epiScope

Last dance

Sydney Archbishop backs gay ban
The Australian
April 15, 2008

THE Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has backed a Brisbane school's decision to turn down a request by gay students to bring male partners to a school dance.

A number of Anglican Church Grammar School's 215 Year 12 students want to take their gay partners to their end-of-year dance on June 19.

However, under current policy, they may only attend the ball with a female partner.

Dr Jensen said he supported civil rights for gay people but homosexuality in the eyes of the church was wrong.

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Thunder from Down Under

Brave boys and the bigots
By Paul Syvret
Queensland (AU) Courier-Mail
April 15, 2008

POOFTERS. Yuk. Let's be blunt here, are they anything but vile and perverted creatures, an abomination in the eyes of God?

In fact, there's an argument that they are worse than the likes of (insult pejorative term about ethnic and religious groupings here) when it comes to cancers eating away at the very moral fabric of society.

And don't even get me started on what people think of the politically correct basket-weaving leftist lezzo greenie vegetarian douchebags who bleat about rights and sexual identity and discrimination. May your tofu-burgers give you genital herpes, your dole cheques bounce and your (in-vitro) children all join One Nation.

Honestly, what has become of this once-great country?

It’s all here …and do read to the end before you hit "send," mate.

Breaking glass

Mum of twins becomes first female bishop
Linda Morris
Sydney Morning Herald
April 12, 2008

A PIONEER of women's ordination and mother of twins is to become the nation's first Anglican woman bishop.

The Venerable Kay Goldsworthy, archdeacon at St George's Cathedral in Perth, will be consecrated on May 22, after a meeting of 50 national Anglican church leaders this week paved the way for the removal of the so-called stained-glass ceiling.

In July, Bishop Goldsworthy is expected to take her seat among leaders of the world Anglican communion at the Lambeth Conference, which takes place every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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From epiphany to bishop
Ben Doherty
The Age
April 12, 2008

THE stained-glass ceilings of the Anglican church in Australia have failed to impede Kay Goldsworthy.

At 16, she felt her calling to God, and phoned the Anglican Church in Melbourne asking how she could join the ministry.

In 1986, she was one of Australia's first female deacons. In March 1992, she was among the first 10 women to be appointed priests in Australia.

Now, the 51-year-old married mother of twin boys is set to break the final, patriarchal barrier of the Australian Anglican church. Next month, Archdeacon Goldsworthy will be consecrated as Australia's first woman bishop after a decades-long battle promoting women's ordination in the church.

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Judge not

Admit your sins to the Lord, priest tells gay judge
Linda Morris
The Sydney Morning Herald
April 10, 2008

A SENIOR minister of a Sydney Anglican parish has made an extraordinary attack on the High Court judge Michael Kirby, warning he would face the wrath of God if he remained unrepentant as a gay man.

The rector of St Stephen's Church in Bellevue Hill, the Reverend Richard Lane, denounced the judge for calling himself a Christian Anglican while living in an openly gay relationship and warned as a "messenger, watchman and steward of the Lord in the Anglican Church of Australia", he faced God's judgment.

To call himself a Christian Anglican was a "perversion of truth" and to continue to do so without changing his lifestyle would brand him, like Herod, a "coward, a liar, a deceiver" and a "lawless one".

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KIRBY: GAY COMMUNITY DESERVES AN APOLOGY
by Harley Dennett
Sydney Star Observer
9/04/2008

High Court Justice Michael Kirby says gay people deserve an apology for past sodomy laws.

The man last year voted Australia’s most influential homosexual also revealed he had received “nasty letters” from Sydney Anglican clergy calling on him to leave his partner, seek ex-gay therapy and stop calling himself an Anglican because he doesn’t abide by Leviticus.

Kirby, along with journalist David Marr, were speaking about Anglican faith, sexuality and hurtful gossip Tuesday night, invited by the liberal St James Church on King St.

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Misconduct in Oz

Anglican Church reserves decision on paedophile
The West Australian (Australia)
1st March 2008

An independent Anglican Church tribunal today reserved its decision over whether to defrock a convicted paedophile priest.

Robert Francis Sharwood, 62, of Brisbane, was jailed for 12 months in November 2006, after being found guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in Brisbane more than 30 years ago.

Sharwood was released from jail in November last year, attracting calls by child protection advocates for him to be immediately stripped of his holy orders.

