Queensland Synod News

Eight Australians and two New Zealanders attended the World Methodist Evangelism Institute 8th International Conference in Atlanta, Georgia Three hundred people from 68 countries took up the opportunity to understand better the issues of evangelism and church growth from a mainline church perspective. Among them was Rev Ken Anderson who spent many years at the Robina Uniting Church in Queensland ...

Christian groups have joined with non-governmental organizations to warn about the killing of religious leaders and attacks on places of worship during a resurgence of fighting between government and rebel forces in Sri Lanka. "We call on the government as well as all armed groups, to respect places of religious worship as places of refuge and ‘zones of peace’," urged ...

A media frenzy based on the supposed spiritual emptiness in the life of Mother Teresa, made public in some of her recently published letters, derives from a lack of spirituality, says Roman Catholic Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta. "Those who are questioning the faith of the Mother have no idea of what is spiritual life," Sirkar told Ecumenical News International ...

The newly-elected general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches says the issue of climate change needs to be at the top of the agenda of the churches in the region. "This is especially with regards to the issue of resettlement and calling and holding countries accountable for their pollution," said Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi after his election as general secretary ...

The dignity of every human being – including suspected terrorists – is non-negotiable, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has told members of the Christian Muslim Forum during a lecture marking the sixth anniversary of 9/11. "The dignity of every person is non-negotiable," Williams told an audience at Cambridge University in his 10 September lecture. "This remains true whether we ...

A gathering in Romania of delegates from Europe’s main Christian traditions has called on churches to dedicate the period of 1 September to 4 October each year to prayer for the protection of creation, and action to promote sustainable lifestyles. "Creation is in danger," German Lutheran Bishop Margot Kässmann said at a closing service of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly, ...

Almost 70 percent of people surveyed in the United States agree that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. The adults surveyed also perceive the Democratic Party’s Hillary Clinton and the Republican Party’s Rudy Giuliani as the least religious of the country’s major 2008 presidential candidates. Republican Mitt Romney is seen as the most religious, but ...

Anglican leaders in East Africa have defended the consecration as bishops of priests from the U.S. Episcopal Church, who are opposed to the ordination of homosexual clergy in North America. "We have a pastoral duty," Bishop Gideon Ireri, who heads the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Justice and Peace Commission, told Ecumenical News International from his Mbeere diocese in eastern Kenya. ...

A recent cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Swedish newspaper and condemned in Islamic countries, demonstrates the need for a journalistic code of standards when depicting religion, says a U.S.-based advocacy group that has now developed such a set of standards. A charter developed by Institute on Religion and Public Policy in Washington DC, "takes into account the ...

The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference has strongly condemned recent attacks by Zimbabwe politicians and government media on Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, who is facing adultery charges. "The recent attacks by some politicians and the State media on the person of Archbishop Pius Ncube are outrageous and utterly deplorable," a 3 September statement from the bishops said.  "They constitute an ...