Religion

It sometimes seems that the only way not to offend someone somewhere is to be bland and keep your head down.

Christmas with its inextricable mixture of the sacred and the secular has a universal and eternal appeal, writes Garth George.

I grew up with a father crazy about megaliths, monoliths and "stupid old rocks put here a trillion years ago so Dad could bore us with them today".

The Vatican newspaper has not been shy in its praise of the long-running animated TV program The Simpsons - and now we may know why.

Jim Wallis lives and works in Washington DC, the political heart of the United States.

Balclutha's Catholic parishioners are gearing up to celebrate the legacy of soon-to-be-saint Mary MacKillop, helper of disadvantaged families in rural communities more than 100 years ago.

• Wellington: Sabbath observance came under the consideration of the Wellington Presbytery today

• The question of providing religious services for summer holiday-makers in the country was before the Dunedin Presbytery at its meeting yesterday in relation, particularly, to the growing popularity of Warrington and contiguous seaside resorts.

Dead Romans, Christian kings, marauding Mongols, Ottoman occupiers, Hapsburg edifices, pioneering painters and a modernised downtown: All the highlights (and lowlights) of Hungarian history are on display in the little city of Pecs.

Even in the rational world of biological science, the publication in Science of the findings of an American-based team of researchers caused considerable excitement.