Burmese church leaders say their government's deliberate attempts to create tension between the Buddhist majority and the minority Christian and Muslim population has led to greater solidarity among the churches of war-ravaged Myanmar (Burma). This is despite a ban on foreign missionaries and, in some parts of the country, the outlawing of evangelism.

As the first anniversary of the October 12 Bali bombing approaches, the long-term effects of the tragedy are only just starting to take hold for the Balinese people.

What has led the Foreign Minister to offer such stringent criticisms of clergy and theologians? It's clear he has been stung by statements by Church leaders, among them Anglican Primate Peter Carnley, ‘the head of my own church' as Downer called him, and the then President of the Uniting Church, the Rev Professor James Haire. Professor Haire said, “egged on by both political groupings in the country, we as a nation had reached new depths of political depravity”. Downer said he found the accusation of political depravity “profoundly personally offensive as well as foolish”. He called a media release Archbishop Carnley circulated ‘erroneous posturing'.

At age 58, Jon Shuler is pioneering a bold initiative aimed at starting 200 new churches by the year 2020. Jon Shuler dreams about starting churches that start churches. Jon was the rector of a 2,000 member Anglican church in Knoxville, Tennessee when he accepted an invitation in 1994 to pioneer a new church planting ministry, the North American Missionary Society (NAMS). The brief was to facilitate church planting across the United States. To date, Shuler and his associates have ‘birthed' more than 60 new Anglican congregations in 37 Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) dioceses.

Every university student in Australia must be reached with the gospel of Christ, according to the newly appointed National Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES).

The sight of 50 fire fighters, police, paramedics and emergency services personnel swarming into a church building on Sunday morning might be cause for alarm. But the presence of police cars, ambulance, fire engines and police rescue truck at St David's, Forestville recently was not the result of a disaster but rather a new initiative to reach out to the emergency services that serve the local area.