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Ramadan is a time when Muslims experience an increased connection to God and an increased sense of belonging through communal acts of worship, but Muslim women are often excluded from many acts of worship due to religious restrictions while they are menstruating. This study innovatively applies concepts of "religious citizenship" and women's "triple roles" drawn from lived religion and feminist literature to a new context of Muslim women and their everyday practices. Based on research with more than 60 culturally diverse Melbourne Muslims who kept anonymous diaries before, during, and after Ramadan 2021, this analysis shows how Muslim women's understandings of religious belonging and connection in Ramadan are shaped by their own reconfigured approaches to worship and socialization alongside their everyday workload. It provides a unique opportunity to investigate the invisible challenges faced by Muslim women in worship and devotion during Ramadan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholic worship prioritises in-person ritual contact, but due to COVID-19, most Australian places of worship closed during 2020. An online survey of 1173 Australian churchgoing Catholics using the Spiritual Well Being Scale found no significant difference in Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores between groups who were still experiencing church closures and those who could attend church again. In those still experiencing church closures, standard multiple regression revealed significant and positive relationships between age and virtual worship engagement and both Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores. However, in those who could attend church once more, pre- and post-closure Mass attendance rate, and both virtual and real-life worship during church closures were all predictive of higher Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores. These results support the provision of access to both virtual and real-life worship during church closures, and their positive effects on both existential and religious wellbeing in a churchgoing Catholic population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the period between 1790 and 1914 the governments of the Australian colonies asked their populations to suspend work and amusements and join in collective acts of prayer. Australia’s special days of prayer have much historical significance and deserve more scholarly attention. They had an enduring popularity, and they were rare moments when a multi-faith and multi-ethnic community joined together to worship for a common cause. This article builds on recent work on state prayers in Britain by considering what the colonial tradition of special worship can tell us about community attachments in nineteenth-century Australia. ‘Fast days’ and ‘days of thanksgiving’ had both an imperial and a regional character. A small number of the Australian days were for imperial events (notably wars and royal occasions) that were observed on an empire-wide scale. The great majority, such as the numerous days of fasting and humiliation that were called during periods of drought, were for regional happenings and were appointed by colonial authorities. The article argues that the different types of prayer day map on to the various ways that contemporaries envisaged ‘Greater Britain’ and the ‘British world’. Prayer days for royal events helped the empire’s inhabitants to regard themselves as imperial Britons. Meanwhile, days appointed locally by colonial governments point to the strength of regional attachments. Colonists developed a sense that providence treated them differently from British communities elsewhere, and this sense of ‘national providence’ could underpin a sense of colonial difference—even a colonial nationalism. Days of prayer suggested that Greater Britain was a composite of separate communities and nationalities, but the regional feelings they encouraged could still sit comfortably with attachments to an imperial community defined by commonalities of race, religion and interest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract This article analyses the engagement of minority religious groups with the local planning process in Australia as they try to build places of worship. Such groups oftentimes encounter opposition from local residents who are reluctant to share the public sphere with the newly arrived and less known 'other.' The public sphere has become a contested terrain between those who desire to preserve the status quo of the built environment and those who desire to affirm their collective identity through new religious structures. The Australian state, acting through local councils, finds itself in the middle of this contest and is tasked to resolve it. This article offers illustrative snapshots of how Australia promotes, respects and protects religious freedom, particularly its aspect concerning the ability of minority religious groups to build their own places of worship. Through case studies, this article assesses, albeit with respect to such cases only, how religious freedom is being concretised in the 'religious' physical landscape of Australia-that is its temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras, mandirs and other minority places of worship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features court cases involving various questions of law in Australia and in other Commonwealth nations. Great Britain's House of Lords considered the issue of whether a clergy can be considered an employee in Percy vs. Board of National Mission of the Church of Scotland. The issue of the definition of public worship was considered by the Queensland Court of Appeal in Jensen vs. Brisbane City Council. The Queensland Court of Appeals in R vs. Ping dealt with the issue of torture.

The article discusses the fundamental basis of identity as Baptist communities in reflection of a theology of baptism of believers by immersion. A story of a ritual practice which occurs in a number of Australian aboriginal communities is offered. Three dimensions of baptismal practice indicating the character of life together as an immersed community are suggested as a perspective. The article emphasises the relevance of the knowledge in baptism and how it reflects on being a Baptist and how one worships.

The article examines the history of paganism and its modern revival in western society. Paganism is the generic name given to the numerous religions which predated Christianity in mainly western and northern Europe. The word 'pagan' first appeared in Christian inscriptions in the 4th century AD, and meant a civilian, or rustic. In the 10th century AD, Paganism was practiced in Denmark, Norway and Iceland and England. Of course the Church was successful in establishing Christianity as the State religion in Europe, but paganism was never entirely suppressed, only subdued. In 1960s, revived Paganism came to the U.S. and to Australia in 1970s.