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Keywords: Ecumenism

  • RELIGION

    The Bishop of Rome and universal jurisdiction: An ecumenical obstacle?

    • Bill Uren
    • 11 July 2024

    The recent Vatican instruction terminating the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral is a prime example of Vatican officialdom overriding local episcopal authority. Let us hope that in a more decentralized Church some traditional obstacles to ecumenism may be removed without respective ecclesiastical loss of face on the part of the contributing Churches.

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  • RELIGION

    Can today’s church overcome division?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 May 2024

    The Week of Christian Unity encourages the healing of divisions between churches, and is intended to restore unity among Christians. However, we should wonder at how realistic that vision is in a society where division provides most of the news of the day.

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  • RELIGION

    Does Vatican II offer a blueprint for political healing?

    • Julian Butler
    • 15 May 2024

    Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. What lessons might our contemporary democratic community take from the Church over that period that might that help our common conversation? 

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  • RELIGION

    Flowers for Father Rahner

    • John Honner
    • 02 April 2024
    12 Comments

    Karl Rahner, a Jesuit priest whose ideas helped modernize the Church, left an indelible legacy on contemporary Catholicism. On the 40th anniversary of his death, what can a flower left at his niche tell us about the lasting bonds between belief, memory, and the enduring search for human connection?

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  • RELIGION

    What is the purpose of the RE classroom in a secular world?

    • Ann Rennie, Bernadette Mercieca
    • 09 February 2024
    5 Comments

    Today, the claims of Christianity are no longer common knowledge among a Catholic student cohort that comes from many faith traditions and none, but the Catholic school has a place for them all. Has the classroom become the ecclesial face of the Catholic Church in the 21st Century?

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  • RELIGION

    Synodality: 'Why did you doubt?'

    • Bill Uren
    • 29 June 2023
    10 Comments

    I must confess that in the lead-up to the first session in October 2023 of the Synod on Synodality, I more than a little resembled Peter. Embarking on synodal waters, initially I was apprehensive. Would anything substantial come of Pope Francis' initiative? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Venturing across the river: Reflections on The Swap

    • John D’Arcy May
    • 08 June 2023
    3 Comments

    The Swap unfolds as a captivating documentary series and a remarkable ecumenical experiment. With Muslim, Catholic, and state school students at its center, the series illuminates the transformative power of acceptance and understanding through the lens of interfaith dialogue, leading the viewer to wonder: how might interfaith dialogue better shape our collective journey?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Hidrellez: The green saint who straddles faiths and cultures

    • William Gourlay
    • 11 May 2023
    2 Comments

    The celebration of Hıdrellez in Turkey unites secular, urbanized communities to honor the arrival of spring on 6 May. Marked by rituals rooted in diverse traditions, the mythical figure of Hıdrellez blends Islamic and Old Testament influences fusing cultures, religions, and customs in yearly observance.

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  • RELIGION

    Is it time to re-think seminaries?

    • Gideon Goosen
    • 23 September 2021
    60 Comments

    The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse identified clericalism as a significant contributor to abuse across religious institutions Australia-wide. Clericalism is rooted in a theological belief that the clergy are different to the laity, having undergone an ‘ontological change’ at ordination, and feeds the notion that the clergy may not be challenged. And according to the report, the culture of clericalism is on the rise in seminaries in Australia.

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  • RELIGION

    Discerning the place for the churches in the great moral questions of the age

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 November 2015
    2 Comments

    'The crisis of child sexual abuse in our societies has required that our institutional procedures be more transparent and that we learn from the ways of the world in exercising power openly and justly. This means we have to restructure some of our church arrangements so that power is exercised accountably and transparently. All of us who have positions of influence and power in institutional churches need to be attentive to the voices of those who have suffered within our institutions.' 'Discerning the place for the prophetic voice and pragmatic cooperation of the churches in the great moral questions of the age', address to the Association of Practical Theology in Oceania conference, 26 November 2015.

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  • EDUCATION

    Harvard professor defies Australian class warfare

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 27 June 2014
    13 Comments

    Amidst a whirl of media interviews and meetings, David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard University and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world for 2014, paid a visit to his alma mater: a state school in suburban Sydney. State schools aren't the repositories of children too impoverished or unintelligent for the alternative; they're the living manifestation of democracy, egalitarianism, multiculturalism and ecumenism.

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  • RELIGION

    This time in the Church

    • Frank Brennan
    • 12 November 2013
    5 Comments

    'Having thrown off the shackles of compulsion endured by pre-Vatican II Catholics, we relish that we come to the table not because we are forced, not because of social expectations, not because of the mindset of the mob, but because we are graciously called and freely responding.' Frank Brennan's Camino Address, Parish of Our Lady of the Way North Sydney, 12 November 2013

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