Two more leaders of Hillsong Church US campuses have announced they are taking their campuses in a different direction. This is in the wake of founder Brian Houston being ousted by the church’s board for breaching its code of conduct. The New York Times reported that the Australian church has lost nine of its 16 Read more
German Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki is calling for a fresh start in Cologne, Germany’s largest Catholic archdiocese, but raised eyebrows after describing the pope as an “old man.” The cardinal wants to remain archbishop, but is placing his fate in the hands of the pope, Woelki told a closed diocesan pastoral council meeting in the Read more
São Paulo State’s Court of Appeals has reversed a 2019 decision that stopped the building of a giant steel statue of the Virgin Mary in Aparecida, the city where Brazil’s major Catholic shrine is located. The 164-feet stainless steel sculpture portraying Our Lady of Aparecida – taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer – Read more
Health officials have serious concerns about low vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella among children as border openings usher new illnesses, including seasonal flu. Childhood vaccinations have been steadily declining but have dropped more sharply during the pandemic. Last year 250,000 measles vaccines – more than half of the doses ordered – had to Read more
American Jews say they were blindsided by the US Senate’s lightning-fast passage of a bill to make daylight saving time year-round and intend to fight it. The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the Senate on March 15, will make it nearly impossible for Jews to pray communally in the morning, Jewish advocates say, and still Read more
Work has begun to remove Christ Church Cathedral’s crossing roof, marking a big milestone in the stabilisation phase of Christ Chiurch cathedral’s $154 million restoration project. Project director Keith Paterson said the top-down approach meant the cathedral’s stone gable arches could be dismantled, dividing it into four independently supported sections. “This piece of open heart Read more
An ancient tablet discovered near the Palestinian city of Nablus may contain the earliest known mention of God’s name in proto-alphabetic Hebrew. Scott Stripling, director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at The Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, announced the discovery of the lead tablet Thursday (March 24). He said it could push back the written Read more
The story began in a humble fashion. Father Mike Schmitz had a pretty typical Minnesota Catholic upbringing; 22% of the state identifies with the Catholic faith. “I did not like going to mass. I would say I hated going to mass,” Schmitz said. “(But) when I was 15 years old, I had this awareness … Read more
Republican Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia signed into law the Unborn Child with a Disability Protection and Education Act, which will prohibit an unborn child from being aborted due to a diagnosis of a disability. He announced he had signed the bill in a tweet to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day on March 21. Read more
A man and his dog are about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime, making plenty of memories and hopefully raising plenty of money for mental health too. Gary Anderson, from Kaponga, will travel across the North Island by motorbike with his 11-year-old blue merle border collie Kairo in the sidecar seat of Read more