But a group of churches say the restrictions essentially forced them to excommunicate members and seriously infringed on the separation of Church and State.

The measures included imposing limits on the size of the gatherings depending on whether attendees had Covid vaccination certificates (CVCs). Read more

Countless revelations about sexual misconduct by clergy have shaken public confidence. The accumulation of negative publicity in very recent times has been remarkable: Dilworth School, Gloriavale, Destiny Church's antics, Arise Church's leadership woes. The list seems endless, the latest issue being Simon O'Connor lauding the US Supreme Court's verdict on Roe v Wade.

To any neutral observer, it might well seem that the Christian churches stand for utterly regressive social and gender policies and all too often for the scandalous abuse of power.

So it's been quite a turnaround for us churchgoers. In my student days at Otago, the churches were at the forefront of radical action. The first anti-nuclear march in Dunedin was largely church-led.

In the 1980s, larger-than-life personalities like John Murray (Presbyterian) and George Armstrong (Anglican) were prominent in the anti-Springbok tour campaign and the emerging nuclear-free movement. Catholic peace and justice activists worked side by side with Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans and Quakers for years before David Lange cemented our non-nuclear stance.

The core values which undergirded this new thinking about national security and biculturalism stemmed to a significant extent from Maori and Pakeha church sources. Brilliant composers Shirley Murray and Colin Gibson wrote the battle hymns for these momentous struggles. One thinks, too, of the key roles of Cardinal Tom Williams and Archbishop, later Governor-General, Paul Reeves in turning around Pakeha attitudes.

Today all that seems forgotten.

Rather there is widespread bemusement about Christianity. How can otherwise intelligent people keep trundling along to these outdated church services, people ask.

I still encounter the assumption that we live off a diet of hell-fire sermons, though in what is now a long life I've never encountered a single one, whether here, in Scotland, Germany, Australia or the United States.

It's bizarre, this almost willful ignorance. Continue reading

That is true whether we modern believers are Japanese or not, Catholic Christians or not. The Church within which we live and worship endured persecution so recent that I know a woman whose grandfather died a martyr.

The rest of her family — parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews — was wiped out on Aug. 9, 1945, when the atomic bomb exploded over the Catholic neighbourhood of Nagasaki. She was the only member of the family out of town that day.

During the centuries of persecution, Christians in Japan had no church buildings, no clergy, no religious, no Masses, no religious institutions, no diocesan structures, and no contact with the rest of the Church in the country or outside.

What they did have was each other and a commitment to maintain as well as they could the faith that was passed on to them and to pass it on to the next generations even at the risk of their lives.

They were poor, oppressed and lived in perpetual danger, but they prayed and shared their ability to help one another in need. In many ways, it was the Golden Age of Christianity in Japan.

Those Japanese Christians knew that church is not someplace to go, but something to be, something to do.

The coronavirus pandemic is an opportunity to learn or relearn that today.

We have had to be faithful without much of what we thought essential, symbolized by a building and what goes on inside it.

But God is still with us whether we are in a cross-decorated building or not. The real issue is, are we with God?

Around the world, there are Christians who clamour to have their buildings reopen so that they might exercise their Christianity.

They ignore the fact that confronted with a highly contagious disease, the most Christian thing to do is to protect others by following the advice of disease experts.

Jesus never told his followers to gather in a particular place each week. He did say that our lives will be judged on whether or not we respond to him in our needy sisters and brothers. He did say that when we pray, we should go apart to a private place and pray in secret to the Father who sees what happens in secret.

When he spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said that places are not important, that what matters is worship "in spirit and truth."

The woman had asked him where proper worship should be done, at the temple on Mt. Gerizim or at the temple in Jerusalem.

His answer was basically, "Neither."

In that case, do we need buildings at all if we can and should pray anywhere and everywhere?

We do not and we do.

Originally, Christians gathered in homes. Besides being persecuted, Christian communities were small enough to not need special buildings and were too poor to erect them.

Eventually, as numbers increased, homes were modified to allow larger gatherings.

The remains of the oldest known one are in Dura-Europos in Syria.

Its frescos, the earliest surviving Christian art, are in a museum at Yale University in the United States.

