A Pakistani woman prays with her Bible. Photo: United Bible Societies.

In Pakistan, Christians are under constant threat of attack, feeling vulnerable after the suicide bombings in September at a church in Peshawar. And yet Bible Society general secretary in Pakistan reports a growing interest in the Bible.

“…All this negativity towards Christianity has led to more curiosity about it. We are distributing more Bibles to non-Christians who show interest and are curious to know what the Bible says. Our distribution has increased over the past few years to around 40,000 Bibles a year.”

Meanwhile, a peace train starting in Berlin and heading to Busan in South Korea has begun a 14,000km journey to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. The train is an initiative of the World Council of Churches, made up of protestant and orthodox churches. ABC’s Andrew West spoke to the secretary general of the Council about the peace train this week, and you can listen to that interview here.

Heading south, this week a Malaysian Court of Appeal ruled that a Christian newspaper could not use the word ‘Allah’ in its publications. Radio commentator and writer Waleed Aly, who often speaks out about Muslim affairs and his own muslim background, writes for Fairfax this week about the ruling, saying the result reflects a country trying to find its identify.

“The fear, apparently, is that Muslims will suddenly start practising Christianity if both faith groups refer to God by the same name. Malaysian Muslims therefore need a form of protection from their own ignorance that no Muslim community has needed anywhere at any time…But this isn’t about that,” Aly writes.

“This is instead about an old guard of Malays (who are officially always Muslims) confronting the fact the privileged position they’ve held for the first 50 years of Malaysian independence simply can’t hold for the next 50. Now they’re lashing out, as if trying to resist the death throes of their own supremacy.”

Closer to home, in politics the Tasmanian Government’s lower house has rejected a controversial bill to allow assisted suicide, the bill failing by only two votes while the Commonwealth Government confirmed it would fight ACT proposed legislation for same-sex marriage.

While governments debate family-related issues, it was also Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day this week. Tasmanian Christian columnist, Claire van Ryn reflected on her own personal loss in an attempt to highlight the ongoing heartache for parents who’ve lost a child.

Last week, Eternity reported on the debts crippling two large areas of the Australian churches: the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania, and the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst in NSW. This week, the ABC reported the devastation in Victorian Uniting Church congregations as news of which churches will close is delivered to its members.

On a lighter note, if you’re planning to do some reading this weekend, take a look at Matthias Media’s guide to how to read a Christian book. Need a book to start with? We’ve got plenty of book reviews for you to get started.