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Holy Trinity Anglican Church sweeps priest's sins under carpet
Alison Sandy
The Courier-Mail (Australia)
February 29, 2008

BRISBANE'S Holy Trinity Anglican Church has been dubbed the "Unholy Trinity" after it was revealed a pedophile, an alleged pedophile and a practising priest with his own seedy past are leading its Sunday services.

Following revelations in The Courier-Mail this week that convicted pedophile priest Robert Sharwood, who was released from jail only three months ago, has been allowed to sing in the choir with children, it has now been discovered that Canon Barry Greaves, who will stand trial on child sex charges in August, participates in bible readings.

Their role in the Fortitude Valley church has been approved by the Parish Council, headed by rector Trevor Bulled, who was convicted of indecent behaviour in a public toilet almost 20 years ago.

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"Away from the ideology of throwing rocks"

Clergy sorry for rejection over sexuality
Sarah Price
Brisbane Times (Australia)
February 24, 2008

UP TO 100 reverends, ministers and pastors will march in the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to apologise to those rejected by churches because of their sexuality.

More than 30 clerics - from the Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal and Uniting churches - planned to march and more than 60 had signed an apology, 100 Revs group spokesman pastor Mike Hercock said.

"Church has been a hostile place for a number of people, including the homosexual community. It's really trying to get away from the ideology of throwing rocks," he said.

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Bell tolls for Bishop

In trouble: The Murray Bridge Anglican Church is at the centre of a $750,000 controversy.
Prue Semler
Murray Bridge (Australia)
15 February 2008

DISCONTENT among parishioners of the Anglican Church in the Murraylands has escalated, with a call for the immediate resignation of Bishop Ross Davies.

Parishioners have formed a group, Voice of the Laity, and are questioning where $750,000, that was recently found in a fund for Bishop Davies, has come from and what it is for.

Voice of the Laity accessed the The Murray Diocese’s 2006 balance statement, which showed its See Fund had grown by $163,000 since 2005.

Anglican warden Lee Lyons said the parishioners wanted answers from the church about the money.

It’s all here …and in case the name rings a bell...

Duelling archbishops

Archbishop aims to save divided Church
Call for Anglican bishops to attend Lambeth Conference as conservative clergyman draws up formula to avert schism over gay priests
Ruth Gledhill
The Times (UK)
February 4, 2008

The Anglican archbishop in charge of drawing up the document intended to reunite his warring Church said he believes that schism can still be averted in spite of divisions over the issue of homosexuals.

The Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev Drexel Gomez, said that a new formula had been found that would allow the disciplining of errant churches while respecting the traditional autonomy of the 38 worldwide Anglican provinces. Urging all Anglican bishops to attend the Lambeth Conference this year, he said that it would be a “tremendous tragedy” if the Church fell apart.

A new document to be published this week would form “a basic way of holding each other accountable as a Communion”, he said. But he indicated that the Episcopal Church of the United States was unlikely to face discipline or any form of exclusion from the Anglican Communion as a result of consecrating Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

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Bishops ticked over Lambeth boycott
The Australian
February 05, 2008

THE head of the Anglican Church in Australia says he is disappointed Sydney bishops have pulled out of the church's top global meeting.

The boycott of the Lambeth Conference is being spearheaded by the Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, a leading conservative voice in the acrimonious row over the ordination of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the US.

Dr Aspinall said in a statement today he was disappointed over the move by Dr Jensen, and urged him to reconsider.

"I find it difficult to understand the view that the Lambeth Conference is not a proper place to deal with issues facing the international Anglican Communion," Dr Aspinall said.

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From the antipodes

Sydney's bishops to snub summit
Sarah Price
The Brisbane Times
February 3, 2008

THE Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has revealed the Sydney diocese will boycott this year's worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops because of the church's stance on homosexuality.

Dr Peter Jensen was forced to confirm the move after Sydney's strongest ally, the head of the church in Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, last week disclosed that Sydney, along with Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda, would not be represented at the Lambeth Conference, which is held every 10 years for Anglican bishops from around the world.

The controversial consecration of Gene Robinson, the gay bishop of New Hampshire, by the US Episcopal Church in 2003 has embroiled the Anglican Church in a battle between rival factions in disagreement over the matter.

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Deacon of light: college celebrates Aboriginal first
Sarah Price
The Brisbane Times
February 3, 2008

FAMILY and friends came from as far away as Broken Hill and Brisbane to witness an historical ordination at St Andrew's Cathedral yesterday.

