Posts Tagged ‘Religious Tolerance’

‘You wouldn’t ask if they’re Catholic or Protestant’: the music festival bringing Belfast together

Thursday, August 3rd, 2023
Catholic and Protestant

Belfast is in many ways still a deeply divided city, but last week young people from Catholic and Protestant communities – who live apart and go to religiously segregated schools – played music together at Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music, as part of the week long Belfast TradFest. From the sound of bagpipes echoing Read more

Worshiparama: 76 house of worship in one month

Monday, July 3rd, 2023

Last June, Shashank Sharma embarked on a mission to visit the highest number of places of worship in a month. He successfully visited 76 sacred spaces, including Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples, Sikh gurdwaras, mosques, churches, and a Baha’i place of worship. In May of this year, Guinness World Records confirmed and certified his impressive Read more

Irish Catholic and Protestant leaders recreate Queen’s ‘walk of hope’

Monday, September 19th, 2022
walk of hope

The late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee ‘walk of hope’ between the Anglican and Catholic churches in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen gave church leaders cause to reflect. The walk of hope was a simple street crossing: from the Protestant St Macartin’s Cathedral to the Catholic St Michael’s Church. It was an uncomplicated act with powerful Read more

Local body politician objects to non-christian prayers

Monday, September 23rd, 2019

A Manawatū District councillor is not backing down from his opinion about the use of non-Christian prayers at council meetings. Steve Bielski says he would not accept Muslims or any non-Christians praying at the council because they believed in different gods. Councillors were discussing a proposal to invite members of different faiths to open meetings Read more

Level of trust after Christchurch mosque massacre

Monday, August 12th, 2019
survey

A survey of 1000 New Zealanders was carried out to find what impact, if any, the terror attack in Christchurch had on people’s trust levels. There is no evidence in the results of local anti-Semitism or Islamophobia in the form of a trust deficit displayed towards Jews or Muslims compared to mainstream Christian denominations. But Read more

The uncomfortable history of religion in New Zealand cartoons

Monday, July 1st, 2019

Last week the NZ Cartoon Archive at Wellington’s Alexander Turnbull Library published Mike Grimshaw’s Bishops, Boozers, Brethren & Burkas, which looks at religion in New Zealand through the eyes of the country’s cartoonists from the 1860s to the present day. Grimshaw’s book shows that the events of 15 March in Christchurch were not simply an Read more

Kmart claims ban on Christian words a ‘system error’

Thursday, June 20th, 2019
ban on christian words

Kmart is under fire for banning words ‘Jesus’ and ‘Church’ on their photo kiosks while ‘Islam’ and ‘Mosque’ are OK. Australian Kmart customers Anthony Dorsett and his wife, Marelynda, were attempting to print photographs for a church group in a kiosk at Kmart. They found that certain Christian-related words — including “God,” “church,” “Jesus,” “Jewish” Read more

Inclusivity means accepting everyone’s views – even Israel Folau’s

Thursday, May 23rd, 2019
abortion

Something’s not quite right here. The 21st-century buzzwords are diversity and inclusivity, but they seem to be applied very selectively. It seems we’re in favour of diversity and inclusivity if we’re talking about race, colour, gender and sexual identity, the latter two of which keep spinning off into ever-new permutations. But puzzlingly, we’re only partially Read more

Conversion not your mission Pope tells Morocco Catholics

Monday, April 1st, 2019

Pope Francis’s meetings in Morocco have underlined the importance of religious liberty and its connection to the dignity and rights owed to every person, regardless of their religion. On Saturday, the first day of a two-day trip, he told Morocco’s Catholic community they should avoid attempting to convert Muslims. Instead, he suggested they should seek Read more

Muslim and Catholic schools perform haka and waiata in tribute

Thursday, March 21st, 2019
haka

On the weekend, a Catholic school that lost one its old boys in the Christchurch mosque attack paid tribute by performing a haka and waiata. And on Wednesday At Al-Madinah School in Māngere, Auckland, a haka, prayer and waiata rang out at an assembly to remember those affected by the Christchurch mosque shootings. St Thomas of Read more