The Uniting Church in Australia has gone MAD - and its overseas partners will benefit. MAD means "make a difference", and Uniting Church Overseas Aid is asking UCA members to do just that, by contributing one Australian dollar a day to a project of their choice. The projects will supply food to villagers in East Timor, help children living in the slums of India, provide drinking water in Papua New Guinea, or help orphans and school drop-outs in Zambia.

Austria/Ukraine

In March this year, Ukraine was again hit by severe flooding. Judith Schuster-Gyenge, of the Reformed congregation in Oberwart, Austria - a congregation with strong traditional ties to the Reformed Church in Carpatho-Ukraine - is raising money to help the church. Bishop László Horkay of the RCCU has singled out two projects for support: the Good Samaritan children's home, which houses 60 children, but also serves as a drop-in and supply centre in times of flooding; and the parish of Tiszabökény, which is struggling to build a manse. Donations can be made to the SKWB Schoellerbank, bank code 19200, account no. 615 111 79 004 "Ukraine Soforthilfe".

Burma

"Illiteracy is a major problem in our country," says Lalengzauva, a member of WARC's executive committee and mission secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar. The church runs an extensive Communication Training Programme to promote social development and to boost its outreach. "Teaching people to read and write is key to helping them live better lives," Lalengzauva says.

Colombia

A state of emergency was declared in the city of Barranquilla at the beginning of June, after a tornado left four dead, over 300 seriously injured and more than 500 homes destroyed. Violent winds and heavy rains lashed the southern districts of Barranquilla and its neighbouring municipality, Soledad.

The authorities have appealed for non-perishable food, medicines, drinking water, blankets, tents, mattresses, sheets, clothes, and pots and pans. Construction materials are also needed to rebuild the homes.

Milton Mejía, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, asks for prayers and practical support for those affected, many of whom are members of the church.

Cuba

They sit, listening to speakers and scribbling notes. They go away, unmotivated and bored, and nothing is done. Writing in Juprecu, the youth magazine of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, Omar Maren says that leadership workshops need to change completely to be effective. Why not adopt the methods of popular education pioneered by the celebrated Brazilian, Paulo Freire? Youth work needs people trained in recreational activities, Maren adds. It is time to take up again such programmes as the Anniversary of Presbyterian Youth, the Day of Peace, the Weeks for Youth, and the travelling "Caravans" which contributed to the development of many young people.

England

Who are we as Reformed Christians? Setri Nyomi spoke on this theme to faculty and students of Westminster College, Cambridge at the beginning of May. Taking as his text the famous passage from 1 Peter 2.9-10, he sounded the two classic notes of grace and gratitude and spoke from his African perspective of the challenges we face today. The visit was at the invitation of the Cheshunt Institute for Reformed Studies, and its director, Peter McEnhill.

Equatorial Guinea

"It is not enough for the government to undertake to respect the recommendations of the commission," WARC told the 57th session of the UN commission on human rights this year, "because it never respects them." In an oral intervention, the Alliance reminded the commission of the detailed annual reports it had received since 1979 of human rights violations by the brutal and corrupt dictatorship of president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

The Alliance asked that the mandate of the special rapporteur on Equatorial Guinea, Gustavo Gallon Giraldo, be strengthened and enlarged; that cooperation agreements become conditional on his reports; that Mbasogo's government be required to implement human rights improvements to a precise timetable; and that the oil companies and other transnationals operating in Equatorial Guinea stop colluding with the regime and demand the same standards of democracy that they respect at home.

France

Torture is forbidden by international law and expressly outlawed in many countries. Yet torture is regularly inflicted in more than half the countries of the world.

Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) was founded in France in 1974 to raise awareness among Christians of the scandal of torture and inhuman treatment and to call them to common action. Today there are about 30 national ACATs around the world, linked together in the International Federation of ACAT (FI.ACAT).

France has recently been rocked by revelations of the torture systematically carried out by French forces during the Algerian war of independence (1954-62). "A French opinion poll showed that 25% of those questioned thought that torture was accepted in certain circumstances," says Patrick Byrne, president of FI.ACAT. "Our message is that torture is never acceptable. It denies the humanity of both the tortured and the torturer."

Hope in the darkest night, a booklet of prayers and suggestions for action, is available from FI.ACAT, 27 rue de Mauberge, F-75009 Paris ().

Germany

Walter Schulz, director of the Johannes a Lasco foundation in Emden, Andreas Duderstedt of the Church of Lippe and Anja Werth of the Reformed Alliance in Germany led a mixed group of journalists and Reformed online staff in a visit to Geneva in April. The journalists had a useful programme of meetings with staff of the Alliance and other organizations in the Ecumenical Centre. The staff of Reformed online, the official web publisher of the Alliance, discussed plans for cooperation with Roberto Jordan, moderator of the WARC communications committee, and Páraic Réamonn, communications secretary. They also met with Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, editors of The Reformed Churches Worldwide, and finalized an agreement to put a revised edition of this invaluable handbook on the Reformed online website.

