© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Another day at the missile factory

Swords or ploughshares. Guns or butter. War or peace. We make choices and they have consequences. The drumbeat to war is relentless these days and I can’t blame those people who want to try to tune it out. But tuning out is hard when the noise keeps getting amplified. Here in my hometown of Newcastle, in Australia, I read in my paper that dozens of jobs are likely to be lost in our area following the federal government’s decision to slash about $100million from the national science and research agency, the CSIRO. Meanwhile, the government has…

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Read more about the article Welcome to the next world war
photo from Quirinale.it

Welcome to the next world war

August 13, 2024 OPINION BY GREG RAY Pope Francis called it more than two years ago. In his 2022 book, Against War, the Courage to Build Peace, the Pope joined the dots between various global conflicts and friction points, concluding that the world was already on the road to World War 3 and the situation would escalate in a piecemeal fashion unless enough determined people pushed back against the unfolding process. “And so, step by step, we are moving towards catastrophe. Piece by piece the world risks becoming the theater of a unique Third World War,”…

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Read more about the article Gloucester via Newcastle in the mid-1800s
The paddlesteamer Williams, built in Scotland in 1854 for the Hunter River service. Image from the State Library of Victoria

Gloucester via Newcastle in the mid-1800s

Church histories aren't everybody's cup of tea. The theological debates and schisms that exercised many of our European ancestors are almost forgotten in the 21st century, and it's hard to grasp the central role that the church, in its various denominations, occupied in society not all that many generations ago. Today, accounts of the various doings of the churches may seem dust-dry and irrelevant and, as a result, it's tempting to leave church histories sitting unread on shelves. Now and then, despite this disinclination, I do pick up church histories and occasionally I'm rewarded with some…

Continue ReadingGloucester via Newcastle in the mid-1800s
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