decade of the 21st century, the world continues to face many crises … financial crisis, climate crisis, a food crisis, ...

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010, Christians throughout the world will be listening together to the promise and commission that are part of Christ’s final words before his ascension: "You are witnesses of these things." Traditionally celebrated between 18 and 25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the Week of Prayer ...

 Frances S. Smith, a former editor of the Ecumenical Press Service – the predecessor of Ecumenical News International – has died at her home in Claremont, California, aged 87. "Frances was one of the most respected of church journalists for her accuracy and her objectivity," said journalist Betty Thompson in a tribute quoted by the United Methodist News Service, where ...