Bathurst debt crisis continues

PARISHES in the rural New South Wales diocese of Bathurst may be faced with a doubling of their annual assessment payments to the diocese, the diocese's annual synod meeting heard last weekend, writes Muriel Porter. The Bishop, the Rt Revd Ian Palmer, told the synod that the ongoing crisis over a $24-million bank debt was having an impact on the operation of the diocese, and costs were rising sharply. Parishes have already been asked to help raise the estimated $1.5 million it will cost for a legal challenge over the debt (News, 15 August). The debt was incurred largely through diocesan financing of two schools, one in Dubbo and one in Orange, both of which have now been sold to Sydney Anglican Schools Corporation.
 

Chibok girls 'have not been rescued'

THE suggestion that some of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram in April (News, 2 May) had been rescued was withdrawn on Tuesday, when a spokesman for the Nigerian army retracted a statement. Major-General Chris Olukolade told the BBC that some girls had been rescued, but that they were not from Chibok.
 

Prize for professor who investigated Jesus in toast

A CANADIAN professor has won an Ig Nobel prize for a study on "face pareidolia" - the phenomenon in which people see the faces of famous people in objects. Professor Kang Lee of the University of Toronto, author of "Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioural correlates of face pareidolia", told the Toronto Star that, as a boy, he had seen faces in his bed sheets "all the time. If I was religious, I probably would have seen Jesus!" The prize honours "achievements that first make people laugh, and then makes them think".