Ahead of a US Senate vote on the 2007 farm bill, churches across America have delivered local messages calling for access to locally grown food, guarantees farmers' access to conservation programmes, and respect for the environment.

A five-year campaign by human rights campaigners, including the Franciscan religious order, has influenced the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to has decide to appoint a Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.

The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons has said it will return "non-approved" religious books and other materials that were removed from the shelves of federal prison libraries because of concerns over the threat of terrorism.

The key role of a long spiritual heritage of disciplined and creative non-violence should not be ignored as a factor in current attempts to overthrow brutal dictatorship in Burma, says Gene Stoltzfus, a founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

One of the more intriguing aspects of Gordon Brown's first Labour party conference speech as serving prime minister was his decision to use consciously biblical language as part of his argument against those employing religious rhetoric to oppose his family policy.

A media frenzy based on the supposed spiritual emptiness in the life of Mother Teresa, made public in some of her recently published letters, derives from a lack of spirituality, says Roman Catholic Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta.