Religion News Selection
July 31 – August 7, 2022
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ANGLICAN CHURCH
Charming and unapologetic: Sydney’s Anglican archbishop isn’t afraid to be out of step with the times (Sydney Morning Herald)
Aug 5 – Kanishka Raffel’s election as Archbishop of Sydney broke the mould.
EDUCATION
Sydney private schools go on $100 million buying bonanza (Sydney Morning Herald)
Aug 6 – Some of Sydney’s most expensive private schools have emerged as the most prolific home buyers of the post-pandemic property boom, as the schools look to their next door neighbours’ homes to meet their expansion plans.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Anglican Church
Sandi Toksvig says ‘lives at stake’ after anti-gay Anglican church declaration (The Guardian, Australia)
Aug 5 – The lives of LGBTQ+ people are at stake, the broadcaster and author Sandi Toksvig has said, after the archbishop of Canterbury affirmed the validity of a 1998 resolution that gay sex is a sin.
Catholic Church
What might a Pope Francis retirement mean for the Catholic church? (The Guardian, Australia)
Aug 5 – Almost a decade has passed since Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff for 600 years to retire rather than die in office.
Religious Violence
Assassination a win, but the war goes on (The Australian)
Aug 7 – (Opinion: Cameron Stewart) Ayman al-Zawahiri’s death marks the end of the Osama bin Laden era of terrorism but it raises questions about what comes next. It has exposed the lies of the Taliban government and raised fears that history might repeat itself.
Also: Al-Qaida chief’s killing comes as group gains ground in African conflict zones (The Guardian, Australia)
Aug 5 – It was one of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s last victories.
Saudi sisters found dead in Sydney told acquaintance queer women ‘live in fear’ in their homeland (The Guardian, Australia)
Aug 5 – Two Saudi sisters found dead in their beds in Sydney attended a girls-only queer event in January where they told acquaintances gay women “live in fear” in Saudi Arabia.
Other
The next Dalai Lama (ABC News)
Aug 7 – Death. It is unpredictable yet inevitable.
POLITICS
Labor’s newest senator Fatima Payman is blazing trails and she hopes others will follow (ABC News)
Aug 7 – Tucked away in Parliament House office, once occupied by Tony Abbott and Clive Palmer, now sits the 47th Parliament’s youngest new member.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Once a diamond mine, forever a sacred site (ABC News)
Aug 2 – Argyle was not the first to discover diamonds in Western Australia’s east Kimberley.
