While many of our countrymen might be saying ‘Thank God it’s Friday’, a string of stories this week make me ‘Thank God it’s Australia’.

1. A story which broke on Thursday concerns a Pakistani mother of five, a Christian, who has just been sentenced to death for blasphemy. The Telegraph in the UK reports that she has been held in isolation for a year waiting for the charges to be heard, now Asia Bibi, who’s 45, faces the death penalty. Please keep this woman and her family in your prayers.

2. This comes on top of the horror stories out of Iraq, about the church massacre in Baghdad that left 53 dead. The New York Times has a heart rending account from survivors. It’s estimated more than three-quarters of Baghdad's 400,000 Christians have left the city since the start of the war, and with this attack, you would have to think many more will follow.

3. Amid the worsening situation for Christians in many Moslem countries, it seems that the Buddhist state of Bhutan, may be on the verge of giving Christians some legal status. The catalyst for this is the western educated King of Bhutan, although there may be still some way to go in allowing conversions and more than one Christian group in the country.

4. The Anglican world was abuzz with a few stories this week, the most colourful of which was the parting comments of one of five bishops departing for Rome. He likened the liberalism of much of the Church of England to ’ a coffee shop going out of business’. Using that analogy, one of the chief baristas, US Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, this week announced his intention to retire. He’s not going until 2013, but by making an announcement so early, he can ensure that everyone appreciates the depth of his suffering.

5. Support for Special Religious Education (SRE) in schools came from an unlikely source this week. Atheist Malcolm Knox writes a robust defence of SRE in the Herald. The climax of the argument echoes what Peter Jensen has been saying to every reporter who’s asked him about it - ethics and SRE are not interchangeable! I’ll leave you with Knox’s words “Religion is not synonymous with ethics. The content of NSW’s proposed schools ethics classes has been robustly debated. But to substitute ethics for scripture is akin to replacing food with vitamin pills. Biblical parables, or teachings from Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or any other religion, may contain ethical lessons. They may not. But they do much else besides.”