from the National Council of Churches in Australia

Today over 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide commence Holy Week as they prepare to celebrate the greatest feast of the Christian calendar - Easter.

Many Orthodox Christians continue to observe the Julian calendar and this year Easter Sunday will be celebrated on May 5. Western Christians observe the newer Gregorian calendar where Easter was celebrated on March 30.

This year in Jerusalem, even though the two dates for Easter are separated by 5 weeks both the Eastern and Western churches will celebrate according to the Orthodox calendar. The Jerusalem Heads of Church agreed last year to celebrate together.

from the National Council of Churches in Australia

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) and the whole ecumenical community is horrified at the news that two archbishops from Aleppo, Syria were abducted and their driver killed earlier this week.

“Churches around the world are concerned for the safety of Archbishop Mar Gregorius Yohanna Ibrahim, Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, who were intercepted by armed men as they travelled from Turkish border areas where they were undertaking humanitarian work.” said Reverend Tara Curlewis, NCCA general secretary.

From Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia

Job’s not done yet in Burma: pioneering aid worker Jack Dunford MBE

to send message to Australians on upcoming visit 

Humanitarian and refugee advocate Jack Dunford, who has helped hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees over the past 30 years, will be in Australia on April 22 and 23 and is available for interview.

Mr Dunford stepped down this year as head of The Border Consortium, which continues to provide food, shelter and other assistance to 130,000 Burmese refugees in Thailand and leads assistance to and research on many thousands displaced people in eastern Burma/Myanmar.

from the National Council of Churches in Australia

Tensions are reaching a new climax in Egypt as Christians are attacked at the St Marks Cathedral in Cairo whilst burying their dead.

Religious tensions in Egypt regularly appear in the news. In recent years attacks have taken place with churches bombed as worshippers attend Christmas services or welcome in the New Year. Coptic clergy are regularly reported missing or arrested and now violent attacks during funeral services.

“The safety of Coptic Christians is of increasing concern” said the Reverend Tara Curlewis, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA). “These latest attacks have taken place inside the St Marks Cathedral Complex which also contains the Papal residence of Pope Tawadros II. These attacks strike people when they are most vulnerable and at the place where they should feel safest. Attacking the Cathedral complex is actually attacking the Church and all it stands for.”

12 May – 19 May 2013

“What does God require of us?”
(cf. Micah 6:6-8)

This year’s biblical and liturgical resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity come to us from India and particularly from the Christian Dalit community of India, a community that has a deep past and present of being excluded and outcast within their own country and often within their own faith. Christianity has a long and complex history in India, dating back as far as 182 A. D. of our common era and including a major influx of missionary activity in the 16th and 19th centuries.

From the National Council of Churches in Australia

Australians are being encouraged this year to reflect on the message of hope and new life in the Easter story. In a joint statement, Australian church leaders have highlighted how the Easter message provides much-needed good news when brokenness in the world and in our own lives can threaten to overwhelm.

The Rev. Keith Jobberns from Australian Baptist Ministries said the story of Jesus’ transforming love provides an antidote to the sense of anxiety, fear and depression that often appears to pervade society.

“Most of us experience negative emotional responses to the plethora of human and environmental abuse that floods our media, and whether it gears us into angry social action or immobilises us with powerless depression, we are impacted,” he said.

from the National Council of Churches in Australia

The first century events that are recalled at Easter are filled with people being met by the unexpected. Jesus repeatedly surprised people with the unexpected, talking to the outcast and healing the sick. These events started to open people’s eyes to see Jesus as one who transforms situations. Then when he raised his friend Lazarus to life it pointed to what was to come. That first Easter morning as the disciples went to the tomb to grieve for their friend they ran up the path into the unexpected. The grave clothes lay there and Jesus was not.

Today we also encounter the unexpected yet as people of faith we know how often that leads to situations being transformed. Easter reminds us that when all hope appears lost the unexpected happens.

From Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia

Australian peace and conflict agency urges UN: Don’t miss historic opportunity to reduce armed violence

United Nations negotiations to agree on an Arms Trade Treaty, starting today, could result in fewer deaths from armed violence and stop the flow of arms that fuel conflicts in countries like Syria, according to Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

The announcement early this morning that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina has been elected the 266th pope for the Roman Catholic Church has been welcomed by the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA).  He has taken the pontifical name of Francis I.

Born December 17 1936 in Buenos Aires he entered the Society of Jesus in 1958, ordained to the priesthood in 1969 and Archbishop of Buenos Aires since 1998. Bergoglio has a master’s degree in chemistry, a licentiate in philosophy and has taught literature and psychology.

As cardinal he has served in several administrative positions in the Roman Curia including, the Congregation of Clergy, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Congregations for Institute of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) has written to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity assuring that it will uphold the Roman Catholic Church in prayer at this time as the news of the resignation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is received by the world.

The Reverend Tara Curlewis, NCCA general secretary said “It is with surprise that we hear the news from the Holy Father recognising that both his poor health and concern for the leadership of the Church has led to the announcement that he will  retire from office on 28 February. This is a time to uphold the Pope’s health in prayer and also the Conclave as it convenes to elect the next Pontiff.”