World Methodist Council’s new president talks about what holds a fracturing church together
RNS In August, the World Methodist Council, an umbrella group of Methodist denominations, meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, elected the Rev Debra Wallace-Padgett president of the council. Wallace-Padgett has been a bishop of the United Methodist Church since 2012 and has led both the denomination’s North Alabama Conference and, since 2021, its Holston Conference, in eastern […]
A Sustainable Life: Why plastic bottles now have their caps attached
RANDA LINDSEY KACHEF, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at why the EU targeted plastic bottle caps in a recent directive…
Mexico military’s role in migrant massacre comes under sharp scrutiny
Huixtla, Mexico Reuters A wooden fence, warped and battered by a crashing vehicle, is the only sign on this quiet dirt road of the six migrants killed by Mexican soldiers who opened fire on a pick-up truck here earlier this month. While the military has said soldiers fired on a convoy they mistook for organised […]
OECD-backed group calls for global pact to solve water crisis
Singapore Reuters Countries need a new international pact to fix a mounting water crisis that could cut economic growth by at least eight per cent and put half the world’s food supplies at risk by 2050, an OECD-backed commission said on Thursday. Climate change, destructive land use and chronic mismanagement has put the global water […]
Trump, at Latino event, stands by false claims of immigrants eating pets
Reuters Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported”. Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ […]
Ambivalent Australia awaits King Charles III on first big overseas tour since cancer diagnosis
Sydney, Australia Reuters King Charles III, the only British monarch who has spent time living in Australia, arrives on Friday for his inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer. The first visit by a reigning monarch in 13 years has revived debate in Australia […]
Los Angeles Archdiocese reaches $US880 million sex abuse settlement
New York, US Reuters The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $US880 million to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a US diocese over decades-old abuse claims. Archbishop Jose H Gomez enters for Ash Wednesday mass at Cathedral […]
The Interview: Shirley Hoogstra on leading Christian higher ed through a decade of change
ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, speaks to Shirley Hoogstra, who is moving into a new role after 10 years of leading the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in the US…
After United Methodist Church approves same-sex marriage, unrest breaks out in Liberian church
Nairobi, Kenya RNS The United Methodist Church in Liberia has been roiled in recent days over its position on marriage for same-sex couples after the global denomination, based in the United States, voted to strike a 40-year-old condemnation of homosexuality from its governing document. Clergy and lay members of the 150,000-member Liberian church have been […]
Essay: Moldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign
In an article first published on The Conversation, STEFAN WOLFF says there has been an intensifying Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign in the run-up to Moldova’s EU membership vote…