The General Synod of the Anglican Church in Australia recently passed a number of resolutions relating to climate change. One of them 'requests all organisational units within the Anglican Church of Australia to reduce their environmental footprint through best practice energy use, water use, and waste disposal. But what is the value of such resolutions? In this briefing, we will argue that they are realistic and helpful. We will also consider what makes people sometimes respond cynically or negatively to resolutions such as these.

We guess APEC does not top your list of interesting topics. Some people are annoyed at the disruption to life in Sydney. Most will just stay well away and enjoy the public holiday. But perhaps the following two opposing opinions will help you glimpse the great issues at stake:

Everyone has been stretched over the past few weeks by the Commonwealth Governments intervention into the affairs of remote Northern Territory (NT) indigenous communities... So many complex issues have emerged that this briefing will have the limited aim of summarising the details, listing some opinions for and against the Governments action, and offering some provisional suggestions. As always, these suggestions invite further thoughtful reflection together, along with indigenous people, in light of the Scriptures.

Being able to freely cast your vote is not a privilege enjoyed in every part of the world. With a Federal election on the way, Australians become more aware of our ability to participate in the democratic process.

Assume we have passed the point where half the planetary oil has been used. With billions of people now using oil, the remaining half will last nowhere near as long as the 150 years it took to use the first half.

This briefing on climate change will be the last in our series for the time being. It will outline the directions that some future community discussions will take. It will also suggest a discussion that we may need to have with the most voiceless members of our community"”our children.

The amount written on climate-change presents us with a difficult knowledge-problem. Some knowledge-problems are to do with too little information: some datum is missing that will unlock the puzzle. This knowledge-problem is the opposite: there is too much information, and the mystery resides in how to meaningfully stitch it together.

Rather than thinking about a particular social issue in this briefing, we pause to consider"”why bother at all? Why attempt to think Christianly about issues like euthanasia, pornography or gambling?

Whereas colonial slaves were treated as a valuable investment, like an ox, the treatment of these modern slaves is even more demeaning. There is a worldwide glut of displaced people, and modern people-trafficking is cheap. Legal slavery may have been abolished, but we now face an era of 'disposable people.

'You cant change the weather, we all used to say with a shrug, to make the point that some actions are well beyond the powers of puny humans. But a disagreement has opened up among U.S. evangelicals about the extent to which we can, or cannot, change the weather.

It is difficult to obtain good measures of the extent of domestic violence. Violence between intimate partners and other family members was (and sometimes still is) regarded in many countries and cultures as a normal and acceptable part of life that should not be disclosed outside the family.

Few of us have much grasp of the scientific details of the case for climate change; we cannot easily follow the spin-off arguments about emissions trading schemes, alternative energy sources, and the economic consequences of making changes; and we have little power over the solutions. We can easily feel helpless and a little depressed over the whole of the subject of climate change. Therefore we aim to produce several briefings on it throughout the year.

Until last week, most of Australians would not have heard of Dr John Elliott. Last Thursday, Dr Elliott took his life. He was 79 years old, suffering a terminal condition called multiple myeloma, was experiencing severe pain, and had been cared for by his wife for the previous seven years.

Calls for the Sheik to resign are obviously an inappropriate interference by government officials into Muslim free association and a gross intervention into religious affairs. Only NSW Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian seems to get it right when he said that 'the position of leadership is a matter for his constituency, but he owes the rest of Australia an apology.

As we head into the final days before the proposed cloning bill is due to be voted on in Parliament, events are being held around the nation to help people gain a better understanding of the complex issues involved and the implications of various aspects of the proposed bill.