World News

THE world of communication has changed so radically in the past 20 years that it is time for churches to rethink how they communicate concerns about injustice and conflict, said a group of Christian communicators gathered in Busan, South Korea. Busan is the site of the next assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), scheduled for 30 October to ...

HEALTH ministers and officials from Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan said here on 24 May that support from Islamic leaders is helping efforts to eradicate polio. The three countries are the world's only remaining polio-endemic nations, where transmission of the paralyzing disease has never stopped. A global polio campaign initiative, spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. ...

FAITH-based and civil relief groups are providing aid to more than 4,000 victims left homeless by an earthquake that struck the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna on 20 May, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens. The Italian news agency ANSA said a number of historic churches and castles were destroyed or damaged by the quake, which measured ...

MANY victims of the 11 March 2011 northeast Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant disaster are still "feeling isolated and uncertain about their future," a Japanese interdenominational relief network reports. "The triple disasters … claimed the lives of 20,000 people. The number of people that continue to suffer as a result of these disasters cannot be counted. Although one year ...

A senior Greek Protestant has warned that minority denominations “face disaster” due to the country’s worsening economic crisis. “Heavy taxation, high unemployment and all our other difficulties are fast-forwarding us to collapse,” said Dimitrios Boukis, general secretary of the Greek Evangelical church, which has 29 congregations in two regional synods in Greece and other communities abroad. “We receive no state ...

FREEDOM of the press today means that "emerging media technologies and social media platforms offer new channels for increased and vibrant information flows and for strengthening communication rights," according to a statement from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) to mark the U.N.'s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. In an open letter to WACC members and partners, ...

HEAVY rains caused destructive floods throughout Fiji in the lead up to Easter causing the worst damage in a glut of bad weather that has plagued the islands. The flooding devastated homes, livelihoods and communities just as the region began to recover from the 2009 floods. Associate General Secretary of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma, Rev Tevita Banivanua, ...

REACTING  to some of the worst fighting between Sudan and South Sudan since the southern country achieved independence last July, two international church groups on 17 April expressed "grave concern" and called for an immediate ceasefire. Referring to the oil-well town of Heglig in Sudan, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and All African Conference of Churches (AACC) said they ...

GERMAN Catholic and Protestant organizations are working together to encourage young people to think beyond image and consider the backstory of the clothes they wear with an "Ethical Fashion Action Week" launching on 16 April at Goethe University, Frankfurt. "Many students are very concerned about what they wear and which trends they follow. Many have their own fashion blogs where ...

CAPITALIZING on the 15 April centenary of the RMS Titanic’s sinking are a spate of books, films, educational and TV programs, and commemorative events around the world. Center-stage is the much-hyped 3-D version of James Cameron’s 1997 epic movie "Titanic." But for one Texas-based Christian ministry, Cameron’s film delivers now, as it did 15 years ago, a decidedly un-Christian message: ...