ENI – Britain's Christian Muslim Forum has strongly criticised moves to take the religious message out of Christmas in the country on the grounds that offence might be caused to members of other faiths.

Assembly Council adopted a draft policy on racial harassment entitled Growing in Christ: Seeing the Image of God in Our Neighbour, at its November meeting. “The Presbyterian Church in Canada welcomes its cultural diversity,” states the policy. “Both at the congregational and national level, the Presbyterian Church will actively involve the cultural diversity in its midst when it comes to decision-making, service on boards and committees, preparation for ministry in the church, representation of the church at all levels and employment within the church.”

ENI – “Our Christian values are at the core of our call for urgent, concerted action on climate change. Not only do we believe that, in the beginning, we were given stewardship of the earth, but we believe that good news for the world's poor people is rooted in justice. Climate change brutally exposes humanity's failure and the failure of its institutions,” a united Christian platform of Caritas Internationalis and the All Africa Conference of Churches said in a statment at the UN conference on climate change held in Nairobi in November.

ENI – Pope Benedict XVI and leaders of five other leading faiths in Britain have subscribed to an inaugural $1.15-billion bond issued by the British Treasury that will pay for immunizing half a billion children in developing countries over the next 10 years.

ENI – Two of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian synods in Malawi which are at loggerheads with one another over boundaries, have rejected offers from the country's civil society to act as arbitrators.

The Life and Mission Agency Committee met outside of Ontario for the first time, gathering at Surrey Presbyterian Church in British Columbia in November. The Korean congregation offered the invitation, and hosted the meetings. Committee members visited area congregations, missions and schools. Mary Fontaine, founder of the native Hummingbird Ministries mission in Vancouver, visited the committee.

Four Christian movements were needed for Christianity to take hold in China. As a result of a colonial past, a Communist government, cultural revolution and a history of a patriarchal and culturally obedient society, Christianity has come and gone several times as the political and social contexts in China change. Below is a brief outline of major events in Chinese-Christian history:

She grew up in China — her parents devoted members of the country's Communist Party and therefore unsupportive of her Christian faith. Rev. Ying Gao, recently appointed vice president of China's Nanjing Theological Seminary, remembers the roadblocks along her journey of faith. “My mother was so angry,” said Gao, about the day in 1980 when she told her family she became a Christian. “She conceptualized it as superstitious, backwards and counter-revolution, which was the perception of Christianity then.” Despite her mother's warnings that she would sever their relationship if she went through with it, Gao enrolled in seminary, following God's call to be ordained.

The African drumbeat beckoned the delegates from the hallways of a Halifax convention centre in November into the large meeting room. As we followed the drumbeat, it drew us to an open area where African dancers were performing. Later I came to the conclusion that the passion and the power of their dance expressed the synergy that took place at the Summit. It was the kind of synergy that happens when people from around the world come together for a noble purpose — assisting the poor. The cynical were inspired by the idealists and the idealists (like myself) got a taste of reality and practicality.

ENI – An east African church grouping has joined with an inter-religious council and a leading NGO to urge religious leaders from the Horn of Africa to help avert a looming regional military confrontation in Somalia.

ENI – The presence of African churches is considered urgent and important at this month's World Social Forum.

A private member's bill that will grant appeals to refugees being sent back to their countries from Canada was slated for a second reading in the House of Commons in early December. Bill C-280 calls for the implementation of the Refugee Appeal Division, which was part of the 2001 Immigration and Refugee Act and would allow those who are denied refugee status to appeal the decision based on the merits of their case. This stipulation was intended to balance a previous government decision that reduced the number of adjudicators in a refugee hearing from two to one. The appeal process was never implemented, leaving life and death decisions up to a sole adjudicator. Then-Minister of Immigration Denis Coderre promised to implement the appeal process within one year, but so far this has failed to happen.

Shaneil Keesic and her younger sister Desiree rescued a handicapped youth after bullies coerced a group of eight- to 12-year-old children to shut the youth into the shed and set it on fire. The sisters, unafraid of the bullies, tried to open the door. An adult heard their cries and helped. “Shaneil and Desiree had been taught that God would want them to help someone in trouble,” said Rev. Margaret Mullin, director of Anishinabe Fellowship Centre, which serves as one half of WICM along with Flora House. The girls attend WICM's Sunday School. In the photo, from left: Shaneil, Desiree, their brother Fred and mom Cher.

There are about 1,200 congregations in The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Presbyteries are generally arranged along tribal lines, although the larger tribes occupy several presbyteries […]

The former minister of a four-point charge in Prince Edward Island who claimed she was fired because she is a woman had her claim upheld by the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission when it ruled in her favour in August.

ENI – A German Catholic bishop has lashed out at the rise of top management salaries by up to 30 per cent at the same time as companies are plunged into bankruptcy and jobs are cut.

ENI – China is developing as a global leader with potential to help solve the world's problems, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said in Nanjing during his first visit to the People's Republic.

ENI – Many church leaders do not understand what journalism is all about, while secular media are often suspicious of religion, says Portuguese journalist Antonio Marujo, this year's winner of the John Templeton Prize for the European Religion Writer.