Residents of Canadian town destroyed by record-breaking fire return for glimpse of homes
Lytton, British Columbia, Canada Reuters Residents of Lytton, British Columbia, were able to see the remains of their homes on Friday for the first time since they were forced to flee for their lives days ago. The central British Columbia town made headlines at the end of June for breaking Canada’s heat record – hitting […]
In the US, AME General Conference votes to form committee to study LGBTQ issues
RNS A day after its General Conference voted down a bill that would have allowed clergy to perform same-sex marriages, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, meeting in Orlando, Florida, passed a resolution on Thursday to appoint a sexual ethics discernment committee to make recommendations to the denomination about LGBTQ matters. The ad hoc committee will […]
School’s out for good? Lebanese teachers flee as financial crisis builds
Beirut, Lebanon Reuters Sorbonne-educated Chryssoula Fayad spent nearly two decades teaching history and geography at Lebanon’s elite French schools, ultimately heading departments. Now she is a substitute teacher in Paris, part of an exodus from an education system on its knees. Fayad left behind her home and life savings in August 2020, at 50 years […]
Billy Graham’s 1940s cottage in North Carolina is listed for sale at $US600,000
RNS If you want to buy a piece of American religious history, then — as Billy Graham might have said — the time is now. A North Carolina cottage that the famed evangelist and his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, once called home is for sale. The Grahams bought the four-bedroom house at 198 Mississippi Road […]
Future planning: Looking for radical solutions to decline, Church of England debates lay-led house churches
CATHERINE PEPINSTER, writing for Religion News Service, reports on the push for change within the Church of England…
Updated: US rebuffs Haiti troops request after President’s assassination
Updated: 7pm, 11th July (AEST) Washington DC, US/Port-au-Prince, Afghanistan Reuters The United States on Friday rebuffed Haiti’s request for troops to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by suspected foreign mercenaries, even as it pledged to help with the investigation. The killing of Moise by a squad of gunmen in […]
Taliban say they control 85 per cent of Afghanistan, humanitarian concerns mount
Kabul, Afghanistan/Moscow, Russia Reuters Taliban officials said on Friday the Sunni Muslim insurgent group had taken control of 85 per cent of territory in Afghanistan, and international concern mounted over problems getting medicines and supplies into the country. Afghan Government officials dismissed the assertion that the Taliban controlled most of the country as part of […]
Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury tell leaders tell South Sudan leaders to make sacrifices for peace
Rome, Italy AP Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury marked the 10th anniversary of the independence of South Sudan on Friday by urging its rival political leaders to make the necessary personal sacrifices to consolidate peace. The majority of the country’s population is Christian, and churches helped to rally international support when South Sudanese […]
Kidnapped Nigerian students freed after ransom paid – school, parent
Kaduna, Nigeria Reuters Six students and two officials who were kidnapped last month from a school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state were released after relatives paid ransom money, a school official and parent said on Friday. Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to in Nigeria as “bandits”, have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting the education […]