Over time as Christian communities grew, buildings were adapted or erected for liturgical use.

The three-aisle layout that is so common in churches comes from basilicas (public halls) that were repurposed into churches or were the architectural model for them.

So, we have buildings in which we gather in the name of Jesus so that our discipleship can be confirmed, nurtured, confronted, affirmed and comforted.

But the discipleship is the important thing.

Without that, the gatherings are nearly worthless. And that is the reason this pandemic is an opportunity for each of us. Discipleship does not require a particular kind of building or a particular kind of gathering.

Buildings, Sunday gatherings, public prayers and hymns are the accompaniments of religion, but not the essence of Christianity.

Christianity is not a religion.

It has religious trimmings, but its most basic reality is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The "religious" trappings aid our commitment to and celebration of that relationship but are not the relationship.

Now that the danger of contagion makes the buildings and large gatherings unavailable, we are invited to concentrate on what our faith really is.

It is prayer, service and trust that we celebrate with others when we can, but which we must live regardless of circumstances.

We can gather few by few to break open the Word, break the Bread, and share our faith. We can be church, as were the persecuted Christians of Japan.

• Bill Grimm is a Catholic priest and Maryknoll missioner who lives in Japan.
• First published in UCANews.com. Republished with permission.
• The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CathNews.

Last Friday, 11 new cases of COVID-19 were announced - nine linked to the community breakout and two were imported. Five of these cases were linked to churches in Auckland.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said 223 close contacts were linked to the cases in the church communities, and he thanked those who had been tested. Read more

Research has shown that many people are struggling with feelings of isolation and loneliness. People are longing to get back to life as "normal" after weeks of physically distancing and staying at home.

At the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, we've spent 15 years studying and ministering in mass disasters around the globe, including public health crises like the Ebola outbreak.

Our research shows that in most situations, churches can help their congregations and communities best by getting back to what they were doing before the calamity, especially in-person worship gatherings.

But just because the economy is reopening doesn't mean your church should automatically return to pre-COVID-19 gathering norms yet.

Even in the lowest impacted regions, the administration has recommended a staged approach.

Churches that rush to prematurely reopen their doors will do more harm than help.

As churches around the country are feeling pressure to rush decisions about how to best reopen we want to remind us that the church never actually closed — just the doors to our buildings closed.

Some have argued that being in proximity to others at church is no different from being in proximity to people at the grocery store or bank.

But it is different.

While business is primarily transactional, the life of a church congregation is inherently social.

We gather to worship God, but we also gather to connect with one another.

Unless we run into a close friend, we don't normally shake hands or hug someone in the grocery store or movie theatre, but where a community of people is knit together spiritually and socially these interactions happen frequently.

While business is primarily transactional, the life of a church congregation is inherently social.

In addition, formal rituals, such as sharing in communion or pausing during a service to shake hands or hug, obviously increase the risk of infection.

But such rituals aren't the only risk of worship services.

Singing in a group, which is integral for many congregations, has been known to spread COVID-19.

Passing an offering plate, greeting people at the church door, and handing out songbooks are all examples of how common church behaviour can increase the risk of infection.

Even if churches decide to forego virus-sharing practices, the informal contacts are almost unavoidable, even if we consciously plan to avoid them.

Worship services, as well as the social time before and after, have their own rhythms, with norms we are conditioned to participate in.

It is asking a lot of those gathered, distracted in a variety of ways, not to fall back into pre-COVID-19 ways.

We must assume that people will behave as they've always been conditioned and encouraged to behave in these spaces.

No matter how we plan, people in disaster situations are notably bad at assessing risk and predictably overconfident about the control they have over their environment.

Nor can church leaders control the behaviour of whoever might walk in the door.

Even if we limit capacity and instruct people to sit six feet apart, people will still press through our doors in closer proximity to one another.

Distance between people inside restrooms (not to mention the cleanliness of handles, knobs and countertops in between uses) isn't enforceable.

Toddlers, some people with intellectual disabilities, and some people with dementia can't be expected to understand and follow the rules we choose to institute.

Churches that rush to prematurely reopen their doors will do more harm than help.

