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<title>Journey - Fast News</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/</link>
<description>Fast News from Journey</description>
<language>en-au</language>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 11:33:22 +1000</pubDate>
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<managingEditor>bruce.mullan@ucaqld.com.au</managingEditor>
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<title><![CDATA[Christianity and the real world]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[If you\'ve ever campaigned for political change you\'ve probably had someone tell you to live in the real world. People say it to me all the time, meaning I should accept the world as it is and not try to change anything.

It is arrogant, as well as absurd, to look at society in our own place, time and culture and say that only this is \"real\". Supporters of capitalism tell me I am unrealistic in wanting a different economic system. But the banking crisis of 2008 was caused by the unrealistic lending of bankers who seemed to live in a fantasy world of endless money. Real world enthusiasts say that nonviolence doesn\'t work. They then defend violence, which has been spectacularly not working for centuries. 

As Christians, we are called to a vision of the Kingdom of God which is mindbendingly eternal and yet thoroughly grounded in the challenges of everyday life. Jesus\' teachings are realistic. They are radical and to put it mildly not always easy to follow. But they are realistic.
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Christian leaders speak out, and trek, on Day for Creation]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[The financial and economic crisis experienced by many societies could bring about a powerful change to \"sustainable environmental development\", says Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople. 

Istanbul-based Bartholomeos was marking the Day for Creation, 1 September, as a group of Roman Catholic bishops were leading a \"green\" pilgrimage reflecting a theme chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for the 2010 World Day of Peace: \"If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.\" 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[German Protestant who sought media independence, remembered]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[Germany is remembering the man known as the \"father of Protestant media\" on the centenary of his birth and paying tribute to his unswerving belief in the need for journalistic independence. 

Born on 1 September 1910, Robert Geisendorfer was appointed director of the Bavarian Protestant Press Association in 1947. His task was to rebuild church media work after the Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and the Second World War. 

A tribute published on the OVB online news site (ovb-online.de) recalled his motto: \"The task of Protestant journalism is to make something public, practise advocacy, demonstrate compassion, and be a voice for the voiceless.\" 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[NZ churches report quake damages]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Marist order religious in Christchurch has reported that the community suffered only property damage in the earthquake that hit the city over the weekend. 

\"The earthquake seems to have hit central Christchurch particularly hard, and extensive damage has been inflicted on heritage buildings and those of brick construction,\" said a report on the Society of Mary, New Zealand website. 

\"The Marist parish community in central Christchurch, Manchester Street is probably the luckiest Marist community to escape with what seems only minor damage. The 105-year-old brick building has not been earthquake strengthened.\" 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Forgotten Jewish refugees demand recognition]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[To date, international concern with Middle East refugees has focused primarily on the approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who left Israel during the 1947-48 war. Far less attention has been paid to the nearly one million Jews known as mizrahim- who left Arab countries in the decade or so following that war. 

Most moved to the newly created Jewish State of Israel where today they constitute the majority of the Jewish population, and often lean towards the hawkish side of the political spectrum. 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Church health workers in PNG are unsung heroes in HIV battle ]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[Church-run health programs have helped plateau new HIV infections in Papua New Guinea, said a health expert at a United Nations development conference in Melbourne.

Half of hospitals and services in the country are run by churches, one quarter of them by the Catholic Church, reports The Age.

Dr Mike Toole, head of Melbourne\'s Burnet Institute Centre for International Health, told the conference that despite a massive increase in the number of people being tested in PNG, the number of new HIV infections each year has reached a plateau and may be declining.
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Natural disaster and human greed in Pakistan]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[On the road in from the airport, the water shimmered under the moonlight as men, women and children sat in the dark near the would-be lakeshore. During the day, river dolphins can usually be spotted in the nearby river. Idyllic, you might think. But this dusty and ramshackle town is at the front-line of one of the world\'s worst humanitarian disasters in living memory. Usually there is no water lapping up at the roadside, and the only people there would be those out for an evening snack after the daytime Ramadan fast. But since torrential monsoon rain sent the Indus River spilling onto towns and farmland the length of Pakistan, an area the size of Italy has been deluged.

