In July, the Uniting Church in Australia became the first Australian denomination openly to allow homosexuals to become ministers. An overwhelming majority of delegates at the national church assembly in Melbourne voted to accept gay and lesbian clergy living in committed same-sex relationships.

The vote formalizes what has been an informal acceptance for some time, and is permissive rather than mandatory. Congregations across Australia will remain free to make their own choices.

In 1997, the national assembly voted that it was possible for people within the church to hold opposing views on sexuality and sexual orientation. Dean Drayton, president of the UCA, describes this year's vote as "clarifying" the earlier decision. But the new vote has angered conservative evangelicals , who have threatened to split from the church.

Dorothy McRae McMahon resigned from her position as the church's national director for mission after informing the 1997 assembly that she was a lesbian. Welcoming this year's vote, she said that "when the church appears to be less inclusive, less compassionate, than the community, then I believe that we must at least stop and reflect on that."

"We often discuss homosexuality as though it is primarily about sex. I want to say it is primarily about love. It is about a God whose imagination and variety may well extend far beyond our understanding," she said.

The UCA is one of the many united churches in Alliance membership. Formed in 1977, it brought together Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Australia. It is the country's third-biggest denomination, with 300,000 members and a total of 1.3 million Australians claiming an association.

Indonesia

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has urged the president of Indonesia to halt military operations in Aceh and to restart negotiations with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence for the western province.

The government imposed martial law in Aceh in May and launched an attack against the GAM separatists after peace negotiations broke down.

More than 10,000 people -- many of them civilians -- have died in the battle for independence launched more than 25 years ago in the province of Aceh on the island of Sumatra.

WARC was asked to intervene in the crisis by leaders of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, 27 of whose churches also belong to the Alliance.

In 2002, WARC made a series of team visits to trouble spots in Indonesia and held an interfaith consultation in Jakarta, the capital, with strong Muslim participation (see Update 12/2&3, October 2002).

Iraq

Meeting in Torre Pellice, Italy, in July, the executive committee of the Alliance applauded the courageous stance of member churches, especially in the United States and the UK, in speaking out against the war in Iraq. It reaffirmed the Alliance's own opposition, noting that the much-hyped claims about weapons of mass destruction "have not been substantiated".

The committee expressed concern about the continuing illegal occupation of Iraq by US and UK forces and the threat posed to other regions of the world by the US doctrine of preventive war. It urged the Bush administration

to end the occupation of Iraq and allow the Iraqi people to restore their sovereignty and to achieve democratic self-determination
to end its political, economic and military pressure on North Korea, support the South Korean government policy for peaceful reunification and come to the negotiating table with North Korea without delay and
to stop its military intervention in southeast Asian countries in the name of the war on terror.

Madagascar

The Alliance will make a team visit to Madagascar, where continuing unrest over presidential elections threatens to divide churches along political lines, the executive committee decided in July.

Madagascar

As reported in previous Updates, the loyalty of Malagasy Christians remains divided between the current ruler of the country and the man whom he ousted last year after a disputed poll. Florentine Ramambasoa, an executive committee member from the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, says that political forces are also trying to divide the country along ethnic lines.

In December 2001, Marc Ravalomanana, the mayor of the capital, Antananarivo, won a bitterly contested presidential election. But former president Didier Ratsiraka disputed the results, and months of protests and general strikes followed.

In July 2002, shortly after the United States and France recognized Ravalomanana as the legitimate leader, Ratsiraka flew to France and his forces on the island switched sides. But unrest has continued and an anti-government demonstration attended by 10,000 people in the capital in May this year ended in violence.

Paraguay

Irene Hofmokel, one of the first women pastors in the Evangelical Church of the River Plate, was killed during a highway robbery at the end of July. She was driving home from a church workshop in Hernandarias with another woman pastor, Annedore Venhaus, and Annedore's young son when "highway pirates" opened fire on their car, forcing them to stop. The thieves stole everything they had apart from the car before speeding off.

Annedore thought that Irene had fainted during the attack, but was horrified to discover that she had been shot. She died before they reached the nearest hospital.

Irene Hofmokel was a much-loved figure in the Evangelical Church of the River Plate, and a delegate to the 23rd general council (Debrecen 1997). In October 2002, she was elected to the nine-member executive committee of her church. In a message to international partners, Juan Abelardo Schvindt, general secretary of the church, said that Irene was always marked by her serenity and her reflective mind, characteristics that her colleagues would now certainly miss greatly. "We feel the injustice of her death," he said.

Nicholás Rosenthal of the Evangelical Church of the River Plate is a youth consultant to the Alliance executive committee. "This is a sad reminder of the terrible social situation of our countries, where highway pirates, corruption and poverty are strongly related to debt-stricken economies and structural adjustment policies," he told Update.

The Alliance extends its deepest sympathy to Irene's husband Luis, also a pastor, and to their children Matías and Ángela.