Faith News

March 24, 2007

- The second purpose-built Jewish museum in Europe opened yesterday in Munich. The Mayor of Munich described the Jüdisches Museum as “a venue for open discussion about Jewish history, art and culture”. The museum features a permanent exhibition about Jewish life and history, including a 550-year-old prayer book.

- A Romance Academy has been opened by Christian youth workers in Norwich, in a bid to encourage teenagers to abstain from sex. The 15-week course, organised by Pregnancy Crisis Norfolk, will tackle topics such as sustaining healthy relationships, drugs, alcohol, contraception and self-image.

- A humanist is protesting against West Sussex County Council’s decision to exclude him from an advisory committee on religious education. Andrew Edmondson claimed that councillors had “failed to understand that humanism is the voice of reason, necessary to balance supernatural beliefs”. A council spokesman said local secondary schools already included humanism in their curriculum.

- The head of Australia’s largest Islamic organisation is encouraging imams to volunteer as lifeguards or firemen. Tom Zreika, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said: “It would be great to see a turbaned imam fighting fires alongside other bushfire service volunteers.”

- A Muslim graffiti artist from Birmingham is to tour America. Mohammed Ali is to paint vivid murals featuring spiritual scrawls inspired by Islam in New York, Chicago and Boston. “For me graffiti is an expression of the word of man. Islamic art is also non-figurative but is based on the divine scriptures — there are a lot of parallels,” he explained.

- The Church of Sweden has opposed plans to enable gay couples to marry. “We support the view that matrimony is between a man and a woman,” said Archbishop Anders Wejryd, primate of the Church of Sweden. The Church will continue to give blessings to same-sex partnerships, he added.

- A French court has ruled that Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine which published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed did not attack Islam. It said the publication had not overstepped the “acceptable limits of freedom of expression”.

- One third of Christians polled by the BBC’s Heaven and Earth Show have reported a bias against Christianity in the media. A quarter of the 604 Christians questioned also said they had experienced discrimination at work because of their faith

- Racism is the legacy of the slave trade, according to the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. The Right Rev James Jones said this week: “The roots of racism cannot be disentangled from the history of slavery. The bullying of a person because of the colour of his skin has its antecedents in the dehumanising treatment of black people, who were traded in their millions from Africa to America.”

- The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are urging Christians to reflect on the horror of slavery this weekend, to mark the anniversary of the Bill for the abolition of the slave trade. Dr Rowan Williams said: “Some have said they see no need for the apology made last year by the General Synod for the role the Church played in the slave trade. But when we acknowledge historic injustices inflicted in the name of the Church, this is a vital part of our life as members of the body of Christ.”

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