Southern Baptist historic gavel a reminder of racist legacy
Birmingham, Alabama, US RNS When the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention opens, a little-noticed ritual usually occurs. An SBC executive hands a gavel to the person elected president the previous June. That act officially opens the meeting. Southern Baptist Convention President JD Greear brings the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention to […]
Faith group vows not to give up the fight against Adani coal mine in Australian state of Queensland
The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change has vowed not to give up the fight to stop the proposed Adani coal mine in the northern Australian state of Queensland from going ahead after the State Government approved a final permit on ground water management on Thursday. First acquired by Adani in 2010, the project is […]
Bottled water giants back new global plan to cut plastic waste
Barcelona, Spain Thomson Reuters Foundation The world’s biggest yoghurt maker Danone and food packaging giant Tetra Pak are among companies leading a global scheme to reduce plastic waste, launched on Tuesday, as public concern rises over the environmental damage caused by rubbish. The 3R Initiative – also backed by Swiss food giant Nestle, which owns […]
ON THE SCREEN: ‘TOLKIEN’ EXPLORES THE FELLOWSHIP BEFORE THE RING AND THE LOVE THAT INSPIRED HIS STORIES
MARCUS CHEONG watches a new biopic of ‘Lord of the Rings’ author JRR Tolkien…
Soundbite – The TCM Update: Christian best sellers
The best-selling Christian album of all time in the US. Listen to this week’s TCM Update…
Mexico’s Catholic bishops call for a “just policy” in response to Central American migration
Mexico needs a “just migration policy” which guarantees “the free and orderly, regulated and responsible transit of people” and watches over the legitimate interests of Mexicans, according to statement from the country’s Catholic bishops sent to Agenzia Fides. The Catholic news agency reports that the statement, which was issued following an agreement between the US and […]
OPIOID CRISIS: IN THE MIDST OF AN EPIDEMIC, US CHURCHES OPEN THEIR DOORS TO NEEDLE EXCHANGES
YONAT SHIMRON, of Religion News Service, reports on how churches in the US state of North Carolina – including Green Street United Methodist Church – are hosting syringe exchanges in what some see as a controversial response to the nation’s opioid crisis…
Nobel Prize winner warns wildfires threaten Iraqi mass graves
London Thomson Reuters Foundation Nobel Prize-winner and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad has warned that wildfires raging in northern Iraq could destroy crucial evidence of genocide committed by Islamic State. Murad, a survivor of sexual slavery, said the fires had burned some of the 79 mass graves in the Sinjar region where victims of Islamic State […]
Essay: Most Southern Baptist women would welcome a woman pastor. It’s unlikely to happen
Against the backdrop of the Southern Baptist’s annual meeting being held in the US this week, RYAN BURGE, a political science teacher at Eastern Illinois University and co-founder of Religion in Public, looks – in an article first published on Religion News Service – at beliefs about women preachers…
Sight-Seeing: The struggle to find silence – in the ancient world and now
In an article first published on The Conversation, KIM HAINES-EITZEN, of Cornell University in the US, looks at our ongoing quest for silence and how it helped shape the development of the monastic lifestyle…