“Game-changer” phone app aims to end child marriage in Bangladesh
Thomson Reuters Foundation A new phone app could be a “game-changer” in the fight against child marriage in Bangladesh, where more than half of all girls are married before they are 18, children’s charity Plan International said on Monday. The impoverished South Asian nation has one of the world’s highest rates of child marriage, according […]
Christians around the world invited to join Global Day of Prayer to End Famine next month
Christians across the world are being invited to join in the Global Day of Prayer to End Famine next month. World Council of Churches, World Evangelical Alliance and All Africa Conference of Churches, along with church-related humanitarian organisations and a coalition of church-related networks and organisations and partners have designated 10th June as the second […]
Two people killed every day in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
World Watch Monitor Civil society organisations in eastern DRC have reiterated their call to President Joseph Kabila to stop the ongoing killings, which have claimed more than 2,500 lives in three years. Until late 2017, the North Kivu region had enjoyed a period of relative calm before violence resumed with the killing of dozens of civilians by […]
Jerusalem Patriarch says settlers are pushing Christians out of Old City
World Watch Monitor The most senior Christian leader in the Holy Land has accused hardline Jewish settlers of trying to intimidate clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City and acquire church-owned property in an attempt to weaken the Christians’ presence there. In an interview with The Guardian, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, said: “Today […]
UGANDA: RETURNING LRA HOSTAGES FACE NEW ORDEAL OVER LAND CONFLICTS
SALLY HAYDEN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the hardships facing returning hostages in rural Uganda…
Hoping to avert schism, United Methodist bishops propose to allow LGBT clergy, same-sex marriages
RNS The bishops of the United Methodist Church have endorsed a plan that would allow individual pastors and regional bodies to make their own decisions on whether to perform same-sex weddings and ordain LGBT people as clergy. The Council of Bishops recommended the One Church Plan, on Friday, after nearly a week of meetings in […]
SIGHT-SEEING: GIVE THANKS…IN EVERYTHING?
Ahead of Australia’s National Day of Thanks on 26th May, ANNETTE SPURR reflects on what it means to give thanks in all circumstances…
Yemen risks new cholera outbreak as rainy season begins
Thomson Reuters Foundation Yemen’s rainy season will likely trigger another wave of cholera, putting millions at risk in the war-torn country, which is still reeling from one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the killer disease, scientists warned last week. Experts also called for a public health campaign during Ramadan, which begins mid-May, after research […]