Police say there is no confirmation of the suspected cow slaughter, however the opposition Congress party is demanding a high-level inquiry and swift action in the matter.

The victims, Sampat Batti and Dhansa, were thrashed with sticks and died on way to the hospital.

The brutal attack was conducted by a group of about 20 men at their house in Simaria village in Seoni district on May 3.

Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur says "It is very sad and painful to see that men are killing men merely on the suspicion of slaughtering a cow."

Almeida said if the deceased had indeed committed some crime it should be brought to the notice of the law enforcement agencies.

A day after the attack Police arrested nine suspects and continue to look for 11 others named in the complaint.

Source

• UCANews.com

It implies that nature changes and lives and dies. It means that nature is more like an organism than a thing.

Following Pope Francis, many of us have come to argue that all of nature is alive and in a kind of ecological harmony/disharmony with itself.

It is unfair to think of nature as all peace when it also involves disruption. Many of us don't go all the way to the Gaia hypothesis, which imagines that the Earth itself is living and breathing, but we get pretty close.

With St. Paul, we imagine that the body is a holy temple — both a thing and a not-thing, both a subject and an object, both matter and spirit.

We also call church buildings "temples" or "sanctuaries."

Congregations of all kinds around the country have gone into a new and rapidly accelerating phase.

Our declining memberships have met their match in increasing costs for our buildings. More often, they are just too big for us, resembling nothing more than a tiny turtle in a big shell.

The increased pace in the closing of church buildings has become extraordinary in many towns and cities across the country.

The temples finally have met their match in the buildings. Membership decline has met its match in empty shells for the spirit and the people. Matter and spirit are richly related.

In his 1998 book The Second Coming of the Church, faith researcher George Barna wrote, "Escaping death after entering the decline phase is very difficult — and the longer it stays mired in decline, the less likely renewal becomes.

"The only suitable course of action is for the church to embark on an intentional campaign designed to introduce radical reinvigoration (new vision from God, or the integration of a new core congregation)." Continue reading

• Donna Schaper is senior minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City.

She is a prolific, best-selling author, a qualified psychotherapist, and much in demand as a speaker. She leads spiritual tours and retreats, and is a pioneer among the handful of interfaith ministers in Australia.

As well as an interview about her latest book, Seeking the Sacred: Transforming Our View of Ourselves and One Another, the video also contains excerpts of her speaking at an event held recently at Paddington Uniting Church in Sydney's east where she was in conversation with Uniting Church minister and theologian, Doug Purnell.

Dowrick was born in New Zealand. When she was eight, her mother died. This was a pivotal event in her life, and is one of the things she reflects on in this interview.

As a young adult she lived in Europe and England. She founded, and was first managing director of, London publishing house The Women's Press. In 1983 she moved to Australia, and has been based in Sydney ever since.

After two years study, in 2005 she graduated from the New Seminary for interfaith ministry in New York, and was ordained in that city's Episcopalian Cathedral of St John the Divine. Since 2006, on the third Sunday of every month, she has led interfaith services at Pitt Street Uniting Church in the heart of Sydney.

In 2000 she founded the Universal Heart Network. In her words, 'it is made up of people who care about the values that strengthen and connect us'. It provides a means for them to keep in contact online, and Dowrick sends members a monthly inspirational email.

As an extension of this network, this year, with writer Walter Mason, she started the Universal Heart Book Club, an online forum with blogs, discussion and reviews of 'books that matter for readers who care'. Continue reading

Sources

• Eureka Street
• Image: Stephanie Dowrick