News Items

The Forum regularly posts news articles of interest here from a variety of sources and news outlets. You can check back here or view the most recent ones from the homepage. We also archive these articles here, for those doing research, with news going back to 2006. Use the menu on the right to explore the archived articles.

News

Immigrants have been arrested looking for alternatives to Flint water

March 21, 2016
By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
National Catholic Reporter

Imagine turning on the tap in the morning and seeing something that’s “looked like toilet water coming out of your faucet,” in the words of one Catholic leader. That’s been the reality facing tens of thousands of residents of Flint, Mich., every day for more than a year.

Now, imagine...

Forward Movement Announces New Video Curriculum on Science and Faith

March 21, 2016
Forward Movement

Are science and faith compatible? Ordained scientists in The Episcopal Church offer insight on this sometimes controversial question through a new groundbreaking video curriculum offered by Forward Movement, now available for free download. The curriculum, offered in partnership with the Committee on Science, Technology and Faith, invites a sense of...

Vatican to undertake ecological initiatives during Easter season

March 18, 2016
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
National Catholic Reporter

During Holy Week and in the Easter season, the Vatican will take part in several initiatives highlighting the importance of ecology and the care for creation.

The Governorate of Vatican City State announced Friday that the thousands of floral arrangements for the Easter morning...

A Martyr of 'Laudato Si'? The indigenous spirituality of assassinated activist Berta Cáceres

March 18, 2016
By Betsy Shirley
Sojourners

Less than two weeks after the March 3 murder of acclaimed indigenous Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, Nelson García, another Honduran activist, was murdered outside his home. Both García...

Holiest of times for water worshippers in Sydney

March 17, 2016
By Brendan Trembath
ABC News

Hundreds of followers of an ancient Middle Eastern faith have descended on a river in western Sydney for one of the holiest weeks in their calendar.

Mandaeans perform an elaborate baptism ritual as a central part of their beliefs.

They are also pacifists, and have suffered a long history of persecution in Iran and Iraq...

Religion and Ecology Summit Establishes CIIS as Leader

Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion Program Hosts Critical Dialogue

By Jessica Paden
California Institute of Integral Studies
March 18, 2016

An enthusiastic crowd of 111 people packed Namaste Hall on a rainy Friday for the inaugural Religion and Ecology Summit at CIIS.

From the pope to the people: Emerging religious environmental movement faces challenges

Full title:

From the pope to the people: Emerging religious environmental movement faces challenges amid global economic pressures

By Dan Smyer Yü* and Mary Evelyn Tucker*
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
March 14, 2016

The one bus to the village of Sambha in northeastern Qinghai Province in China leaves in the late afternoon. The...

Sisters of Earth seek planet literacy, look to indigenous wisdom at upcoming conference

March 15, 2016
By Sharon Abercrombie
Global Sisters Report

In the summer of 1994, 65 religious women gathered at St. Gabriel Monastery in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, to share their emerging environmental dreams with one another.

They named their new vision circle the Sisters of Earth.

Survival Under Threat, Canada's Indigenous Unite Against Tar Sands Pipelines

The Grand Chief of the Mohawk Kanesatake First Nation calls the proposed Energy East pipeline ‘risky and dangerous’ to indigenous peoples’ survival

By Nika Knight
Common Dreams
March 14, 2016

Indigenous people in Canada are rising up together in greater numbers than ever before to oppose tar sands pipelines on their traditional territory, forming fierce coalitions to...

Women on the Front Lines Fighting Fracking in the Bakken Oil Shale Formations

In the rolling plains of North Dakota, companies like Halliburton, Hess, Crestwood Energy, Whiting Petroleum Corp. and Enbridge have crowned themselves king and are acting with a level of impunity beyond measure.

By Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake
Common Dreams
March 14, 2016

There are some crystalline moments in which the challenges we face as a civilization...

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