Mehmet Saral is a well-known face in two different worlds – the Gallipoli mosque at Auburn and an Anglican home group in Beverley Hills.

Sydney Anglicans are opposing a push to allow homosexual couples to adopt children.

Sydney Anglican welfare workers say they can’t find families for toddlers with special needs because people don’t understand their disabilities.

For over two years, Toongabbie Anglican Church members Ben and Tammy Stanley have been active supporters of Moore College both prayerfully and financially.

One hundred and fifty years ago – to be precise, on 1 March 1856 – three young men met, in the former home of the late Mr Thomas Moore of Liverpool, with William Macquarie Cowper. Cowper had been appointed the acting Principal of the brand new College that was gathered before him. The College’s first Principal, William Hodgson, was on his way from England.

As Sydney approaches the halfway point of the Diocesan Mission, a group of experienced missioners have formed a strategic new taskforce. MADELEINE COLLINS reports.

Two people died and nearly 20 others were injured following an attack on three Coptic churches in Alexandria, Egypt, on Good Friday. Copts have rejected the Egyptian Government’s claim that the attacks were simply the act of a mentally unbalanced individual.

Eyes will be on California this month to see if local Anglicans have been convinced not to elect one of three homosexual candidates as their bishop.

The meeting between US President George W Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao was not merely overshadowed by a lone Falun Gong protester, but also an indepth report by four human rights organisations into the torture of Chinese Christians.

KAMAL WEERAKOON is combining full-time study at Moore College with ministry at St Anne’s, Strathfield. He shares his trials and joys as a trainee minister.

How God is working in our lives.

Anglicans in Innisfail are among those facing hefty bills after Cyclone Larry wiped out their church property – for the third time. JOSEPH SMITH reports.

Mary Andrews College is to host an important conference for Christian women.

Beth Powell’s visit to East Timor confirmed her belief that caring for the poor and oppressed is not an ‘optional extra’ for Christians

The Rev Stephen Calder has come from St Alban’s, Lindfield via Northern Ireland to lead the Bobbin Head Anglican Church (BHAC). Stephen is St James’, Turramurra’s assistant minister and BHAC is focused on team ministry.

The government allegedly limits the number of Christians allowed to see them, but asylum seekers are coming to Christ at Villawood.

Each month Southern Cross will report on the major decisions of the diocesan Standing Committee.

In the second article in a lecture series on the Consolations of Theology, Moore College lecturer ANDREW CAMERON recovers Augustine’s insights into obsession.

Treated recently for prostate cancer, JOHN PIPER urges others to use their condition to throw off the shackles of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness.

That would be a tough call to make of a novelist, whose profession is all about making up stories! But where The Da Vinci Code is perhaps a bit unfair with its readers is in blurring the line between fact and fiction. We like reading both history and fiction, but we like to be sure which is which.

On April 8 Justice Peter Jones of the British High Court finally brought down his judgment on The Da Vinci Code. For many millions of fans around the world, Mr Brown’s victory adds credibility to the ‘truth’ of his historical claims. As The Sydney Morning Herald put it, “Both books explore theories – dismissed by theologians but embraced by millions of readers – that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, the couple had a child and the bloodline survives”.

What can the secret gospels tell us, asks JOHN DICKSON in an extract from his new book ‘The Christ Files’.

Recent media coverage of parish conflict exposes our own shock at shock.

Sydney Diocese often receives critical attention from sections of the media. Communication is one of our significant priorities, and it is pursued vigorously. Diocesan views on issues of community debate are carefully prepared, always resting on an appropriate biblical foundation.

Evangelical leaders say the explosion of alternative worship is watering down the gospel, writes MADELEINE COLLINS.

PETER STAVERT calls for active prayer lives shaped by the power of God.

School scripture does not necessarily translate into Christian commitment and church attendance, so using kids’ ministry models is a way of helping to overcome the problem.

Agony Aunts, hosted by Clive Robertson, is a reality-style series that mimics the more commercial style of personal improvement programming. The series’ resident ‘Aunts’ are financial planner Sally Wilson and relationships expert Dr Patricia Weerakoon. And the baby boomers are the target of their affections.

While The Da Vinci Code may have repelled some from Christianity and challenged others in their faith it’s not all bad news. The questions raised in the novel through its outrageous allegations have caused many to investigate the identity of Jesus and how the Bible was put together; in short the novel has made seekers of some of its readers.

One of the most evocative images of Australians at war derives from the WWII campaign in Papua New Guinea. Shot by famed cinematographer Damien Parer, the image is of a wounded serviceman, heavily bandaged about the head, being helped up the Kokoda Track. That he follows and is followed by numerous other weary and wounded points to the enormous toll this battle took on those who were engaged in it.

Much as the Magnolia Little Gem is a wonderful and small version of the enormous and stunning Magnolia Grandiflora, The Christ Files is a 100 page distillation of lots of serious scholarship about the person of Christ as a significant historical figure.

God’s politics offers a refreshing insight from a Christian lobbyist into the US political scene. Wallis argues that a ‘fight gay marriage and abortion first’ strategy has led many US evangelicals to embrace a biblically unjustifiable right-wing platform which includes the war in Iraq and policies which favour the rich over the poor.