Europe

"On 12 July 2012, twenty-four religious leaders from all over Europe met for a three hour exchange and a press conference with the President of the European Commissions, Josė Manuel Barroso; along with Hermann van Rompuy, President of the European Council and Lázló Surjan, Vice-President of the European Parliament" — Participation of the people is key in the political process in Europe (Press Release No. 12/13 - Conference of European Churches)

UK

"Yesterday, at a family planning summit in London, the billionaire philanthropist and practising Catholic Melinda Gates made a historic pledge: She vowed to dedicate her life to improving access to contraception for women in the developing world, backing up her words with a $560m donation to family planning services" — Melinda Gates defies the Vatican over birth control: the reaction around the world (Ellen E Jones, The Independent)

Tunisie

"Mille cent trente délégués, sans compter les cadres, participeront au 9^e congrès d'Ennahda, qui se tiendra pour la première fois à Tunis, du 12 au 15 juillet, en présence de nombreux invités arabes et occidentaux, après vingt-quatre ans de clandestinité. Le dernier avait eu lieu en 1988, à Sfax, la capitale économique de la Tunisie" — Tunisie : les premiers pas d'un Etat islamiste (Isabelle Mandraud, Le Monde)

Chine

"The government body that controls the Catholic church in China has said it is investigating the selection of a bishop who cut ties with the group as soon as he was ordained, in an embarrassment to Beijing that could deepen its rift with the Vatican" — China investigating Catholic bishop who quit government-run church (AP, The Guardian)

Mormonism

"For a century and a half, Mormonism has been something of a paradox in the history of the American West: passionately argued about by the church’s adherents and detractors, but largely ignored by professional scholars unsure of what to make of the religion Joseph Smith founded in 1830 or the communities created by what Mormon scripture itself described as a “peculiar people.”" — The Mormon Lens on American History (Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times)

UK

"The Archbishop of Canterbury made a humiliating apology to the Church of England yesterday for the latest fiasco over women bishops" — Rowan Williams makes humiliating apology over women bishops fiasco (MailOnline)

UK

"When she heard the result of the vote, the Rev Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes couldn't help but think of what could have been. If the General Synod had been voting on the legislation as it was, the 288 votes to 144 would have given the two-thirds majority needed to enable women to become bishops" — Church of England must reassure female clergy (Lizzy Davies, The Guardian)

"That the current house of bishops tried to slip in this extra bit of 'protection' for the antis shows how out of touch they are" — Women bishops amendment has been rightly thrown out (Giles Fraser, The Guardian)

"Le synode général de l'Eglise d'Angleterre, qui se réunit à York du 6 au 10 juillet, devait être historique : la législation autorisant les femmes à devenir évêques devait être définitivement adoptée. Le projet de réforme a été accepté en février mais deux amendements, adoptés discrètement au mois de mai, ont provoqué la colère des femmes du clergé... qui menaçaient ces derniers jours de voter contre une loi pour laquelle elles se battent depuis plusieurs années. Pour éviter un rejet de la loi, et même un schisme au sein de l'Eglise, les dirigeants du comité directeur de l'institution ont finalement décidé de reporterle vote" — Le vote sur l'ordination de femmes évêques a été reporté (Anne-Gaëlle Rico avec AFP, Le Monde)