*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

World news in brief

by
08 October 2021

Alamy

Shared cup: Metropolitan Varsonofy of St Petersburg & Ladoga administers a cup of wine during the wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca (Victoria) Bettarini of Italy at St Isaac’s Cathedral, St Petersburg, last Friday. As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware explains in his book The Orthodox Church: “At the end of the service the newly married couple drink from the same cup of wine . . . a symbol of the fact that henceforward they will share a common life with one another”

Shared cup: Metropolitan Varsonofy of St Petersburg & Ladoga administers a cup of wine during the wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Rus...

US call for commission on indigenous schools

THE Episcopal Church is among seven Churches and groups in the United States supporting the establishment of a truth and healing commission “to reckon with the country’s history of boarding schools that separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and cultures during the 19th and 20th centuries”, the Religious News Service reports. On the day of the letter — 30 September — Senators reintroduced the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States to investigate, document, and acknowledge the past injustices of the country’s boarding-school policy. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its final report in 2015 (News, 8 January 2016). The US is believed to have had twice as many boarding schools as Canada.


Research shows decline in violence against religious

“SOCIAL hostilities involving religion”, including violence and harassment against religious groups by private individuals and groups, declined in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center’s 12th annual study of global restrictions on religion, which examines 198 countries and territories. In 2019, it reports, 49 countries experienced religion-related terrorism (including deaths, physical abuse, displacement, detentions, destruction of property, and fund-raising and recruitment by terrorist groups): a record low for the study, which began in 2007. That was down from 64 countries in 2018, and from a record high of 82 countries in 2014. The study notes that, after 2014, Islamic State lost control of a large swath of territory in Iraq and Syria. Government restrictions involving religion remain at the highest point since the start of the study.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Inspiration: The Influences That Have Shaped My Life

September - November 2024

St Martin in the Fields Autumn Lecture Series 2024

tickets available

 

Can a ‘Good Death‘ be Assisted?

28 November 2024

A webinar in collaboration with Modern Church

tickets available

 

Through Darkness To Light: Advent Journeys

30 November 2024

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)