The Uniting Church in Australia’s Assembly voted Saturday to change the denomination’s definition of marriage and allow ministers to officiate weddings for same-sex couples. 

In a statement posted on the Church’s website, Uniting Church in Australia President Deidre Palmer announced the changes that were made by the 265-member assembly that gathered in Melbourne, saying: “To honor the diversity of Christian belief among our members, we will hold two equal and distinct statements of belief on marriage.”

The first statement of belief regarding marriage is one that the Uniting Church has been following for a long time.

“The existing statement of belief that ‘marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of a man and a woman to live together for life’ has been retained,” Palmer said before added that “a new additional statement of belief has also been adopted.”

“That statement reads ‘marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of two people to live together for life,’ Palmer said. 

Uniting Church in Australia is the third-largest Christian denomination in the…

Chinese authorities bulldozed a registered church building July 17 without warning to make way for construction of a new neighborhood and train station.

International Christian Concern (ICC) reported that more than 70 police officers and workers showed up to take down the Liangwang Catholic Church building in China’s Shandong province. They lacked the proper documentation, but it didn’t matter.

Church officials Gao Rongli, Zhang Siling and Li Xiangmei – who were inside the building — had their phones confiscated and destroyed. It took only 15 minutes to demolish the building using bulldozers and pickaxes, according to ICC. Officials spared nothing, destroying the altars, benches and furnishings.

“The disproportionate manpower used to demolish this church goes to show that China is fearful of Christians,” said Gina Goh, ICC’s regional manager. “The government knew that the demolition in the name of urban zoning would be met with resistance, so it ensured success by taking extreme measures. Despite their best efforts to intimidate the Church with actions like this, the government cannot destroy the faith and resilience of Chinese Christians.”

It isn’t uncommon for China to destroy churches for commercial purposes, ICC reported. Last year, a Catholic church near a highway exit in Shaanxi province was demolished, likely for commercial purposes.

Participants for the LGBT Christian conference Revoice are defending the event from criticism that the gathering will promote pro-LGBT ideas at the expense of biblical teaching.

The Revoice Conference, a multiday event scheduled for July 26–28 at Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri has garnered controversy well before its opening session.

According to its website, Revoice seeks to “encourage, support, and empower gay, lesbian, and other same-sex-attracted Christians so they can experience the life-giving character of the historic, Christian sexual ethic.”

Though organizers of the event hold to the traditional biblical teaching of marriage, some argue that the conference is designed to advance an LGBT agenda in churches at the expense of sound Christian teaching.

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Stephen Black, executive director of First Stone Ministries, an organization that seeks to help people with what the group calls “sexual brokenness,” is one of the critics.

In an interview with The Christian Post earlier this year, Black…