US embattled megachurch pastor John Ortberg resigns from Menlo Church
RNS John Ortberg, popular Christian author and speaker, has resigned as pastor of Menlo Church, a megachurch congregation outside of San Francisco. His resignation is effective from Sunday, 2nd August. “I have considered my seventeen years as pastor here to be the greatest joy I’ve had in ministry,” Ortberg said in a statement. “But […]
Vatican allegedly hacked by China ahead of key talks
AP The Vatican and the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong have been the targets of alleged Chinese state-backed hackers ahead of talks on renewal of a landmark 2018 deal that helped thaw diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China, according to a monitoring group. The alleged attacks by a group called RedDelta began in May […]
About three billion animals harmed in Australian bushfires, WWF says
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Nearly three billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said, triple the group’s earlier estimates. Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by […]
Anger in India after lower-caste woman’s body taken off funeral pyre
Lucknow, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation The body of a lower-caste Dalit woman was taken off a funeral pyre in India by a group of upper-caste men who said she could not be cremated on communal land, police said on Tuesday, a case that prompted angry calls for an end to caste discrimination. The funeral was being […]
Origins: What are the origins of cathedrals and chapels?
In an article first published on The Conversation, SAMUEL L BOYD, assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, looks at the origins of churches and chapels…
StrangeSights: Kevin and Carol banned from the pub; rescue effort saves Daisy; and luxury cells in Ukraine…
DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
Emergency response team dispatched to Australia coronavirus outbreak
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia has sent defence and emergency medical teams, usually deployed to disaster zones, to aged care homes in the city of Melbourne to help contain the country’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus. Another hotspot, in inner-city Sydney, forced a senior adviser to Prime Minister Scott Morrison into self-isolation, but the prime minister has […]
UK running club eyes expansion as coronavirus boosts volunteering
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation The founder of a British running club that seeks to combine exercise with doing good has laid out plans to expand after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a major rise in volunteering. Ivo Gormley set up GoodGym in London in 2009, believing regular gyms were a waste of energy that could be […]
National Council of Churches in Australia calls for Sunday to be national day of prayer concerning the coronavirus pandemic
Australia’s National Council of Churches has called for Christians to join in a national day of prayer in response to the coronavirus pandemic this Sunday, 2nd August. In a message on the NCCA website, Anglican Bishop Philip Huggins, president of the NCCA, said it was “comforting when we know we are all praying together to our […]
Brazil: How progressive theologians hope to re-establish dialogue with the Christian right
EDUARDO CAMPOS LIMA reports on hopes among proponents of Liberation Theology that dialogue can be re-established with neo-Pentecostal churches, many of whom are key supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro…