“As people of faith, we need to know, in detail, how our Federal Government and Opposition will respond to this Report with appropriate policies and budgeting” says Bishop Philip Huggins, President of National Council of Churches in Australia and Patron of Australian Religious Response to Climate Change.
News
As UN releases climate change report, “the signs of the times have never been clearer” …
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body of scientists set up by the United Nations, confirms that human-induced climate change is accelerating and is fundamentally changing our only planetary home. The report finds that we are precariously close to surpassing the relatively safe limit of 1.5°C global temperature rise—in under two decades—with increasingly disastrous consequences. “The signs of the times have never been clearer,” say the World Council of Churches. “The report is a major alarm bell.”
The State of the Climate
Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least 2050 and many of the changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets, and global sea level. From a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires reaching at least net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions.
Cloud Climbers
The Earth@Peace project is coming to its climax with the launch of our second publication – a splendid book that we hope will reach a wide audience: Cloud Climbers Declarations through Images and Words for a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace. This book will be launched face-to-face and online on Tuesday 28 September 2021 6:30–7.30pm.
The 2021 Census and Religion
Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) asks every household to fill out a census form at exactly the same time to get a snapshot of the nation as a whole. Census night is Tuesday, August 10. They ask questions including where we live, what our households look like, do we live alone or in multi-generational families and how much do we earn. But there is one question that is more contentious than the others, and it is about our religious beliefs.
New Jain temple for Melbourne
Aged Care Employee Day
Aged Care Employee Day is an initiative of Leading Age Services Australia. It celebrates more than 360,000 aged care staff around Australia. Our theme #ThanksforCaring recognises each and every team member involved in caring for the 1.3 million older Australians receiving home care or residential care services. This includes nurses and care workers, allied health professionals, hospitality teams, drivers, cleaners, volunteers, lifestyle officers, administration staff and many, many others.
USCIRF Condemns Destruction of Baha’i Homes in Iran
Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today strongly condemned the destruction of Baha’i homes in the town of Roshan Kuh in Mazandaran Province, Iran.
Passing of the Very Reverend Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky
Religions for Peace marks the passing of the Very Reverend Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, a Russian Orthodox Priest who led a life committed to ecumenism and interfaith dialogue.
Churches, religious groups received millions of dollars in JobKeeper while staying in the black, accounts show
Dozens of Australia’s biggest churches and other religious institutions pocketed millions of dollars in JobKeeper payments while remaining in the black during 2020.
An ABC investigation into the financial records of more than 100 religious organisations has found many qualified for the emergency wage subsidy despite seeing little financial impact from last year’s COVID-19 economic shock.
Figures from the Australian Tax Office show about 3,500 religious entities received a total of $627 million in JobKeeper payments during the life of the scheme, which ended in March.
2021 Backhouse Panel Discussion: Searching for Truth:Friends in a ‘post-truth’ world
The Backhouse Lectures are public lectures on contemporary issues delivered annually at the national gathering of Quakers in Australia. They were initiated by Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) on its establishment in 1964. Friends from both Australia and overseas have presented lectures. The 2021 Backhouse Lecture, Searching for Truth:Friends in a ‘post-truth’ world, was presented as a panel dicussion exploring Truth in a Post-Truth world.
Tibet and China clash over next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama
A couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked them to look into his eyes. “Do you think it’s time now?” he asked.
It was a meeting that would end with the Tibetan leaders agreeing that the issue of reincarnation was one that would be decided only by the Dalai Lama himself. But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and has retained tight control over the region ever since, has other ideas. It insists that the choice of the next Dalai Lama lies only with China, and have even enshrined this right into Chinese law.
The Dalai Lama, who recently turned 86, has insisted that discussions of his death are premature (according to his own visions, he will live to 113). But a power struggle for who will choose his reincarnation after he dies has already begun.