Announcing the church is open may also unwittingly put social pressure on those who are most vulnerable, like older adults and congregants with compromised immune systems, to come to church.

With our inability to widely control for asymptomatic carriers, we may not know we have spread COVID-19 in our church until it is too late and some of our most vulnerable members have been exposed.

There are plenty of valid reasons to allow businesses to begin to function again (but also challenges and concerns to doing so).

But allowing retail stores or restaurants to reopen does not indicate we are "back to normal."

To help churches navigate COVID-19, we developed a comprehensive faith-based and research-based planning guide (which is available in five languages).

We have also launched the first faith-based and research-based disaster spiritual and emotional care and intervention manual to help churches provide support while physically distancing and staying at home.

We've created an online resource hub with access to materials and videos from our COVID-19 Church Online Summit.

On April 30, we helped lead the online Spiritual First Aid Summit with Food for the Hungry, NavPress and Outreach that had over 10,000 church leaders participate to learn how to care for their neighbours, churches, communities and world during COVID-19 and beyond.

During this crisis, we have continued to be most impressed by the worshipping communities who have thoughtfully purposed to love their neighbours well by pausing from their normal worship routines.

We are hopeful that congregations will continue to love well until it is truly safe to gather again as we did before COVID-19.

Don't get us wrong; we also grieve and miss being in person with our own church communities and deeply desire to gather again.

But to be safe, we must consider how to do so in ways that don't fuel the spread of COVID-19 and that don't put our most vulnerable at greater risk.

• Jamie Aten is founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College.
• Kent Annan is director of Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College.
• First published by RNS. Republished with permission.

Today, pubs (short for "public houses") have become iconic, a popular destination for visitors to try drinks, traditional pub meals, and the cultural ambiance. But these local landmarks are closing quickly; only 39,000 are left in England, down a quarter from 20 or so years ago.

There are now more church buildings than pubs, according to recent figures announced last month by the National Churches Trust.

But the number of churches overall is falling too, just not as fast.

The share of Christians in the UK is declining, as in America and other parts of the Western world.

Total secularization isn't inevitably around the corner for at least two reasons.

• First, surveys show that many who say they have "no religion" still believe in God, pray, say they have a soul, or even read the Bible.
• Second, there is actually substantial growth among certain types of churches in the UK, all in the context of God's promise to build his church.

The three biggest UK denominations—Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Presbyterians—are all declining quite quickly.

Overall, their numbers have gone down 16 percent in just the last five years, Presbyterians the fastest (down 19%).

Two other major groups are also declining, Baptists and Methodists, but they are much smaller in size.

The three major denominations form 60 percent of church members, and the smaller two another 16 percent.

The remaining members often belong to the types of churches that are seeing the most growth right now—many of which have a Pentecostal bent, ranging from immigrant-founded denominations to Hillsong campuses.

Their increase, although significant, is unfortunately not enough to compensate for the drop among the bigger churches, but has moderated the overall decline.

Continue reading to discover which kinds of churches are growing the fastest amid demographic shifts in the UK.

• Image: Advocating Beer Variety

In northern Syria, the ruins of this Byzantine church still display a very beautiful architectural ensemble dating back to the 5th century. The church was built on the spot where St. Simeon had retired atop a pillar to pray. This is the origin of the name "Stylite," the Greek term stylos referring to a column.

2. The Mont-Saint-Michel

Wonder of French architecture, Mont-Saint-Michel has been a major place of pilgrimage since the 9th century. Its origin dates back to the early 8th century, when Saint Aubert, bishop of Avranches, claimed that in an apparition the Archangel Michael himself ordered him to build a chapel on the island and dedicate it to him.

3. Cologne Cathedral

A masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the cathedral dates from the middle of the 13th century and was inspired by the cathedrals of Amiens and Beauvais. The towers were completed according to the old plans only in the 19th century. Rising 157 meters high, it is the second highest church in the country and the most visited monument in Germany: perhaps you caught a glimpse of it during the 2005 WYD?

4. The Slovenian Church of St. Mary of the Assumption

This small church is built in the middle of Lake Bled in Slovenia. Ninety-nine steps lead to the shrine at the top of the island. The building was built in the 15th century — frescoes of that era remain — then remodeled in the 17th and 18th centuries. A real curiosity!

