Moscow Patriarch urges monks to go offline

MONKS should avoid using their mobile phones to access the internet, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has said. During a visit to the Zograf monastery, on Mount Athos, in Greece, Patriarch Kirill said that monks who "leave the world" were acting "quite unreasonably" in accessing the web, the source of "a large number of sinful and tempting things". 

Bible 'most read book' in United States

THE Bible remains the most read book in the United States, new research suggests. An online survey of 1075 adults, conducted by the Barna Group, a Christian organisation, found that 20 per cent of them had read the Bible, including nine per cent of people with no faith. The same proportion of practising Christians had read Fifty Shades of Grey (nine per cent) as among the total number surveyed. It has been reported that the Bible is also the most commonly stolen book. 

All Africa Conference gathers in Kampala

AFRICAN spirituality must be directed at the social, political, and moral transformation of the continent as it emerges from "the bondage of spiritual and moral imperialism and colonisation", the president of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, said last week. More than 1000 delegates attended the 50th anniversary of the Conference in Uganda, from 3 to 9 June.