Queensland Synod News

Get-rich-quick saving schemes are mushrooming in Kenya, and church leaders have joined the government in warning people against putting their earnings into these accounts because their promise of high returns is unrealistic. "Kenyans be warned, the schemes are fraudulent and dishonest," Anglican Bishop Gideon Ireri of Mbeere, who heads the Churches’ Peace and Justice Commission, said in an interview with ...

More people in the world are living in cities than ever before, and this is leading to renewed interest in religion, and confounding those who predicted a growth of secularisation, according to a new UN report. "Rapid urbanisation was expected to mean the triumph of rationality, secular values and the demystification of the world, as well as the relegation of ...

Church groups in Pakistan and India have condemned Britain’s decision to honour the author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood, and claimed it risks inflaming hatred against Christians in their countries. "The British government should have been more sensitive to the feelings of the Muslims.  This is a very bad decision," said Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of ...

Queensland UnitingCare Director Ms Anne Cross was one of over 130 signatories on a letter to the Federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough expressing serious concerns about Australian Government’s response to the abuse of children in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory Other signatories included prominent Indigenous land rights advocate Mick Dodson, the Australian Council ...

Canada’s Anglican and Lutheran churches have each turned down proposals to approve ceremonies of blessing for same-sex unions. The general synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting in Winnipeg, on 24 June narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions. "There is disappointment – a lot of ...

Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair has met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, fuelling speculation that the UK leader is to convert to Roman Catholicism when he leaves office this week. "Blair, the conversion day", the Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper headlined one article ahead of the meeting. This speculated that the Pope and the prime minister would discuss "specific ...

The Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) of the Uniting Church is urging the Australian Government to revise its approach to its emergency response reforms to tackle Indigenous child abuse in the Northern Territory if it is to affect real improvements. UAICC National Administrator the Rev Shayne Blackman said he fully supported moves by the Australian Government to provide ...

The head of an Anglican theological college in Oxford, the Rev. Richard Turnbull, has been accused by his three immediate predecessors of threatening its survival as an academic institution The three former principals of the Wycliffe Hall college gave their warning in a letter to the bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, who chairs the governing council of the institution, which ...

The Uniting Church in Australia is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this Friday, June 22. Congregations all over the country are holding special services or social events to celebrate the milestone. The third largest church in Australia, the Uniting Church was formed on 22 June 1977 when the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches united. The first service, held on the 26th ...

A Christian labour activist in Hong Kong has urged Beijing to ensure that factories producing merchandise for the Olympic Games to be held in the Chinese capital in 2008 meet basic labour standards. "The labour problem is not just limited to games merchandisers, it is a widespread issue," Rev. Hans Lutz, chairperson of the Christian Industrial Committee, told Ecumenical News ...