5. The Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome

Built on the site of St. Peter's tomb, the basilica is an inescapable pilgrimage destination. If you are not lucky enough to see the pope, you can always admire the spectacular architecture of the building. Artists who participated in its construction — the architect Bramante, sculptors Michelangelo and Bernini — are nothing less than absolute geniuses. Continue reading

Source & Image:

• Aleteia, article by Marie Fournier

Speaking to a Christian audience in New York on Tuesday, Mr Trump also promised, if elected president, to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court judges.

In the 1960s, US President Lyndon Johnson established a ban on tax-exempt bodies making explicit political endorsements.

Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he would overturn this, the Washington Post reported.

"I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity — and other religions — is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly," he said.

"And if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it."

Religious leaders in America today, Mr Trump said, "are petrified".

"You talk about religious liberty and religious freedom, you don't have any religious freedom if you think about it," he told the group, which broke in many times with applause.

Throughout the talk, Mr Trump emphasised that America was hurting due to what he described as Christianity's slide to become "weaker, weaker, weaker".

He said he'd get department store employees to say "Merry Christmas".

He also said he would fight restrictions on public employees, such as public school coaches, from being allowed to lead sectarian prayer on the field.

Catholic conservative Robert George, former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and a Princeton professor, declined to attend the meeting at which Mr Trump spoke.

Professor George said that while he may think even lower of Hillary Clinton, he fears Trump will "in the end, bring disgrace upon those individuals and organisations who publicly embrace him".

"For those of us who believe in limited government, the rule of law, flourishing institutions of civil society and traditional Judeo-Christian moral principles, and who believe that our leaders must be persons of integrity and good character, this election is presenting a horrible choice."

"May God help us."

Sources

• Washington Post
• Image: Christian Today

They walked out of churches in Warsaw and Gdansk.

At the Warsaw church of St Anna, the women shouted "scandal" as a priest read out a letter from Poland's bishops in favour of a total ban on abortion.

The conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in Poland last October, plans to tighten abortion regulations to bring them into line with the Catholic Church's teachings.

Continue reading

The Samoa Observer reported that the decision "contributed largely to absence of violence and unruly behaviour in most villages".

The presence of church pastors at voting places also helped with security, the newspaper stated.

The election on March 4 saw Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi and his Human Rights Protection Party collective prevail.

Five cabinet ministers lost their seats in the election.

At a thanksgiving service on March 6, Rev. Toailoa Peleti of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa urged HRPP party members to put God first as he is the creator of all things.

"God has chosen all of you to be the caretakers of the people and leaders of the country," Rev. Toailoa said.

"So you need to lead with love and honesty.

"You have been chosen by the people of your constituency because they trust and believe in you.

"It is God's will for you to be here and through the people he has made it happen."

The leader of the Tautua Samoa Party, Palusalue Fa'apo II, congratulated the Prime Minister, but expressed fears about Samoa's future.

"Without an opposition, we are now a one party state," he said.

Samoan law requires a party to have at least eight members to be recognised as an opposition by Parliament.

As of March 9, the Tautua Party had only three members in Parliament.

Mr Fa'apo said there had been a lot of bribery during the elections.

"There was a lot of money that had been floated around. It was the use of money where the election result was determined."

Sources

• Samoa Observer
• Samoa Observer
• Samoa Observer
• Samoa Observer
• Image: Radio New Zealand

A recent Australian court decision stated the lawfulness of the offshore detention regime on Nauru.

This means 267 asylum seekers on mainland Australia could be returned there.

But 10 Anglican and Uniting churches around the country have offered sanctuary to the asylum seekers who are at risk of being returned.

The concept of church sanctuary has no basis in Australian law.

But immigration minister Peter Dutton said the government would not be "dragging people out of churches".

He said that the people's cases would be considered individually on medical advice.

Continue reading

Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris and the president of the French Council of Muslim Faith, said: "It's a delicate issue, but why not?"

There are currently about 2500 mosques in France with another 300 under construction, but the number falls short of what is needed, he said.

With roughly 5 million Muslims in France, at least 5000 mosques are needed, Mr Boubakeur said.

