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World news in brief

by
22 January 2021

PA

Disaster in Indonesia: the country’s President, Joko Widodo (second from left), walks near damaged buildings in Mamuju, West Sulawesi province, on Tuesday, a week after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake there killed at least 84 people, injured more than 800, and forced at least 30,000 residents from their homes. The RC charity Caritas has launched an appeal for victims. In a telegram, Pope Francis expressed his “heartfelt solidarity with all those affected by this natural disaster” and for the victims of a plane crash the same week

Disaster in Indonesia: the country’s President, Joko Widodo (second from left), walks near damaged buildings in Mamuju, West Sulawesi province, ...

 

Kenyan woman bishop to be first in East Africa

THE second woman to be ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya, Canon Emily Awino Onyango, has been appointed as an Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Bondo, the Anglican News Service reports. She will be the first female Anglican bishop anywhere in East Africa. Her appointment was unanimously approved by the diocesan synod last week. Canon Onyango was made deacon in 1984 and ordained priest in 1986. She is currently a senior lecturer at St Paul’s University, where she teaches church history in the Faculty of Theology. She chairs the Africa Centre for Biblical Equity and is a founder member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. She was appointed a Canon in Bondo diocese in 2018. As Bishop, she will focus on the training of clergy, women’s ministry within the Church, and gender issues, including the empowerment of boys and girls and tackling gender-based violence.

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