Queensland Synod News

The Vatican has called for an attitude of respect, understanding, compassion, and abstaining from judgement – "in the right sense" – towards women who have become caught up in prostitution, which the Holy See described as a form of modern slavery. "Many prostitutes in the so-called developed world come from poor countries, and in Europe, as elsewhere, many have fallen ...

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia The President Rev Gregor Henderson has prepared a multimedia presentation in which he shares his observations about the Uniting Church including what he sees as its defining characteristics. The Uniting Church was inaugurated on 22 June 1977 as a result of the coming together of the Congregational Union in ...

An independent inquiry into allegations that police harass and persecute the poor and homeless has been urged after an investigation and report by a coalition of legal, community and church organizations in Queensland. Commissioned by a coalition of organisations including the UnitingCare Centre for Social Justice, the No Vagrancy report calls for investigation into allegations police persecute the socially vulnerable. Lawyers, ...

Leaders of the US Episcopal (Anglican) Church say they will not respond to increasing pressure by others in the worldwide Anglican Communion that the US denomination reverse its policies on the ordination of openly gay bishops. In February, a meeting in Tanzania of Anglican leaders, or primates, from around the world gave the US denomination a September deadline to promise ...

The Christian Reformed Church, one of the North American branches of the Protestant Reformed tradition, has voted to allow the ordination of women after almost four decades of discussion on the issue. "I’ve worked and prayed for this moment for years," said the Rev. George Vander Weit, an advocate of women’s ordination in the denomination. "I think [this proposal] gives ...

A major water-wise overhaul of the Synod Centre in Auchenflower, Brisbane, together with Raymont Residential College and associated buildings will net a saving of around 1,000,000 litres of water each year said Mission Support Enterprises Business Manager Eddie Carleton. The Synod installed 32 dual flush toilet cisterns, 41 restricted shower roses, 59 inline flow restrictors and 48 spring-loaded taps, and an ...

Church of England has threatened the Sony Corporation with legal action unless it withdraws a video game set in Manchester Cathedral. "During the game, players are asked to assume the role of an army sergeant and win a battle in the cathedral.  The video footage of the cathedral battle on ‘You Tube’ has shocked and dismayed us beyond words, and ...

Roman Catholic religious orders in Poland have taken to advertising to try and stem a decline in vocations. "The church has been advertising itself for two thousand years," Dariusz Kowalczyk, the head of the Jesuit order in Poland, was quoted as saying by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. "Today, the adverts are more sophisticated and this isn’t surprising; there’s the Internet ...

A modest recipient, Southport Director for Crossroads Dr Barbara Elizabeth Craig, almost turned down her Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) but agreed to accept it on behalf of everyone. Also Co-Director of the Gold Coast Breast Screening Services and Assistant Professor at Bond University, Dr Craig was awarded her Medal for service to medicine in the areas of ...

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has joined other religious leaders and globalisation critics in sending an anti-poverty message to leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations who are meeting in Germany. "We can survive only together, we can be free only together, we can be prosperous only together, we can be human only together," said the former ...