His remarks were welcomed by the Christian community as a "legitimate" demand.

"Muslims should, like Christians and Jews, be able to practice their religion," said Msgr Ribadeau-Dumas, spokesperson for the French bishops' conference.

Continue reading

Fire destroyed the 123-year-old St James Church in Brighton in late March.

And fires at St Mary's Church in Dandenong caused A$250,000 worth of damage.

A separate blaze started near a door at St Mary's in St Kilda East caused little damage.

Bishop Peter Elliott said the Catholic archdiocese would increase security at local churches.

Bishop Elliott suggested an arsonist with a "very disturbed mind" was responsible for the fires, but doubted the instigator was a victim of sexual abuse.

A spokesperson for a victims' support group said it was possible an arsonist was simply targeting churches generally, rather than those linked to abuse.

Continue reading

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, told a delegation from Kuwait last week that it was "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region".

The sheikh is head of the Supreme Council of Ulema [Islamic scholars] and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas.

He is seen as the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom.

The Arabian Gulf is home to around 2 million Christian migrant workers, and new churches have been built to accommodate them.

But church building is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

Continue reading

Fourteen people were killed and more than 70 were injured when two Taliban suicide bombers attacked the churches in Lahore on Sunday.

At his weekly Angelus address, Pope Francis said it was with "much pain" that he learned of the attacks.

"These are Christian churches and Christians are persecuted, our Christian brothers are spilling their blood simply because they are Christians," he said.

"I implore God . . . that this persecution against Christians - that the world seeks to hide - comes to an end and that there is peace," he added.

Continue reading

In the United States alone, they number more than 78 million, even larger than the seemingly ubiquitous Boomers.

They are the Millennials.

They are changing our nation, our world, and our churches.

For the purpose of today's post, I want to focus on changes they are already bringing to our local churches.

I have the benefit of a large research project on the Millennials, plus the ongoing conversations I have with members of this generation.

And I have spoken with countless leaders in churches about their experiences with Millennials.

Keep in mind that the birth years of the Millennials: 1980 to 2000.

So the oldest member of this generation is 34, while the youngest is only 14.

But their impact is already noticeable, and it will be for years to come.

Here are ten ways they are shaping local congregations today:

1. More of them are attracted to smaller venues. They are thus one of the reasons for the incredible growth in the multi-venue model of churches and the growth of new churches. Leaders of smaller churches should be encouraged by this trend as well.
2. They see culture as something to influence, rather than an enemy to denounce. Many Millennials truly have a missionary mindset. They are turned off by those who constantly rail against people.
3. They like to cooperate with others. They do not view other churches and Christian organizations as competitors. They are attracted to congregations that are working with other congregations.
4. They abhor worship wars. I have a previous post on this topic called "What Worship Style Attracts the Millennials?"
5. They love churches that love their communities. One of the first questions a Millennial will ask a church leader is, "What is the church doing to influence, impact, and minister to the community?"
6. They are attracted to churches that emphasize groups. The Millennials want to be a part of a congregation that has healthy small groups, Sunday school classes, home groups, or other groups.
7. They want to be trained on their schedule. The Millennials truly desire training. But they are accustomed to having that training available when they are able to hear it or view it. Such is the reason that many churches are going to video training while having "live" worship services and small groups.
8. They will question almost everything. This generation will want to know why a church does what it does. The most unacceptable answer is, "We have always done it this way."
9. They are slow to join, and slow to leave. Church leaders are often frustrated that a Millennial takes so long to commit to a local congregation. But they are intentional and thorough. Once they commit to a church, they are less likely to leave, especially over petty issues.
10. They want to be involved. If a church does not have an intentional plan to get Millennials involved in ministry quickly, they will not reach Millennials. Continue reading

Sources

• Thom S Rainer
• Image: Central Piedmont Community College

Yet they are among the more striking sights you'll find on the furthest-flung islands in the South Pacific.

It's hard to get further away from anywhere than Futuna, the mountainous 32-square-mile speck of land that forms part of the French overseas collectivity of Wallis and Futuna.

