Today, January 26 2015, the Church of England consecrates the Reverend Libby Lane as its first female bishop. This act may prove to be the most substantial change to the church’s highest order of ministry…
- Associate Director, Yindyamarra Trust, Charles Sturt University
In my home city of Melbourne, an extraordinary cultural and religious drama is played out on Christmas Eve each year at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets. Thousands of people mill around…
The “ban the burqa” campaign which has dominated Canberra this week has been one of the ugliest displays of religious intolerance and parliamentary ignorance in recent years. It has culminated in a particular…
The SBS program Living with the Enemy broadcast on Wednesday 3 September has hit on recipe for success with its new series. Put a gay male couple in a house (well, a caravan) with a conservative male Anglican…
Today a state memorial service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne to remember those who died in the MH17 catastrophe and those who grieve for them. The purpose of the service was to provide a…
Today the High Court struck down the funding for the national school chaplaincy funding program for a second time. Today’s decision throws into question a whole range of federally-funded programs. The…
Yesterday around 20 Christian activists staged sit-ins in Sydney at the office of the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and in Melbourne at that of Federal Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten. The protesters included…
Yesterday the Global Freedom Network was launched – a groundbreaking initiative to combat 21st-century slavery in its many forms, including forced labour and sexual trafficking. It has a five-year business…
In January, Greens Senator Richard di Natale sparked another round of the never-ending debate as to whether or not the Australian Parliament should open with prayer. Under standing orders, each sitting…
Today, December 6, is celebrated by the Christian churches as the feast day of St Nicholas. The saint is one of the historic figures on whom Santa Claus is based and so today is the closest the world gets…
Rutgers University recently announced it will offer a first-year seminar on the theology of Bruce Springsteen. The seminar, led by Azzan Yadin-Israel, will cover songs spanning Springsteen’s 40-year career…
The report of the Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non-Government Organisations has now been tabled in the Victorian Parliament. Entitled Betrayal of Trust, it is sober reading…
This week Australia and many other nations celebrate a major civic ritual, Remembrance Day, which commemorates all who have died in war. It was originally known as Armistice Day, for it marked the end…
Recently the Prime Minister called upon the Labor Party to “repent” of its introduction of the carbon tax. His comments were ridiculed by some critics, not for the substance of what he said, but for the…
Australian life is surprisingly religious. Most of us, from politicians and activists lobbying for or against marriage equality in Australia, to royal watchers obsessed with the christening of Prince George…
Pope Benedict XVI announced his historic decision to step aside as Pope yesterday. This is the first time in 600 years a Pope has resigned. And in 1415 when Gregory XII resigned, he did so not to retire…
The story is almost unbelievable: a king buried for five centuries under what is now a car park, identified through mtDNA analysis with the last surviving matrilineal descendants of his sister. But it…
Twenty years ago, Anglicans in Australia and England independently passed legislation to allow for the ordination of women as priests. Now the Anglican Church of Australia has just appointed its fourth…
Judgement Day is upon us, according to US Christian cult Familyradio - specifically May 21. So what does this mean and what should we expect? Can you explain the Rapture? The Christian New Testament refers…
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