America's so-called ‘war on terror' is far from over. The military campaigns against Afghanistan and Iraq are won but restoration of a secure, civil society in both places lingers over some distant horizon. Meanwhile, conflict with Syria or Iran looks possible.

Pioneering efforts to reach out to residents of a nursing home complex in southwest Sydney were commended recently by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen. “This is a good example of the diocesan mission at work in a location and setting outside the actual church building,” said Dr Jensen of the work of the four-strong team from St Alban's, Macquarie Fields at the Frank Whiddon Masonic Homes in Glenfield.

Christians and other non-Islamic asylum seekers continue to be the targets of religious violence in detention centres around Australia, despite the efforts of Christian leaders to seek government help in protecting detainees.

In the wake of the recent State election the Rev Dr Gordon Moyes from the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) has described support from church leaders as ‘too little, too late'. Dr Moyes has been returned to the upper house in his own right and will join Fred Nile. But the Rev Ross Clifford, Principal of Morling Theological College, who also stood for the CDP, was not elected.

Rick Filmer, verger of St Andrew's Cathedral was pelted with stones and verbally abused as he stood inside the Cathedral entrance during a violent anti-war demonstration in Sydney Square on March 26.

An Anglican parish in the remote Ntchisi mountains region of central Malawi is playing a major role in the local battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic tearing apart this African nation.

Five years of brutal civil war, hundreds of thousands of Christians forced to flee their homes, and almost no churches to meet in around most of the country. Far from ideal circumstances in which to be working in Christian ministry, but these are the challenges faced daily by Bishop Masimango Katanda, Archdeacon Muhindo Isesomo, and the Anglican Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Zewar Mohammed Ishmael, a former Muslim living and working in Northern Iraq, was killed in February when he refused to deny his faith in Jesus Christ.

The Rev Professor James Haire, National President of the Uniting Church in Australia, has been appointed Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.

As part of the International Year of Freshwater, the Archbishop's Overseas Relief and Aid Fund (ORAF) has joined the national ‘Water Matters‘ campaign.

Have you noticed that ‘the Diocese' is always somebody else? It is ‘them'. I have never found anybody who will admit they are ‘the Diocese'.

Sydney's inner west has a new parish that extends the length and breadth of cosmopolitan Darling Street. The new parish, aptly named Darling Street, combines the old parishes of St Mary's, Balmain and Rozelle Lilyfield, and officially came into being earlier this year.

Bishop Robert Forsyth has announced that the Rev Deryck Howell will be the new Archdeacon of the South Sydney region in the Diocese of Sydney.

Former Sydneysider the Rev Atsushi Shibaoka recently returned to the city he left 30 years ago to take up a new post as Senior Associate Minister at St James' Church, King Street.