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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Mother Teresa centenary celebrations launched in India]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[A year of celebrations for the birth centenary of Mother Teresa has been launched at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Blessed Teresa of Kolkata in India. 

The cathedral was appropriate for the occasion because it is the only one in the world to be co-dedicated in her name, said UCA News. Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, who knew Blessed Teresa since 1968, opened festivities there with a Mass concelebrated with 13 priests. 

\"Mass was very central to Mother Teresa\'s life,\" he told around 500 parishioners who attended the celebration. \"She attended every morning before going out to work.\" 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Asylum seekers stage break-out protest in Darwin]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[More than 90 immigration detainees have broken out of the Darwin detention centre and are holding a mass protest on the side of a busy road.

The asylum seekers are holding signs which read: \"Please help us\", \"Show us mercy\", and \"We are homeless, defenceless and we seek protection\".
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Wed, 1 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Australia racist? Well, der!]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[Having arrived with her family from Kabul 12 months ago, 15-year-old Zara is walking home from high school. She passes three younger girls in a playground. Two turn away when they see her in the hijab, carrying textbooks, but one calls out: \'You\'re a terrorist. You kill people. Go back to your own country.\' 

Running home seems to take Zara forever. 

This happened last year in Dandenong, where every second person is from a non-English speaking background. In Victoria\'s most diverse multicultural community, mixing more than a hundred ethnicities together is easy: living in harmony takes work. 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Asylum seekers are Australia\'s invisible homeless]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[While politicians search for islands to house \'boat people\', asylum seekers living in the Australian community face an accommodation crisis of a different- homelessness. 
Hard data on the problem is scarce because the Australian Bureau of Statistics doesn\'t track the number of homeless asylum seekers in the community. But refugee agencies across the country estimate that the rate of homelessness among in-community asylum seekers is extraordinarily high. 

A spokesperson for the Refugee Claimants Support Centre in Queensland says between 60 and 70 per cent of the agency\'s clients \'need some sort of assistance with obtaining or maintaining accommodation\'. Prabha Gulati, director of the Asylum Seekers Centre of NSW, estimates one in four asylum seekers her agency helps are \'homeless or in danger of imminent homelessness\'. 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Detention centres and restrictions on movement solve nothing ]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[It\'s not easy, but we can help refugees and still protect our borders.

It is trite to say that we live in a complex and troubled world. It is nonetheless true. We see turbulence and conflict around the globe, and human insecurity in various forms, including persecution and human rights abuse.

At the same time, the world\'s population is increasingly mobile and the impetus for people to \'\'leave home\'\' has roots in myriad social, economic, environmental, security and protection factors.
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Caging Humans]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[Prison. We\'re brought up believing it\'s the place where bad people go. And to some extent that is true. But prison is a lot of things, and not necessarily always what we think, or hope, it is. The actuality of the prison system paints a complex picture, one which is often masked by political, frenzy-mongering rhetoric.

The intentions of the prison system are honourable; the delivery of justice, the capture of criminals for the safety of civilians and the reform of wayward individuals. This, along with many other images and carefully chosen phrases, make law-abiding citizens feel like they are seated in the superhero hot-seat, where good and bad are as easily defined as night and day and the goodies prosper while the baddies languish remorsefully behind bars.  
 
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Rev Alistair Macrae on Peacemaking ]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[The President of the Uniting Church, Rev Alistair Macrae has a new video on Peacemaking. To view the video click on the link below;]]></description>
<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[UK Government challenged on asylum seeker DNA tests]]> - Journey</title>
<link>http://www.journeyonline.com.au/home.php?inc=fastNews</link>
<description><![CDATA[The UK Government could be acting illegally if it uses DNA testing to try to determine the country of origin of asylum seekers, a leading Scottish human rights campaigner says.

Professor Alan Miller, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, and a top human rights lawyer, said moves to use DNA testing as a permanent part of the asylum application process could be contested in the European Court of Human Rights - reports the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (http://www.scvo.org.uk/).
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<author>journey@ucaqld.com.au (Journey Editor)</author>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
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