The jungle-clad island is still divided into two traditional kingdoms — Alo and Sigave — that are fortunately no longer mostly at war, and its only link with the outside world is by small turbo-prop plane and the occasional ship to Wallis, about 150 miles to the north-east and itself pretty far off the traveller's beaten track.

But if you brave the distance and airline schedules, you'll be amazed by the fanciful stone churches that now grace the bays and hills of an island whose warrior inhabitants are credited with allegedly woolfing down the whole population of the nearby islet of Alofi in one cannibal sitting in the 19th century.

In Sausau, a stone's throw from Leava, the island's main town and capital of Sigave, a triple towered semi-pagoda-like church adorned with red turrets and baby blue balustrades rises on a leafy headland against precipitous green escarpments and a craggy mountain backdrop — straight out of Disney's Magic Kingdom. Continue reading

Source: Huffington Post Travel

Image: Mike Arkus/HuffingtonPost

Mike Arkus worked for more than four decades as a Reuters journalist, much of it as foreign correspondent, based in posts as disparate as France and Cuba, Israel and Brazil.

The exhibit consists of photographs of same-sex couples kissing in churches mainly located in Rome, but the pictures have been covered up after the Vatican sent the gallery a notice threatening legal action and saying that "the church is against the exhibition." Continue reading

The deal under which the Czech government will pay churches billions of dollars was signed despite left-wing opposition in what is the European Union's most atheistic nation.

Those who signed the agreement — including Catholics, Protestants and Jews — will receive just over half of their former properties now held by the state, plus compensation for those that were destroyed.

Continue reading

The mainstream churches are hemorrhaging committed, gifted, passionate, knowledgeable, prayerful, spiritual seekers.

Women who have given twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years in the service of their spiritual or parochial communities.

Women who may still be actively involved in ministry but who are struggling with identity, relevancy and meaning. Women who dwell on the fringes - burnt out, frustrated, bewildered by change.

Or, women who have simply and quietly drifted away searching for a place of belonging.

Partly, I think the exodus reflects a growing intolerance for bureaucracy: the need to control and oragnise; the need for licences and mandates and membership fees and subscription lists.

There is a delicious freedom, a real connectedness to the essence of LOVE and the breath of the spirit, in allowing groups and rituals to arise organically from seeds sown; to allow these to flourish and nourish the lives of those who encounter them; and then to allow them to wither and die until the next season.

You also get to an age where exclusive language becomes offensive. In the first half of life, we can rationalise the use of exclusive, male-oriented language; ignore it or become too busy to even notice it, but sometimes, there comes a moment when it is no longer acceptable.

But more, I think the exodus reflects a shift in how mature women view themselves in relation to God. We are seeking intimacy; to be known deeply and sensually by God. We are more content to hold and honour the question - we no longer want definitive, unsatisfying, shallow or rote answers. We want to encounter and recognise the divine, as Mary Magdalene did when the risen Lord whispered her name. We long for authenticity: to be given space to become who we truly are.

Many older women are seeking a more collaborative, non-confrontational, inclusive, gentle approach to life and community. There is a definite move to more loosely-gathered, organic, cyclical groups which honour and respect the people who gather; which treat those gathered as adults; and which do not impose unnecessary obligations. Increasingly, there is a desire amongst us to share the wisdom and fruits of lives lived in the search of, and companionship of a loving, compassionate God, without the fear of constraint or complaint.

I, along with many women of my generation, desire new ways, fresh ways, to be daughters of God, sisters of Christ.

Perhaps the large, institutional churches need to loosen their vice-like grip on "religion" and "ritual" and "spirituality" and "God". Perhaps these institutions need to recognise and nurture new ways of being church, of being a people of God.

Perhaps they need to embrace change before the new wine bursts the old wineskins.

Perhaps they need to recognise and honour the hundreds of unofficial, informal, organic gatherings where God is present in many guises:

• women gathered knitting blankets for orphans;
• women gathered in shared silence;
• women gathered planting native seedlings along waterways;
• women meeting and supporting each other as they seek meaningful and relevant employment;
• women gathering, recognising the divine in diversity and variety.

Source

• Liz Pearce, mother of 3 adult children, loves story, dollmaking, writing and silence.