Jonathan Lilley, 31, was the first Aboriginal to have completed the full, four-year bachelor of divinity course at the Sydney Anglican Diocese's Moore College.

The father-of-three was among 49 people ordained as deacons or lay diocesan workers at the ceremony in the cathedral.

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"Corpus" delicti

Gay Jesus play angers Australian church leaders
Jan 21, 2008

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A controversial play that depicts Jesus being seduced by Judas and conducting a gay marriage for two apostles has been condemned by church leaders ahead of its opening in Sydney.

The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, expressed his outrage at the plot of "Corpus Christi" on Sunday, calling the play "historical nonsense".

"It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it," he told the Sun-Herald newspaper. "I wouldn't want to go and see it. Life's too short."

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Remarks

Muslim anger at bishop's 'ghettoes' attack
By Jerome Taylor
The Independent (UK)
07 January 2008

Muslim leaders reacted angrily yesterday to a claim by the Bishop of Rochester that Islamic extremists have created "no-go" areas in many cities and a plea for mosques to desist from using amplifiers to broadcast calls to prayer.

The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Church of England's only Asian-born bishop, sparked anger after writing in an article that in many predominantly Muslims areas of Britain's cities people of a different faith face "hostility" from the Muslim community who create "no-go" areas. Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused Dr Nazir-Ali of scaremongering.

"Bishop Nazir-Ali's remarks are quite frankly more like the kind of commentary we would have expected from the far-right BNP, not a responsible figure in the Church of England," he said. "Where are these so-called "no-go" areas that he speaks of? He doesn't say."

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Anglican archbishop spurs opposition to gays
Barney Zwartz
The Age (Australia)
January 4, 2008

OUTSPOKEN Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen is galvanising opposition to homosexuality in the church, in the lead-up to an unofficial meeting of conservative bishops in Jerusalem.

As rifts in the worldwide Anglican Church threaten to become a schism, the Sydney Archbishop said American Anglicans had become missionaries for homosexuality in defiance of the Bible and Anglican teaching.

The Global Anglican Future Conference is provocatively timed just before the 10-yearly meeting of all the world's bishops at Lambeth in London. That meeting must resolve the sexuality crisis or worldwide Anglicans will probably divide into two separate churches.

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Discomfort down under

Anglican Church 'sacrificing traditional worshipers'
ABC News (Australia)
Dec 17, 2007

The Anglican Church has unveiled plans to reform and modernise the church in Tasmania.

The plan, costing $250,000 a year, has angered some parishioners, who have accused the church of ignoring its traditional worshippers.

With many of the church's congregations dwindling and some churches recently closed, the Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, says it is time to re-engage with the community.

"Out of the church and into the 21st century, out of the church and into the world," he said.

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Down under visit

Aspinall willing to meet Gay bishop who visits Oz
Jeremy Halcrow
29 October 2007 

Homosexual Anglican leader, Bishop Gene Robinson, will visit Australia later this year and may meet with the Australian Primate Phillip Aspinall.

Bishop Robinson has written to his New Hampshire diocese saying he is taking leave for ‘down time… down under’ with his partner Mark until the end of the year. He also plans to visit Hong Kong, Solomon Islands and New Zealand to meet Anglican leaders.

“I hope that my building relationships with some of them might, in some small way, contribute to reconciliation in the Anglican Communion.”

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Controversy in Canberra

Anglican debate reignites
Barney Zwartz
The Age (AUS)
October 27, 2007

DIVISIONS in the Anglican Church over women bishops were reignited yesterday when conservatives from opposite ends of the spectrum set up an organisation to protect dissidents.

More than a quarter of the 247 delegates to the Anglican general synod in Canberra held a hastily organised late-night meeting and set up a group to represent opponents of women bishops.

Liberals thought the battle for women bishops was over when the church's highest court ruled last month that they were legal, but debate will now start again.

The new group, the Association for Apostolic Ministry, is headed by Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, the church's leading evangelical, and Ballarat Bishop Michael Hough, chief spokesman for the high-church group known as Anglo-Catholics.

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On the brink of schism
Barney Zwartz
The Age (AUS)
October 27, 2007

BRIAN McKinley's plea is simple but heartfelt. "I'd like people to appreciate how hard it is, almost every day of one's life, to have crisis and division in a church I love because of something that is an intimate part of the way God created me."

