Sight-Seeing: My week with the Bruderhof
NILS VON KALM reflects on his recent sojourn among the Bruderhof community in northern New South Wales, Australia…
Vatican, Italy bishop slam “profane” Sanremo performance
Rome, ItalyAP The Vatican and an Italian Catholic bishop on Wednesday protested a performance at Italy’s Sanremo music festival that featured a “profane” faux baptism on stage, lamenting in particular that it was broadcast on public television. On the opening night of the annual song contest, a tattooed, bare-chested and barefoot singer named Achille Lauro […]
COVID-19 behind “unprecedented demand” for emergency food relief among Sydney’s poor and homeless: Rev Bill Crews Foundation
Sydney, Australia Demand for emergency food relief among Sydney’s poor and homeless at services operated by the Rev Bill Crews Foundation has risen 149 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to the foundation. The “unprecedented demand” has equated to 1.1 million meals being distributed during the crisis, despite people receiving government support, a […]
Beijing torch begins COVID-shortened relay; Pope hails Paralympians, refugee athletes in Olympic message
Beijing, ChinaReuters Beijing’s COVID-shortened Olympic torch relay began on Wednesday with basketball great Yao Ming and a Chinese soldier wounded in a bloody 2020 border clash with India among the first to carry the symbolic flame on a journey that will last only three days. The route taking the flame to landmarks including the Great […]
Red Cross flags dire conditions in east Ukraine as tensions flare anew with Russia
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Ukraine are living in dire conditions, with poor access to basic services and under constant threat from shelling and landmines, the Red Cross said on Wednesday, amid escalating tensions between Kyiv and Moscow. With countries heavily focused just now on the massing of Russian troops along […]
Six killed in failed coup in Guinea-Bissau, President sees link to drugs
Bissau, Guinea-BissauReuters At least six people were killed in a failed attempt to overthrow Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, state radio said on Wednesday, as residents of the capital cautiously returned to daily life. The dead in Tuesday’s assault included four assailants and two members of the presidential guard, it said. Embalo had announced on […]
Tonga goes into lockdown; COVID cases not at international aid port – official
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Two COVID-19 cases in wharf workers in tsunami-hit Tonga were at a different wharf to that used by foreign naval ships delivering aid, a Tongan official said, as the previously virus-free nation prepares to go into lockdown on Wednesday to stop infections. There have been fears an influx of international ships and planes […]
Australia’s Alphacrucis College recognised as a ‘university college’, fulfilling “70-year vision”
Sydney, Australia Australia has gained its first Pentecostal higher education institution after Alphacrucis College was granted ‘University College’ status by the national tertiary accrediting body Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. The decision by TEQSA in late January was described by Alphacrucis College President, Professor Stephen Fogarty, as “the fulfilment of a vision that began over […]
StrangeSights: A “Jubbly” celebration; a “head-to-whiskers” eating challenge; and, a Boeing 747 transformed…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
An ordinance limiting church meal services in US city violates religious freedom, suit says
RNS A church in the US state of Oregon is suing the coastal city of Brookings, arguing that an ordinance restricting the church’s meal program for the unhoused violates its right to religious freedom. St Timothy’s Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon filed the lawsuit against the city on Friday in Oregon’s US […]