Amid continuing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, Catholics in the Philippines have been asked not to kiss or touch the cross when they venerate it on Good Friday, April 10.

The People’s Climate Assembly (PCA), co-hosted by multi-faith leaders from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC), gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra on 4 February, calling on the Australian government to take action on climate change. As a part of the peaceful protest, Anglican priest Fr. Rod Bower led an interfaith mourning ritual for victims of the widespread bushfires that have razed large areas of Australia. The ceremony of mourning was organized by the Canberra Interfaith Forum and the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.

The Council of Europe has adopted a resolution upholding the duty of member states' to protect people of faith against discrimination in the workplace because of their beliefs.

The World Council of Churches and The Lutheran World Federation, both with churches in the Holy Land, have criticized a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for regional peace for the lack of consultation in their pitch.

A Philippine religious group on Thursday denied allegations by American law enforcement agents that it was involved in a scheme to trick followers into becoming fundraisers and arrange sham marriages to keep them in the U.S.

People training for the priesthood in the Church of England are set to benefit from financial help to learn about the link between science and faith. 

Rev. Kenneth Bell, with his daughter Fiona, accompanied the return of an important Buddha statue to Sri Dalada Maligwa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic), in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on 17 December. The grandson of British archeologist and explorer Harry Charles Purvis Bell—better known as HCP Bell (1851–1937)—returned the statue to Sri Lanka after it had been in the family’s possession for a century.

Pope Francis has tapped an Italian lawyer to be the first woman to hold a management position in the Vatican’s most important office, the Secretariat of State.

Researchers from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute are working with conservators from the National Museum of Afghanistan to repair some of the earliest physical depictions of the Buddha, which were destroyed in 2001 when the Taliban shattered religious images at the museum. The team, supported by grants from the US Embassy in Kabul, are carefully reassembling statues from more than 7,500 fragments that had been saved in trunks in the museum’s basement after the rampage of the Taliban.

Ominous turbulence hangs over the world, bringing the grave threat of violent conflict that would have a devastating impact on the Middle East and far beyond it. 

“We cannot be silent”, six Italian bishops have alerted on the environmental crisis, adding on that front “we are facing a real drama that already marks the present and will certainly mark the future of the new generations”.

Sakyadhita Australia has launched a fundraising portal for people around the world to offer help to those affected by this year’s devastating bushfires. The 2019-2020 fires have been of exceptional intensity, killing 25 people, an estimated 500 million animals, and destroying over 1,500 homes. Areas affected by the fires have included Wat Buddha Dhamma, One of Australia’s Oldest Buddhist Monasteries, and areas in southeast Australia’s famed Blue Mountains where Sakyadhita International held its annual meeting in June 2019. Funds are being raised through GoFundMe and will be distributed to a variety of organizations in need.*

Opponents of Montenegro’s new law on religion plan more rallies against what they call an attack on the Serbian Orthodox Church, after thousands of protesters took to the streets and Moscow and Belgrade voiced concerns.

The Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs has introduced an application-based religious conflict early warning and response system in a bid to track any religious discordance in the community.

US President Donald Trump has urged Americans to unite against the "evil scourge of anti-Semitism" after a man stabbed five people at a rabbi's house in New York during Hanukkah celebrations on Saturday.