McKinley, a Canberra public servant and lay preacher, is a passionate Christian who lives in a monogamous, faithful, committed same-sex relationship with another Christian. "Do you wake up every morning as a married person and think you are part of the problem dividing the church? I live with this nearly every day. There's a huge cost," he says.

"I'm nearly 60, I'm OK. What about the 22-year-old who has just discovered he's a poofter, but he loves Jesus. How will he cope with that? Some kill themselves."

McKinley was one of 250 delegates at the Anglican synod in Canberra this week who sat in silence, lights dimmed, to hear the anonymous testimony of four gay and lesbian Anglicans.

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A question of staying or straying
Linda Morris
Sydney Morning Herald
October 27, 2007

Well before the consecration of Gene Robinson, the gay bishop of New Hampshire, lit the fire of dissent that was to engulf the global Anglican Church, a clergyman whom we shall call David was living a discreetly monogamous relationship with a gay man he had met soon after graduating from theological college.

It was, he recalled this week to a gathering of Anglican leaders, love at first sight.

While his partner was more cautious in committing, soon after ordination he stunned his archbishop with revelations of his sexuality. The archbishop's initial reaction was to "gently ease" him out of the ministry but following the intervention of an assistant bishop, David was sent for psychiatric counselling.

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Climate changes

Anglican leader and Pell in bitter row over climate
By Barney Zwartz
The Age
October 25, 2007

A BITTER rift over climate change has developed between a senior member of the Anglican Church and Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell.

Canberra Bishop George Browning, the Anglican Church's global environmental chief said Cardinal Pell was out of step with his own church and made no sense on global warming.

Bishop Browning also criticised the Federal Government for its "utter obsession" with growth and warned that climate change refugees would be a bigger problem than terrorists in a century of desperate struggle.

At the national Anglican synod in Canberra yesterday, Bishop Browning attacked the cardinal for saying Jesus said nothing about climate change. "It's almost unbelievable," said Bishop Browning, who is the chairman of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network.

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Listening process

Anglicans 'fearful' on gays
Barney Zwartz
The Age (AUS)
October 24, 2007

AUSTRALIAN Anglicans had become fearful and mean-spirited about homosexuals in the church, a gay priest told the church's national synod last night, while a top Anglican suggested homosexuality would be the next battleground.

Justice Peter Young, the synod's deputy chairman, told The Age that homosexuality would be the next problem for the Australian church now the debate over women bishops had been resolved. "We can see from England and New Zealand what the problems are. We can see that the next problem is between the (Anglican) hierarchy and gay and lesbian Christians," he said.

The gay priest, 60, who has lived almost 40 years in a monogamous relationship, was one of four homosexuals whose testimony was read by volunteers to preserve their anonymity in a special session of synod. The priest said there was a much more generous attitude to gays in the 1970s and '80s, and he knew many clergy living in faithful relationships. "In recent years the climate has changed. It is fearful and very often mean-spirited," he said.

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Makeover down under

Anglicans to change 'or risk anarchy'
Jill Rowbotham
The Australian
October 17, 2007

TRIBALISTIC tendencies are preventing the Anglican Church of Australia from presenting a united front to the nation and only a comprehensive "makeover" will render it a viable force.

Warning of the potential for "anarchy" and highlighting the "political naivety" of church leaders, bishop and scholar Tom Frame says market research is needed to improve the denomination's profile and boost creative planning.

Bishop Frame, director of St Mark's National Theological Centre in Canberra, has set out his thoughts on the future of the church in a book, Anglicans in Australia, released as final preparations are made for the three-yearly general synod, which begins in Canberra on Saturday.

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Sydney speaks

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney: Peter Jensen
Presenter: Monica Attard
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
14 October  2007

Tonight, we're talking to the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen.

The Anglican Church's highest legal authority, the Appellate Tribunal, has ruled in favour of female bishops – a milestone in the Church's history and of course its development. But the Sydney diocese, arguably the most powerful and conservative in Australia, which Archbishop Jensen heads, was vehemently opposed to the move.

Archbishop Jensen thinks, as a matter of Biblical principle, ordaining women as bishops is wrong. But why, given the Church has ordained women as priests? And given the Catholic Archbishop, George Pell, has come out in support of the ALP (Australian Labor Party) and its education policy in particular, which party does Archbishop Jensen think will win the election when it's finally called?
But he's keen to point out that at one stage it looked like the fight to protect the Franklin River was lost. Twenty-five years later, that river continues to run free.

