A few weeks ago, returning from World Youth Day, Pope Francis made several interesting remarks to journalists, including an implicit appeal for a theology of women. “We talk about whether they can do this or that: Can they be altar boys? Can they be lectors? About a woman as president of Caritas, but we don’t Read more
In the 1970s, Linda Sim applied to the Singapore Armed Forces to be a front-line soldier, but was told women could take up only clerical positions. The Singapore Police Force also turned her down as she was too petite. Undeterred, the gutsy woman took up taekwondo and eventually earned a black belt. Then she heard Read more
New initiatives to try to combat violence against women have been on the agenda of a UN meeting in Fiji last week. 26 representatives from six Pacific Island countries are in Suva to review national strategies and initiatives Melissa Alvarado, from the UN Women Fiji Multi Country Office is one of the Coordinators of the Read more
Former United States president Jimmy Carter has accused the Catholic Church of abusive discrimination against women by having an all-male priesthood. In a Time magazine interview, Carter said “the major religions have discriminated against women in a very abusive fashion and set an example for the rest of society to treat women as secondary citizens”. Read more
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
Hundreds of bystanders, including many children, watched a 20-year-old mother accused of sorcery stripped and tortured, then burned alive in a Papua New Guinea Highland town of Mout Hagen. Kepari Leniata was accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in the hospital the day before. More than 50 men participated, torturing her with a Read more
The Irish state was directly involved in the incarceration of young women in the notorious Magdalene laundries, an official report has found. The Irish government has previously denied direct involvement in the system, which was run by four religious congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy Read more
How ironic that as the Church of England was voting against women bishops, I was trying to buy Divine Women; a series for television by historian Brittany Hughes who dares to consider when God was a girl. Whilst some must have been celebrating at the result, others were distraught. ‘I’m ashamed to be part of the Read more
The 21 year old Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women and Girls (the Network) has been hold its 6th regional meeting in Nadi Last Wednesday the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre used the meeting to launch the One Billion Rising campaign. Women from Tonga, PNG, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia participated in the launch, Read more
Brand Christianity seemed to be male, didactic and interested in power at the recent Recovering the Common Good Conference in Wellington. The experience stirred something deep so that many days later my internal world is still bubbling. A wide range of people gathered at Parliament Buildings to reflect on the place of Christianity in discussions Read more