Queensland Synod News

An Australian and American film crew have just completed US filming for a television and DVD special on the 1959 visit to Australia of Billy Graham. Host Karl Faase interviewed Crusade soloist George Beverly Shea and song leader and compere Cliff Barrows at ‘The Cove’, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s conference centre in Ashfield, North Carolina. “It was a real ...

Pope Benedict XVI received President George W. Bush, not at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, but in the Vatican Gardens’ Tower of St John, a rare move interpreted by some media as papal agreement with the views of the US leader on bioethics and abortion. The Vatican, however, said in a statement after the 13 June meeting the "special protocol" was ...

Pentecostal preacher, the Rev David Yonggi Cho, who claimed to have the world’s biggest Christian congregation of more than 800 000 people, has retired following 50 years of ministry, a senior member of his church has said in South Korea. The church is a Pentecostal congregation of the Assemblies of God in Yoido Island in Seoul, Korea. The building holds ...

The Amity Printing Company of Nanjing now has the capacity to print one million Bibles a month, and it is printing a special bilingual edition of the holy book so that those attending the Olympic Games will get a copy. "The new printing plant marks a new milestone for the Bible printing ministry of the Church in China," Qiu Zhonghui, ...

Gene Robinson, the openly gay US Episcopal (Anglican) prelate whose 2003 consecration as a bishop has caused an ongoing battle within the Anglican Communion over the issue of sexuality, has joined into a civil union with his male partner of 19 years. The private 7 June ceremony at St. Paul’s Church in Concord, New Hampshire, was not a wedding. Under ...

The Uniting Church in Australia has today commended the Federal Government for its latest efforts towards banning nuclear weapons. The commendation comes in the wake of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement of the formation of the new Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission. National Director of UnitingJustice Australia Rev Elenie Poulos said the Uniting Church had long been committed to the ...

Former Moderator of the Queensland Synod, Dr John Frank Roulston has been awarded a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia announced today by the Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery. Dr Roulston was Moderator in 1990 and 1991 and has been awarded for his service to education, particularly through administrative and teaching roles in the independent schools sector, to the ...

Australian faith-based international aid agencies are split over a government review of a current policy that bans the funding of abortions as part of the nation’s overseas humanitarian aid programme. For more than 12 years, and as part of the policy of the Howard administration, Australia has ruled that aid money could not to be used to fund abortions in ...

The UnitingCare Chair in Social Policy and Research established in partnership with The University of Queensland was launched on 3 June in Brisbane. This is the first time the University of Queensland’s School of Social Work and Applied Human Services has established a Joint Chair with a non-profit organisation. Chief Executive Officer UnitingCare Queensland Anne Cross said that the importance ...

The president of the All Africa Conference of Churches has called for legally-binding commitments to fight climate change, and he urged industrialised nations to keep their promises on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to limit climate change-inducing gas emissions. "The current global environmental crisis cannot be overcome through voluntary actions but through a legal commitment of all ...