MONICA ATTARD: But first, Archbishop Jensen on the problems he thinks will have to be dealt with if women are allowed to become bishops in the Anglican Church.

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Allegations in Australia

Fresh allegations against clergyman
By Greg Roberts
The Australian
October 15, 2007

THE Anglican Church is investigating fresh allegations of sexual misconduct against a senior South Australian clergyman.

The allegations surfaced as the church was forced to secure a housing loan of $190,000, which was approved by the clergyman, Peter Coote, for his bishop.

Archdeacon Coote was stood down by Ross Davies, the Bishop of the Murray, after The Australian revealed in July that three women had complained of sexual misconduct by the archdeacon.

Bishop Davies was told in an internal church report in 2004 that the complaints were credible, but he has said he took no action against the archdeacon at the time - other than to refer him to a counsellor - because of legal advice.
…
Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall and Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver are considering an appeal by Murray parishioners to establish a tribunal to determine if Bishop Davies should continue in office.

The parishioners have cited the bishop's failure to respond adequately to complaints against Mr Coote, and his licensing of clergy attached to the ultra-conservative, US-based Traditional Anglican Communion.

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Women bishops in Australia

Gender edict a signal of unity
Tom Frame
The Australian
October 01, 2007

THE last vestiges of gender differentiation within the Anglican Church of Australia have been swept away with the release of the appellate tribunal's ruling that nothing in the church's constitution prevents a woman being consecrated as a diocesan bishop. There is some minor housekeeping yet to be done in relation to assistant bishops, but gender is no longer a defining issue.

Not surprisingly, there are those who feel aggrieved by the tribunal's ruling and the inevitability of women being elected as diocesan bishops in the medium term. But even those who oppose women as bishops on theological and ecclesiological grounds ought to take some comfort from the orderly manner in which this issue has been largely resolved.

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Sarah poised to be Australia's first female bishop
Sydney (AU) Daily Telegraph
October 01, 2007

ANGLICAN priest Sarah Macneil is poised to become Australia's first female bishop following a landmark decision by the church.

In an historic step for women, Archdeacon Macneil could be consecrated as a bishop as early as next year after a tribunal paved the way for women bishops in most Australian dioceses.

Evangelical Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen has opposed the decision but says he will not block it.

Archdeacon Macneil, 52, is Canberra and Goulburn's most senior cleric and could replace Bishop George Browning who retires early next year.

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Still barriers to female bishops
OPINION > Opinion
The Canberra Times
29 September 2007

Yesterday's decision by the highest court in the Anglican Church in Australia, clarifying the constitutional question of whether women can become bishops, will be welcomed by many Anglicans, but it is by no means certain that it will result in a woman being consecrated anytime soon, particularly in the Sydney diocese.

The case before the appellate tribunal was bought in 2005 by a group of members of the General Synod which supports female bishops, and was supported by the diocese of Canberra-Goulburn but opposed by the diocese of Sydney. The group sought to obtain a definition of what defined the basic legal requirement for a bishop as laid out in the Church's constitution, particularly whether the term "person" used in the definition specifically implies maleness. By a majority of four to three, the tribunal found that it did not, but ruled that the ordination of female bishops could only occur in dioceses that had adopted a 1992 law allowing female priests and which had ensured its own laws and constitution allowed it. But it found that a 40-year-old church law still prevented women from being assistant bishops. As this is the usual path to becoming a bishop, it remains an obstacle to the future ordination of any woman.

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Divisions

Gays still divisive issue for local Episcopalians
By JOHN HENDERSON
Camden (NC) Daily Advance
September 30, 2007

An international debate over the ordainment of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire four years ago is still reverberating throughout America's Episcopal churches — including those in the Albemarle.

Parishioners unhappy with the way the American Episcopal Church has handled the issue in fact broke away and formed a new Anglican church in Camden more than a year ago.

But opposition to Bishop V. Gene Robinson's ordination in 2003 wasn't the only issue driving the split, says the Rev. Rickie Steenstra, former priest at Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City and current pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Camden.

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Scottish Anglicans call for gay tolerance
Glasgow (Scotland) Herald
September 30 2007   

Anglican leaders from Scotland and Mexico called for tolerance yesterday after a row about homosexuality split the Communion.

The call came from Primus Idris Jones, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter of Mexicoat a conference in Manchester Cathedral to promote "inclusive theology".

The event, attended by Anglicans from across the UK, followed last week's undertaking by the US Episcopal Church to modify its liberal approach to homosexuality.

