Religion News Australia
August 27 – September 4, 2023
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
ADF leadership ‘protected’ air force chaplain’s abuser, royal commission hears (The Guardian, Australia)
August 30 – When the Rev Dr Nikki Coleman wanted to complain about the abuse and bullying she had experienced as an air force chaplain, she was told to deal with it herself.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
Black holes, singularities and God: An archbishop on science (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sept 3 – A hymn echoes through the halls of St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Islam
France bans Muslim abayas in schools, sparking fresh secularism debate (ABC News)
August 29 – The French government’s state-run school ban on long, loose-fitting robes, worn mainly by Muslim women, has sparked fresh political debate about the country’s secular rules.
Religious Violence
‘People are freaking out’: Ugandan arrested on anti-gay charge punishable by death (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sept 3 – Ugandan prosecutors have lodged charges of “aggravated homosexuality” against a 20-year-old man – a crime punishable by death – in one of the country’s first applications of a provision included in one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws.
Other
Archaeologists discover 3,000-year-old tomb honouring elite religious leader in northern Peru (ABC News)
August 28 – Archaeologists in northern Peru have unearthed a 3,000-year-old tomb which they believe might have honoured an elite religious leader in the Andean country some three millennia ago.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Jason Pronger faces court charged with alleged arson of Rockhampton Oasis Church (ABC News)
August 29 – A court has heard a 33-year-old Gympie man who allegedly started a fire that destroyed a Rockhampton church was found laughing about the incident afterwards.
WA minister reveals abortion experience after 1990s rape ordeal (Sydney Morning Herald)
August 30 – West Australian Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis has voiced her support for abortion law changes in the state by sharing her own experience after she was raped in the early 1990s.
Can you be religious and wealthy at the same time? Here’s what three major religions say (ABC News)
Sept 3 – Major religions have a lot to say about wealth, and much of it is cautionary.
Geraldton diocese working to preserve the renowned works of architect priest John Hawes (ABC News)
Sept 3 – In a town of just 200 people in Western Australia’s grain belt sits a tall, white church that seemingly has more visitors interested in its architecture than worship these days.
