World News

The Uniting Church in Australia has joined the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), after its application for full membership was accepted by the 10th PCC General Assembly meeting in the Solomon Islands from 3-10 March. In its application, the Uniting Church acknowledged its part, and the part of its predecessors, in the history of colonialism. Rev Dr Kerry Enright of ...

Rev. Professor Andrew Dutney, the President of the Uniting Church in Australia has extended warm ecumenical greetings to Catholics at the election of Pope Francis. "On behalf of the Uniting Church in Australia I welcome the election of Pope Francis. "I pray that God blesses him and the Catholic Church throughout the world in this important ministry," said Rev. Prof ...

The recent purchase of flooded rice fields in Battanbang, Cambodia is the answer to prayer for missionaries Stuart and Joanna Herschell-Adair from Newlife Uniting Church on the Gold Coast. The five hectares of monsoon-inundated land will become the new base for a Youth with a Mission (YWAM) training initiative currently operating in several locations in the city of Battanbang. Youth ...

Act for Peace's disaster risk reduction program helped communities in Fiji to be better prepared for the worst tropical cyclone in 20 years. Cyclone Evan left a wide path of destruction when it struck in December last year. Over the past five years, Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, has worked ...

CLIMATE change is a moral issue. Those least responsible for creating the problem will be the most affected. Every scientific academy in the world says consumption using fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gas (GHG), is causing extreme weather known as climate change. The culture of the developed world assumes a right to ever higher standards of living and consumption. By ...

LACK of access to a safe, hygienic toilet is the leading cause of death for thousands of children around the world every single day. On World Toilet Day, which was on 19 November, the Micah Challenge coalition encouraged Australian Christians to join the call of hundreds of organisations around the world, for governments to increase the overseas aid allocated to ...

FIFTY per cent of the world's population are living on less than $2.50 a day. That's 3.5 billion people. A child dies from hunger every six seconds. That's six million children every year. As Christine Hunt, Campaign Leader for Maternal and Child Health at World Vision Australia says, "It's equivalent to ten buses fully loaded with children crashing every hour ...

A delegation of religious leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is visiting the U.S and Canada as part of a tour seeking to build awareness of a re-emerging war at the border of the DRC and Rwanda. On 10 September, the leaders were in Canada's capital, Ottawa, to meet with government officials. On 12-13 September, the Toronto School ...

TIME is running out to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015, say Christian anti-poverty campaigners, who are heading to Canberra in September for the annual Voices for Justice gathering. The lobbying and training event in the national capital will feature speakers on issues relating to Australian aid and development, including key topics such as ...

AFRICAN theologian, renowned academic and ecumenist Prof Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri has joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) as its new associate general secretary for Public Witness and Diakonia. She took on her new position at the WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in August. A Malawian by nationality, Prof Dr Phiri was a professor of African theology, dean and ...