Religion News Australia
October 1 – 8, 2023
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Campaign to save church on Tiwi Islands that fused Catholicism with Aboriginal spirituality (ABC News)
Oct 2 – Sister Anne Gardiner has one wish while she’s still alive – to see the first church where she served as a nun on the Tiwi Islands, off the coast of Darwin, restored to its former glory.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Mexico church roof collapses during mass, killing at least nine killed and injuring 50 (The Guardian, Australia)
Oct 2 – The roof of a church has collapsed in northern Mexico during a Sunday mass, killing at least nine people and injuring about 50, authorities said as searchers probed the wreckage late into the night looking for survivors and other victims.
ISLAM
Muslim community leader Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly dies aged 82 (ABC News)
Oct 6 – Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly, who led Australia’s Muslim community for nearly two decades, has died in Egypt, aged 82.
Imams to preach Yes in mosques across Australia (Sydney Morning Herald)
Oct 6 – Hundreds of Islamic leaders will tell their communities to vote for the Voice as a way to bring Australia closer to peace and justice, launching the message after calls from other faith groups and ethnic communities to back the change.
POLITICS
Gay conversion therapy ban bill to be brought forward in NSW after claims reform was put ‘on ice’ (ABC News)
Oct 6 – The New South Wales government says it will bring forward its promised laws banning gay conversion practices, days after a religious lobby group claimed to have helped put the reforms “on pause”.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Inside one man’s extraordinary exit from a Buddhist group accused of operating like a cult (ABC News)
Oct 2 – Richard Siu jokes his fashion sense could be better, but for the first 25 years of his life, his outfits were covered by the robes of the Jin-Gang-Dhyana religious group.
These religious leaders say climate change is impacting the future of religion (ABC News)
Oct 8 – The world is in the midst of a climate change crisis with the average temperature for oceans the highest on record, and extreme heat and rain recorded across the globe this year.
