Disasters hit the poor the hardest! Unfortunately, this is all too often true. The past months have shown that disasters increase poverty there where people have always been poor. Some thoughts on World Humanitarian Day.

This week we take a look at an anniversary in Australia and a campaign for a better future. There certainly are reasons to celebrate, but there are also always moments to pause and reflect and pray for others.

Podcasts are becoming more and more popular all around the world. People use them to talk about everything on God’s green earth. And since God is the Creator of it all, it wasn’t long before some of our own members decided to take advantage of the opportunity to use podcasts to profess their faith.

Again the Chief Apostle was hardly able to travel in the first half of the year and could therefore ordain and retire only a few Apostles. Instead, he asked the District Apostles to perform these ministerial acts on his behalf. At the end of June 2021, 337 Apostles were active around the world.

“There is no place like home.” This is something that many people have discovered also in terms of online services. If you cannot be together with the members of your own congregation, you can draw joy from the plurality of languages and personalities.

There was certainly plenty of buzz on the social media sponsored by the New Apostolic Church. The subject of women in ministry generated hundreds of comments. And the reactions could hardly have been more different.

There is nothing unusual about a divine service being broadcast to several countries. What is unusual, however, is a divine service being broadcast from several countries. The topic was: perfect gifts of timeless value.

A student is not above his teacher, which really goes without saying, right? And yet, attempts to be smarter than one’s teacher are made again and again in life. Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider says why this also has its good sides.

An Apostle who not only preaches about the new motto for the year, but also converts it into art for his District Church? It can happen—as it did, for example, in the District Apostle Area Western Pacific. But other graphic designers all around the world have also been at work to create new logos for the year.

There were only a few retirements and ordinations of Apostles in the second half of 2020. On account of travel restrictions, the District Apostles carried these out by mandate of the Chief Apostle. Currently, 348 Apostles are active worldwide.

Freedom. Where? When? How? The Chief Apostle and the District Apostles have explored the annual motto from all sides. Here are a few highlights from our Spotlight series to usher out the old year.

Locked church doors, divine services on YouTube, mouth and nose protection at the altar: the pandemic really shook up church life in 2020. It was the year of COVID-19. Following is a chronicle of the year’s events.

How do you define freedom? The determining factors are not always verifiable and objective. Freedom is often just the feeling of being free. Even the man Jesus was torn back and forth in His feelings. District Apostle Peter Schulte, who lives in Australia and looks after the Western Pacific district, explores the subject.

Both in terms of organisation and content, the most recent District Apostle Meeting was dominated by the coronavirus crisis. Yet not even the pandemic was able to stop the work that needed to be done on the future-oriented topics on the agenda of this conference.

Life is varied. Misery and elation alternate, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is making it difficult not to feel overwhelmed. But there are always hopeful little stories that encourage and point to a better future. Here is a small glimpse.

The pandemic forces people to keep a distance from one another. This also applies to the regularly occurring conference of the international Church leaders. In some respects, a digital conference of the District Apostles is uncharted territory, and the preparations for it were quite complex and involving.

From “lockdown since March” to “divine services almost everywhere” it’s all there. This is how differently Covid-19 is affecting the church life of New Apostolic Christians around the globe. And the solutions are just as varied.

For months at a time, aid workers toil in remote regions, only to find that they cannot even return home to their families owing to recent lockdowns. It is a crisis that stops people in their tracks, and yet still allows them to grow…