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Christians in Sydney have grieved the deaths of six people in a stabbing attack at Bondi Junction.
Sydney faith leaders have published prayers asking for God’s comfort as the city mourns the attack.
Six people were fatally stabbed at a Bondi Junction shopping centre on Saturday, while at least 12 others were injured. A man armed with a knife was shot dead at the scene.
Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral conducted a service of prayer and mourning on Tuesday, while St Mary’s church in Bondi is open for prayer and reflection.
For many in Sydney’s Assyrian community, the images of violence at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church on Monday evening brought flashbacks of war.
Jacqueline Georges arrived in Australia in 1984, fleeing Iraq. Monday night’s attack has shaken her.
“We felt devastated, shocked and violated,” she said.
“We left our countries because of these things. We were persecuted all the time as Christians, as Assyrians, and today we’re facing this here in this free country.”
“Public knife attacks are rare in Australia, and for Sydney to experience two in quick succession has rightfully alarmed many and, understandably, led to comparisons between the two,” writes Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics.
“A lot of the discussion is around why the Bondi Junction shopping mall attack in which six were killed wasn’t considered terrorism, but this shocking, but non-lethal, attack was,“ he writes.
Barton suggests that the answer boils down to whether these violent actors think they are part of a political or religious movement, or whether they are simply angry men driven by personal demons.
A high court decision to uphold a prayer ban at one of the highest performing state schools in England has been welcomed by Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch, who described it as a “victory against activists trying to subvert our public institutions”.
The case against Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, which is famous for its strict discipline code, was brought by a Muslim pupil, known only as TTT in court proceedings, who claimed the ban was discriminatory and breached her right to religious freedom.
In July, the Cite du Cinema studio space will be refashioned into the heart of the athletes’ village for the Paris Olympics.
Yet the dress code for the hosts is different from their guests.
In September the International Olympic Committee made clear that athletes in Paris can represent themselves and their faith, as well as their country.
The French team, though, have been told something different.
The Holy See said Saturday it formally protested to France after a court there ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order.
The Lorient tribunal on 3rd April ruled in favour of the nun, Sabine de la Valette, known at the time as Mother Marie Ferréol. The court issued a scathing denunciation of the secretive process the Vatican used to kick her out of the order, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, after an internal investigation.
The case is highly unusual, because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vatican’s in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nun’s fundamental rights.
The United Methodist Church lost one-fourth of its US churches in a recent schism, with conservatives departing over disputes on sexuality and theology.
Now, with the approach of its first major legislative gathering in several years, the question is whether the church can avert a similar outcome elsewhere in the world, where about half its members live.
The question is particularly acute in Africa, home to the vast majority of United Methodists outside the US. Most of its bishops favour staying, but other voices are calling for regional conferences to disaffiliate.
Massachusetts Bishop Alan M Gates has issued a written apology for what he calls “an instant of altogether misguided mischief” in which he removed a female priest’s tab collar insert in front of those who were gathered 30 March at the in Boston for an Easter Vigil.Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston for an Easter Vigil.
The priest, the Reverend Tamra Tucker, leads The Crossing, an LGBTQ+-affirming congregation that is based at the cathedral and organizes the annual Easter Vigil there.
The incident between Gates and Tucker happened toward the end of the service while they and others were standing at the altar.
Rector of St Peter’s Nightcliff in Darwin, Joshua Kuswadi has long been passionate about Christian mission, along with his wife Jo.
From living in Egypt together as short term volunteers, to studying at Moore college, they have been committed to serving the Lord. It was only when someone asked Kuswadi if he ever considered Darwin as a possible city for him to serve in, did he consider it.
“Turns out the church had been asking around for a while, and we were willing and able to come, so we did,” he says.
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