My children are used to watching me strike up conversations with strangers – and now they do it too. But in an increasingly cautious world, we feel like outliers

Shifting from debating difference to seeking shared meaning isn’t just theoretical. I’ve seen it work I was born in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when religion became the architecture of public life. But it was precisely this fusion of faith and power that forced my family to flee. We were persecuted not for breaking laws but for belonging to a minority religious community, the Bahá’ís – a persecution that continues today. This experience taught me how religion can be used to exclude, to dehumanise, to dominate. But it also taught me that ignoring religion is not the answer. More than 80% of the world’s population identifies with a religion. Yet in many parts of the world – especially in the west – religion is treated as a private matter, something best kept out of polite conversation, or at worst, a source of division and danger. We live in a paradox: a deeply religious world that increasingly doesn’t know how to talk about religion. What does it mean to live a meaningful life? How do we hold both reverence and reason in the same hand? Continue reading...

‘There was really no communication,’ Daniel Dickinson says. ‘We found it out through the school and the media’

For the first time in decades, three major religious traditions – Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá’í Faith – will observe their sacred fasting periods at the same time * Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to…

Exclusive: The Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (Crisp) will soon be a permanent part of Australia’s humanitarian migration program

More than 2,000 people are living without adequate housing in bushfire-prone areas in western Victoria, which advocates warn is risking catastrophe

The community-building activities my family and I participate in every week are a core part of our faith. In Iran, it would see us arrested Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter It’s a Saturday morning in Ballarat, 100km west of Melbourne. A group of about 60 people are gathering at a local primary school, enjoying a potluck breakfast spread of eggs, bacon, bread, cereals and freshly cooked dishes served up by local teenagers. They’re all ages, from all cultures and faith backgrounds. Soon, they’ll break off into a series of activities aimed at promoting unity and encouraging them to give back to their neighbourhood – through raising funds for the local soup kitchen, planting trees at a nearby farm, teaching children music or working at a community garden. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Continue reading...

The community-building activities my family and I participate in every week are a core part of our faith. In Iran, it would see us arrested

It’s a 100km round trip to the nearest major supermarket chain. Should I budget in extra fuel to shop the specials, or just stick to my local IGA?