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Christian women leaders will discuss violence, abuse, and coercive control of women in the church as part of an upcoming national conference.
The Movement for the Ordination of Women 40th anniversary gathering aims to examine women’s experiences in Christian ministry, including the obstacles they face and how that affects their progress and leadership.
MOW president Dr Elaine Lindsay said the need to support lay and ordained women leaders was important particularly given a recent gender disparity report describing the barriers they experienced in the Canberra and Goulburn diocese.
The sun shone, the Archbishop presided, three choirs sang, banners were resplendent, the church was packed, cakes were cut, and a good time was had by all.
A service of joy, praise and thanksgiving was held at Holy Trinity Williamstown on Sunday 6th October to celebrate 150 years since our magnificent bluestone church was completed.
HTW began its life in 1854 in a church which was prefabricated in England of cast iron. It was known as the ‘Iron Pot’ as it was boiling in summer and freezing in winter.
Young fans screamed, chargrilled asparagus was served, and an hourglass was delivered to NSW parliament as King Charles and Queen Camilla graced Sydney for the first full day of engagements as part of the royal tour.
The day began with a church service in which the royal couple greeted Sunday school children and adoring members of the public.
King Charles continued on alone to deliver a speech to NSW parliament, before meeting the Governor-General on the banks of Sydney Harbour at Admiralty House.
While there has been an increase in the percentage of people who identify as non-religious and a decrease in the share of the population identifying as Christian, in Australia religious diversity is on the rise — thanks in no small part to overseas migration.
Christianity remains the largest religion, but religions like Hinduism and Islam have grown by half (now comprising 2.7 and 3.2 per cent of the population, respectively).
What the Census data does not tell us, however, is how many people are non-religious but consider themselves “spiritual” — which is to say, they seek a connection to God or higher power outside of the constraints of any specific religious institution or doctrine.
Recent data by the Statista Research Department confirms previously published figures showing a decline in Australians identifying with the Christian faith, but churches are still motivated to reach the nation with the Gospel.
The 2021 Australian Census showed under half of all Australians, 44%, saying they are Christian. This is 8% less than five years earlier in a similar national census.
At the same time, more people do not identify with any religion at all — 10 million in 2010, which is a 2 million increase from the previous census. This equates to 40% of respondents in the survey having no religion.
In 2017, at the end of his first year at Samford University, a private Christian university in Birmingham, Alabama, Nathan Peace realized he’d never “pray the gay away” and he’d never “turn straight”.
Peace had grown up in a “churchy” family in Georgia and attended Southern Baptist services his entire life. In high school, he showed up early for Bible study and participated in group prayers before marching band performances. In the 2016 election, he voted for Donald Trump. It’s what he thought he had to do to be a “faithful” Christian.
But for years Peace had remained closeted, agonizing over his sexuality. As far as he knew, he could be gay or he could be a Christian – but he could never be both.
Founded in 2012, the Satanic Temple (which is not to be confused with the very different Church of Satan) is not about devil worship. Rather, it is about raising hell to fight for freedom from the religious right’s crusade to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
Recognized as a religion by the IRS, the Satanic Temple uses the religious right’s tactics, and their victories, against them.
“Right now, we have a minority religious theocratic movement, so entrenched in politics and getting away with whatever they want,” co-founder Lucien Greaves told the Guardian earlier this year.
Before this month’s synod at the Vatican, Pope Francis took the question of allowing women deacons off the agenda, referring this and other hot-button issues to study groups.
That distressed many Catholic activists. Leaving aside this matter of ordained ministry, sisters in religious orders and lay women could fill many influential church posts monopolized by male priests.
But they rarely do.
“As a medical intern, I once treated a young woman with metastatic breast cancer, whose sparkling blue eyes looked up at me every morning with hope,” writes Robert Klitzman, Psychiatrist and Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program.
The young woman developed ongoing fears and nausea as her cancer began to spread.
It was only until a Priest started visiting her, that Klitzman noticed a week later that the young woman looked calmer, even smiling more. Klitzman sensed that she felt “a renewed connection to something beyond her.”
“I’ve unfairly made judgments of Bible college students based on my own expectations or interactions with them. The person who loved studying the Bible made me feel less godly for not being excited by the prospect of study,” writes Dhanu Eliezer, a part-time legal sales coach and part-time theological student.
Eliezer admits to previously allowing her views of college students to cloud her own contemplation of theological study.
This year though, she has taken some theological subjects that forced her to be surrounded by students and look past their stereotypes. This has made her appreciate why we study theology and the joy it brings to do so in the community.
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