WOW!: BARISTAS BEHIND BARS – UK PRISONERS SWAP CRIME FOR COFFEE
LIN TAYLOR, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on a prison initiative which provides inmates with speciality coffee skills in a bid to help them to find jobs upon release…
Unknown attackers threaten to worsen Ebola epidemic in Congo
Yaounde, Democratic Republic of CongoThomson Reuters Foundation Aid workers at the epicentre of the worst Ebola epidemic in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo say they are facing a spike in attacks and threats, slowing their work and potentially triggering a surge of new cases. While two Medecins Sans Frontieres facilities treating Ebola […]
Church “not afraid of history’: Pope Francis to open secret Pius XII archives
Vatican CityReuters Saying the “church is not afraid of history”, Pope Francis announced on Monday he plans to open fully the Vatican’s secret archives on the wartime pontificate of Pope Pius XII, a historic move that Jews have sought for decades. Many Jews say Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, did not do enough to help those facing […]
Holy Communion celebrated in Farsi for first time in Church of England cathedral
A Holy Communion service was conducted in Farsi for the first time in a Church of England cathedral last weekend. Wakefield Cathedral in Yorkshire hosted hundreds of Iranians at the service on Saturday which was presided over by Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Loughborough. The bishop was just a teenager when her family fled Iran […]
Return of abused Bangladeshi maids from Saudi prompts calls for government action
Thomson Reuters Foundation More than 100 Bangladeshi female workers abused or exploited in Saudi Arabia returned home last week, according to human rights activists, fuelling calls to stop sending Bangladeshi women to the Middle East to work as housemaids. Bangladeshi non-government organisation BRAC said an increasing number of women were returning from the Middle East […]
Women have only three quarters of economic rights of men, finds World Bank
Thomson Reuters Foundation Women on average have only three-quarters of the legal protections given to men during their working life, ranging from bans on entering some jobs to a lack of equal pay or freedom from sexual harassment, the World Bank said last week. Researchers examined whether adult men and women had equal rights under […]
HANDS OFF!: KENYAN SLUM DWELLERS UNITE TO PROTECT CITY DAM
KAGONDU NJAGI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the battle over land rights in Nairobi’s Kibera slum…
“Everything is awesome!” – Miniature Washington Cathedral to be created with Lego bricks
Washington, DCRNS With boy choristers singing their version of Everything Is Awesome, the Washington National Cathedral unveiled the foundation of a Lego replica of the cathedral that will be built as a fundraiser over the next several years. The “Let There Be Lego!” initiative was inspired by a similar project at Durham Cathedral in England. […]
ESSAY: HOW CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY LOST ITS WAY
In an excerpt from their new book, ‘For the Life of the World’ first published by Religion News Service, theologians MIROSLAV VOLF and MATTHEW CROASMAN look at what makes for a flourishing human life…