ENI for the latest news about churches and religion.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, told the bishops' biennial assembly on 1 February that the widening of the gap between rich and poor is "a matter of serious concern for the church."
Posted on 2 February 2012 @ 12:00 am
Roman Catholic bishops in Malawi have endorsed a government move to allow men to get circumcised in hospitals as a prevention measure aimed at HIV/AIDS.
Posted on 1 February 2012 @ 12:00 am
A group of theologically conservative American Christian leaders is joining with animal rights defenders to advocate against cockfighting, calling the practice of watching and betting on roosters who fight to the death antithetical to biblical values.
Posted on 31 January 2012 @ 12:00 am
It is harvest time for strawberries in the northern Philippine town of La Trinidad, so strawberry farmer Alice Rivera will start repaying a loan extended by a Geneva-based ecumenical church loan fund.
Posted on 30 January 2012 @ 12:00 am
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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The new general secretary of the life and mission agency says communication is at the heart of the agency's work. "We have to put out a message that is uplifting, fulfilling and gospel-based, but do so with images that appeal. We have to be careful not to turn off very faithful members, but present the Presbyterian Church to the next generation," said Rev. Rick Fee.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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The church doctrine committee celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation recently while meeting at the national office. Adopted in 1955, the declaration says the church must denounce and resist all forms of tyranny. It also says that church and state are intimately related.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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(ENI) – Sweden's supreme court has acquitted pastor Ake Green of engaging in a hate speech against homosexuals, made in a sermon in 2003. Green described homosexuality as "abnormal, a horrible tumour in the body of society" and he said homosexual are "perverts, whose sexual drive the Devil has used as his strongest weapon against God". The supreme court noted in its verdict that Green's statements were made during a sermon, in a religious community and were based on a theme in the Bible. It said the sermon was protected by freedom of speech and religion.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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(ENI) – Queen Elizabeth II extolled the unique role of the Christian Church in the search for meaning in the modern world when she opened the (Anglican) Church of England's general synod in London.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Presbytery Profile
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The Presbytery of Brampton, encompassing areas west and north of Toronto, is an eclectic mix of geography, history, demographics, characteristics and congregation size. Its 30 charges (and 34 congregations) make it one of the largest presbyteries in the national church, and with only four vacancies, its ability to attract ministers seems solid. And although its congregations see a huge range of Sunday attendance from 330 at Knox, Oakville, to 24 at Limehouse, the overall picture is one of general stability. In fact, between 2003 and 2004, membership jumped from 4,949 to 5,323, while both adherents and attendance increased at similar rates.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Features
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Corporations can be rewarded for their socially responsible work through PR News, an American publication serving the public relations and communications industry. Its Corporate Social Responsibility Awards recognizes goodwill and philanthropy in corporations, non-profits and NGOs throughout the world. Maintaining a positive reputation through highlighting socially responsible initiatives is becoming increasingly important, and the awards showcase organizations that have brought such efforts into the limelight.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Michael Coren
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I have opposed the war in Iraq from the very beginning. I also opposed the sanctions imposed on that country. But I support the liberation of Afghanistan and refuse to embrace any of the simplistic solutions of either Left or Right.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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(ENI) – World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia has told a gathering in front of the Swiss parliament that the deaths of close relatives due to HIV/AIDS has impelled him to speak out on the pandemic.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Mission Knocks
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Every Tuesday morning around 9:30 a.m., a group of people begin to gather in the kitchen at St. Andrew's, Owen Sound, Ont. We try not to be late so we can chatter about our week. What we have been up to, how the weather has been, what everyone's children and grandchildren are up to, where we have been this past week; rail at the price of gas, how to grow tomatoes, who is in the hospital, who is home from hospital; discuss local politics and upcoming concerts. We range in age from young children to seniors, and all are welcome, especially the best banana muffin maker in town. It really is the best time and we all look forward to it. Oh, yes, we gather to make sandwiches.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Features
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How do you topple a giant? As the biblical David discovered in the Valley of Elah, one little pebble can fell Goliath.
posted on January 1, 2006 in For the Journey
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What was that blood curdling scream Hon? You look ghastly, like you have just seen a ghost." Linda chuckled, peering at me over her reading glasses in that schoolmarmish way that turns on the schoolboy in me every time. The problem was I was so shocked by the trauma that I really didn't appreciate it very much.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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(ENI) – A top Italian Protestant has accused Pope Benedict XVI of setting back Christian unity by granting indulgences to Roman Catholics who carry out acts of devotion to the Virgin Mary to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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The nominees for Moderator of the 2006 General Assembly are Wilma Welsh, an elder at Knox, Guelph, and Les Young, an elder at Westmount, Edmonton. The Committee to Advise the Moderator will count ballots on April 3 and the chosen nominee will be inducted at assembly, held this year in St. Catharine's, Ont. Watch for nominee profiles in the Record's February issue.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Books
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Missionaries for the Record: Letters from Overseas to the Presbyterian Church in Canada 1846 – [19]60
posted on January 1, 2006 in For the Record
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When Socrates opined in the Republic that "justice is the right ordering of the parts" he was in part saying that justice is frequently complex, with many parts that need to be balanced and given their due. One of the first tests of human maturity, for instance, is the ability to weigh the question of whether a person too poor to pay for food is really stealing if they take food without paying in order to live. Below a certain age (often well into our teens) we are unable to get past having been taught that stealing is wrong. Period. We sometimes forget that point, perhaps because there are so many parts to order correctly. Where human motives are involved, justice is rarely simple, but it must be done and be seen to be done.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Features
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My interest in visiting the church and the Evangelical Seminary in Cuba goes back to contacts with Central American Christians beginning in the late 1980s. My then-congregation in Ottawa shared with others in the sponsorship of two families from El Salvador, whose robust faith and hope made me want to visit the places they came from and learn more about the sources of their spiritual strength, their culture and the political struggles they had faced. By 1993 an opportunity arose for me to go to Nicaragua. I served there until the end of 1996.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Speaking Up
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Albert Einstein once said, "The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." Can this language be applied to investment portfolios? Are investors, including corporate ones like churches, culpable for their reluctance or failure to be intentional in ensuring that their investments are more and more ethically responsible? I wondered about this as I recently re-read the 2003 Assembly Council Report.
posted on January 1, 2006 in Features
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As a by-product of corporate disasters such as Enron, consumers care more about where their money is going and what it is supporting – be it donations given to an emergency aid agency or extra income invested in mutual funds. In the church, where ethics take centre stage, wise stewardship of both individual and church-wide resources is a particularly hot issue. Concerns inside and outside the church about corporate performance have spawned the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical or socially responsible investing (SRI) – issues that have their beginnings in the church and continue to grow.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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It's a concept that's hard for Canadians to fathom, but in Malawi, where up to half the country's 12 million people don't have enough to eat, having the right to food enshrined in the constitution would be a major step forward.
posted on January 1, 2006 in News
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The Presbyterian Church welcomed a federal announcement in late November to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will be guided by principles established by a 1998-99 working group that explored the issue, and a financial package that will give $10,000 to every former student of Indian residential schools and an additional $3,000 for each year of attendance after the first. The deal was part of a series of initiatives to address the need for compensation and resolution in a comprehensive, fair and just manner.
