Rana Khoury, attending the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women as a Global Partner, is an impassioned ambassador for her Palestinian community.

But Khoury lives in what she describes as “an open-air prison.”

Khoury is a Palestinian Christian, born and raised in Bethlehem in the West Bank (or occupied Palestinian territories). There, the wall of separation built by Israel prevents Khoury and her neighbors from visiting Jerusalem — just six miles away.

When her work takes her to nearby towns in the West Bank, travel often takes more than two hours; before 1992, it might have taken 40 minutes. But now, …

John Calvin, credited as the father of Reformed tradition, said that the glory of God is unfathomable, but its evidence is everywhere, impossible to miss, a leading Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) theologian said here July 8.

This “dazzling theater” of the world was the focus of the opening lecture of the Calvin Jubilee here, celebrating Calvin’s 500th birthday.

Cynthia Rigby, W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, encouraged attendees to consider the setting of Montreat Conference Center when thinking about the wonder of God’s work.

“Look at the mountains surrounding Montreat and whisper a word of thanks …

“The good news of the gospel is that it calls us to a ministry of meddlin,’” said Margaret Aymer as she began her sermon during Presbyterian Women’s Churchwide Gathering July 12.

During the plenary session themed “Wonder of Community,” Aymer reinterpreted the Southern expression, “Preacher, you’ve left off preachin’ and taken to meddlin’” in the context of Mark 2:1–12. 

Aymer is a faculty member of Johson C. Smith Theological Seminary, the PC(USA)’s only historically African American seminary, which is also a member of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. She will author the 2011–12 Horizons Bible study on the …

In keeping with Sunday evening’s theme — “Wonder of Creation” — at the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, Barbara Rossing spoke of the enchantment of waking to the song of a bird, gazing at a waterfall or watching a child discover a new creature.

But is all well with the world we cherish? As Rossing described the failing health of the earth, she reminded the audience, “The cruelest injustice of climate change is that it hurts the poor — those who have done the least to cause the problem — the hardest ... As Christians, we should be concerned …

“I don’t really become president until July 1,” quipped a casually dressed, unflustered Steve Hayner, the ninth president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, upon finding the door to his new office locked. “Let’s go talk in my academic office.”

Reflecting on the admonition of Karl Barth to do theology with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, Hayner said that recent denominational and world news absolutely impact his sense of what he is being called to do at Columbia.

“The key question,” he said, “is what God is doing throughout America and the world …

There was no singing “Happy Birthday, dear John.” No party guests bringing gifts to the birthday boy. No cake with 500 candles.

Instead, we sang “Sant-Eprit, visite-nous!” and Psalm 8: “O Lord, how glorious is your name.” We brought offerings to God as the honoree. For refreshment, we shared the Lord’s Supper, bread and cup.

John Calvin would have loved it.

On Pentecost Sunday, an overflow crowd of around 1,400 Reformed Christians representing 35 countries gathered from around the world at Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. (The DVD is available online.)

I was there as part of the World Alliance …

“The modern Latin American literary production has such evident tangencies and religious resonances, that my perplexity is awakened by the lack of attention on the part of the theological community,” Puerto Rican theologian Luis Rivera Pagán told a recent gathering here of church leaders from throughout Latin America.

“The dialogue between theology and literature in Latin America, is urgent for the obvious interests that both have in the mythical memory and the utopian visioning of the peoples, set apart from western modernity,” Rivera Pagan told the group at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas that was commemorating the 80th anniversary of …

NEWARK, DE — New Castle Presbytery continues to mourn the loss of the Rev. Chad Miller, 34, who died in a kayaking accident along with his brother, Chris, 28, on June 9.

Miller was associate pastor for mission at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, DE, the presbytery’s largest congregation. A memorial service was held at the church June 14 in lieu of the regular Sunday liturgy. The service was led by Westminster’s other two pastors, the Rev. Greg Jones and the Rev. Anne Ledbetter. 

More than 1,000 persons crowded the Westminster sanctuary for the service. Every standing-room spot also was …

A new generation of Cuban church leaders — who were not even born at the time of Castro’s revolution in 1959 — are leading rapid growth in the Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Cuba (PRCC), the denomination’s general secretary says.

“We are a church that has grown a lot, two or three times as much in the last 20 years,” said the Rev. Francisco “Pancho” Marrero Gutierrez in a July 7 interview with the Presbyterian News Service during a visit with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) officials here. “We now have 51 congregations,” he added, “though not all are organized with sessions, but they …

Evelyn Bonner, whose many years of commitment to minority education took her to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) racial ethnic schools from Mississippi to Alaska and earned her a Woman of Faith Award from the denomination, died July 4 in Marshall, TX. She was 69 and had been battling cancer.

Bonner — a graduate of Presbyterian mission schools, Mary Holmes College in West Point, MS, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC — made a life teaching and serving the Presbyterian church at the local, presbytery and national levels. She was an advocate for justice throughout her years of service, including …