Last month's plane disaster that claimed the lives of Sydney family Gerald and Carolyn Mall and their three young children, David, Amy, and Elysse, shocked and saddened the nation. But it is the church community at St Mark's, South Hurstville that has been among those hardest hit by the tragedy.

The care of migrant workers and the peaceful re-unification of North and South Korea were the main items on the agenda at the recent full assembly of the Council of Churches of East Asia (CCEA) meeting, hosted by the Anglican Diocese of Seoul. The seven-day conference, which occurs every four years, was last month held in the South Korean capital, and was attended by over 90 delegates.

A statement by the leaders of the worldwide church says that the Anglican Communion will be ‘put in jeopardy' if a US Diocese proceeded to consecrate as bishop a man living in a homosexual relationship.

Whenever Bishop John Shelby Spong visits Australia, as he did last month, it is certain that the attention he receives from the nation's secular press will be out of proportion to his international significance. He is winsome, he has a reputation as a campaigner for the rights of oppressed minorities, and he attacks evangelical Christians using the fearful epithet ‘fundamentalist'.

John Harrower, the Bishop of Tasmania, has joined the chorus of protest against the teachings of Bishop John Spong to coincide with the retired US Bishop's recent visit to Australia.

George Bush and Lois Rabey may have both touched down in Australia for the for the first time last month, but the similarity of their visits ends there. While angry crowds at protest marches marked Bush's visit, fellow American Lois Rabey was greeted with sell-out venues filled with non-Christians eager to hear her story.