Buddhist Life Stories, Australia

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Buddhism is Australia’s second largest religion, and has a long history dating back to at least the 1850s Gold Rush period, yet the life stories of prominent Buddhists in Australia have remained largely undocumented until now. A new initiative, Buddhist Life Stories, records the personal narratives of contemporary Australian Buddhists. , records the personal narratives of contemporary Australian Buddhists.

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The “Buddhist pop song” that took sixth at Eurovision

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On Saturday, an Italian song about the emptiness of Western consumer culture came sixth at Europe’s wildly popular song competition, Eurovision. Occidentali’s Karma, by Francesco Gabbani, was Italy’s entry to the contest, and while the song (which is flush with Buddhist references) didn’t win, it was a hit with critics. The song was the most watched music video of the contest and was chosen as a favourite by fans and the press.

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UK: Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus in RE

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The role of Religious Education in schools is to help prepare and equip all pupils for life and citizenship in today’s diverse and plural Britain, through fostering in each pupil an increasing level of religious literacy. What does it mean to be ‘religiously literate’? A religiously literate person would have an established and growing knowledge and understanding of beliefs, practices, spiritual insights and secular world views. In the context of their own considered standpoint they would also be open to engaging with the views of others in a plural world.
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Bahá’í RE for Schools

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This new website – Bahá’í RE for Schools – aims to provide good quality and engaging materials to help teachers of RE explore the Bahá’í Faith with pupils across the primary and secondary age ranges. The site provides basic information as well as freely downloadable presentations, lesson plans and schemes, ideas for activities, and links to other online resources.

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Huston Smith, influential religious studies author, dies at 97

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Huston Smith, religious studies scholar and bestselling author of The World’s Religions (originally released, in 1958, as The Religions of Man) and Why Religion Matters, as well as Buddhism: A Concise Introduction, which Smith co-wrote with Philip Novak, died on December 30 at the age of 97.

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Buddhism scripture teachers struggling to keep up with demand from state schools

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New South Wales public schools are struggling to keep up with demand for Buddhism scripture teachers. Buddhist Council of New South Wales chairman Brian White said there were more than 3,000 public school students across the state studying Buddhism, and the number was growing rapidly.

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