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Archbishop told to spurn US church
The Sydney Morning Herald
October 1, 2007

LONDON: Conservative Christians will throw down the gauntlet to the Archbishop of Canterbury this week and demand that he disown the US church over gay bishops.

A letter to be sent to Rowan Williams today by Reform, an evangelical group representing 1000 parishes, urges him to openly oppose the US position.

The group warns failure to do so would split the Church of England from "top to bottom" and lead to a demand the US church be barred from Lambeth Council, the annual gathering of bishops.

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Service for gay clergy nothing but a sad secret
Christopher Bantick
Herald Sun (Australia)
October 01, 2007

IT is profoundly sad that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will hold a secret communion service for gay clergy and their partners.

Sad, not because Dr Williams is prepared to administer communion to gay men and women, but infinitely sad that this is to be done in secret.

Since the news broke on the church society website, evangelical.org, criticism directed at Dr Williams has been intense and expected.

The reason is obvious. The Anglican Church effectively discriminates against gay and lesbian members who are unwise enough to declare their sexuality.

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Ace, Oz!

Anglican church allows women bishops
The Sydney Morning Herald
September 28, 2007

Australia could have its first Anglican woman bishop as early as next year following a decision by the church's highest court.

The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Philip Aspinall, said the appellate tribunal had decided there was nothing in the church's constitution that would prevent a woman becoming a bishop.

In 2005, a group of 25 members of the church's national parliament - the General Synod - asked the tribunal for its view on the lawfulness of women bishops.

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Yes, she may be a bishop
MARIA RAE
Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania
September 29, 2007

AN Anglican Church ruling allowing women to become bishops opens the door to equality, says a female Tasmanian priest.

The Appellate Tribunal of the Anglican Church yesterday ruled there was nothing in the constitution stopping women becoming bishops.

In 2005, a group of 25 members of the church's national parliament -- the General Synod -- asked the tribunal for its view on the lawfulness of women bishops.

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Understanding

In Davos the C-100 aims hopes to boost understanding between Christians and Muslims
Brisbane (AU) WestEnder
July 26, 2007

The World Economic Forum in Davos is not just about globalisation and doing business. A group called "The Council of 100 Leaders" uses the event to promote dialogue between world religions

Former Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, is a member of a panel which was founded three years ago as the "Council of 100 Leaders (C-100) and a man with a mission.

Despite the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere Carey is convinced that the misunderstandings between Christians and Muslims can be overcome. In his opinion there is only one way to do this, namely through a dialogue designed to enable both sides to appreciate each others point of view.

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Uganda: Citizens Yet to Recover From Historical Religious Conflicts
New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
Rev. Dr. Fred Mwesigwa
25 July 2007

IN a lead The New Vision article of Wednesday July 4, 2007, Dradenya Amazia reported that blood was shed when five students of Itula Secondary School in Moyo were shot by the Police following a stand-off between Christian students belonging to the Scripture Union and Muslim students. True to the summation of the incident by Moyo LC5 chairman Peter Dolo, this was not a strike but a manifestation of religious differences engineered by some old people.

It is unfortunate that the ugly head of religious intolerance has reared its head in Uganda as attested to by the The New Vision editorial of Friday July 6, 2007 that referred to similar incidents in the recent past and argued that the Moyo riot was not isolated.

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Former chef ordained as priest
25-Jul-2007
Joy Online (GHANA)

A former chef of La Palm Beach Hotel, Samuel Benjamin Kofi Annim, has been ordained as a Deacon of the Anglican Church at the Aburi St. Luke's Anglican Church at the weekend.

The Anglican Bishop of Koforidua, Rt. Rev. Francis Benjamin Quashie, ordained Fr Annim, who is also a final year student of the St. Nicholas Seminary, Cape Coast.

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Lost in Oz

We're losing our religion, Census shows
By Mark Schliebs
June 27, 2007
NEWS.com.au

NEARLY one in five Australians are without religion, with the Anglican Church the hardest hit by decreasing numbers of followers, the 2006 Census has revealed.

But the average Australian can afford more material possessions, with the median weekly income rising 24 per cent in five years.

The figures, released today, revealed that 3,706,557 Australians - or 19 per cent - said they had no religion on Census night last year, which was 3 per cent more than the 2001 figure of 2,905,993.

And the number of people who said they were Anglican also decreased by nearly 175,000 since 2005 to 3,718,248.

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