Italy

"The religious pluralism which now characterizes Italy is an ever more important aspect of the cultural and social life of our country," says an appeal organized by the periodical Confronti in April. "We therefore believe that the plurality of spiritual and religious choices must be mirrored in schools, in the media, in local government policies and in the social services."

The appeal, launched just before Italy's general election - won by Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Alliance - calls for full recognition of religious pluralism, guaranteed freedom to worship and, in accordance with article 8 of the Italian constitution, the approval of agreements between the state and religious bodies that ask for them, as is the case with Islam. The signatories include Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Protestant leaders.

Mauritius

Update learns with regret of the death of Emmanuel Braunau, administrative secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Mauritius. A man with a high sense of duty and a disarming calm, he regularly met the most difficult problems and most impossible demands with the cheerful response, "I'll see what I can do, count on me." He was, says La Sève et la Vigne, a man who hated eulogies, but it is necessary to bear witness to his many-sided contribution to the church. A provisional secretariat has been put in place to succeed him.

Spain

The Federation of Evangelical Religious Bodies of Spain (FEREDE) has written to the prime minister, José María Aznar, detailing problems in the relations of Spain's Protestant churches with the state. The federation is asking for a high-level meeting with the government to discuss the more effective implementation of the 1992 cooperation agreements, in accordance with the principles of religious freedom enshrined in the Spanish constitution and the 1980 Law on Religious Liberty.

Sweden

At the annual church conference of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden in June, WARC European area president Krister Andersson was re-elected for another four-year term as general secretary.

The church also elected two women as regional directors (the church is divided into seven regions or "districts"). Helén Friberg-Olsson, chair of the Swedish Ecumenical Council of Women, is the new director of Mälardistriktet, which includes two major cities - Stockholm and Uppsala. Inger Svantesson is the new director of Övre Norrlands district, in the north of Sweden. Three of the seven regional directors are now women.

Taiwan

A spell in jail isn't normally in the job description of church officials, whatever the Gospels may say. But this was the fate of CM Kao, former general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, a prominent advocate of democracy and human rights on the island in the 1970s. When the Kuomintang dictatorship cracked down on human rights campaigners in 1979, Kao was imprisoned for giving shelter to political fugitive Shih Ming-teh. The story is told in his memoirs, The Way of the Cross, launched this year with a celebration in Taipei's Chi-nan Presbyterian Church.

"Dr Kao may not think himself worthy of accolade," says publisher Lin Heng-jer, "but 21 years ago he helped one of the frontline advocates of democracy in this country, and for this he suffered imprisonment." His memoirs testify to the faith that undergirds his commitment to justice, and should encourage others who suffer and struggle for the truth.

USA

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has apologized for not doing enough to oppose slavery, which ended in the 19th century only after the Civil War (1861-5).

The Disciples of Christ have many affinities with Reformed churches. In the 1980s, a Disciples-Reformed dialogue concluded that there were no church-dividing differences between the two church families and affirmed the special relationship between them.

At its meeting in April, the general board of the US church - the largest in the Disciples family - acknowledged that, like many other religious communities, it failed to work or speak sufficiently against the institution of slavery, "a wicked apathy that permitted and resulted in untold suffering among the African people kidnapped by evil people and sold to Americans to labour without compensation and often subjected to inhuman persecution by their white owners".

The board asked for forgiveness from God and from "all God's children whose lives have been damaged or limited by these sins".

An unworthy thought crosses Update's mind. Will our churches in the 23rd century be apologizing for our failure to do enough today to oppose the "new slavery" of international debt?

Venezuela

"We affirm, in keeping with the biblical witness, that God creates the earth and makes it fruitful to sustain life in all its forms," says the 10th synod of the Presbyterian Church of Venezuela, which met in Mérida in February.

In its concluding statement, the synod deplores the dominant global economic model, which privileges the return on capital at the expense of the dignity of life and the exploitation of the earth. It confesses its complicity in these evils, and its silence while a minority monopolizes the best things in "our great home", God's creation, and the majority suffers grievous discrimination.

The synod also issued a resolution in solidarity with the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Since 1938, the US navy has used the island of Vieques for exercises, and since 1941 has expropriated three-quarters of its land. The population of the island is seriously affected by these exercises. There is more than 50% unemployment, serious environmental contamination, and a high incidence of cancer, thyroid deficiency, mental illness and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

There has been resistance to the US naval presence from the beginning. This resistance, including civil disobedience, has deepened in the last twenty years. The navy has now agreed to leave by May 2003, if this is what the islanders vote for in a referendum in November. But Robert Rabin of the committee for the rescue and development of Vieques says, "We don't want the bombing stopped in 2003, we want it stopped now."