Ten Anglican and Uniting churches in Australia have offered sanctuary to traumatised and abused asylum seekers who are set to be returned to Nauru. 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 Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Churches’
Suggestion that empty French churches become mosques
Friday, June 19th, 2015France’s top Muslim official says 5000 mosques are needed in that nation, and has suggested converting abandoned Catholic churches. 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 Read more
Melbourne churches with dark pasts targeted by arsonist
Friday, April 10th, 2015Police in Melbourne are investigating suspected arsons at three churches with historic links to abusive priests. 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 Read more
Grand mufti wants all churches gone from Arabian Peninsula
Tuesday, March 24th, 2015The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia has called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula, claiming that the move is in line with Islamic law. 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 Read more
Pope condemns suicide bombings of churches in Pakistan
Tuesday, March 17th, 2015Pope Francis on Sunday condemned two suicide attacks on churches in Pakistan and accused the world of “seeking to hide” the persecution of Christians. 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 Read more
Ways in which Millennials shape local congregations
Friday, August 15th, 2014
They are the largest generation in history. 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 Read more
Whimsical Churches in Far-Flung Polynesia
Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
If you travel to some of the remotest islands of Polynesia, churches are probably not uppermost in your mind — sensuous wahines perhaps, slowly gyrating grass-skirted hips, lilting music, Edenic beaches, but churches? 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 Read more
Vatican kills gay photo Church exhibit with threatening letter
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013Despite Pope Francis’ earlier remarks about opening up the Church, the Vatican has firmly shut the door on artist Gonzalo Orquin’s latest exhibit, “Trialogo,” scheduled to open at the Galleria L’Opera on Wednesday evening. The exhibit consists of photographs of same-sex couples kissing in churches mainly located in Rome, but the pictures have been covered Read more
Czech government will pay churches billions in compensation
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013The Czech Republic has signed an historic agreement with the Catholic Church and 15 other religious groups to pay them compensation for properties seized by the Czech Republic’s Communist regime. 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 Read more
Mainstream churches hemorrhaging gifted passionate prayerful women
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
I am one of a rapidly growing group – a woman in the second-half of life, struggling to find a place of belonging in the institutional church. 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 Read more