“Don’t bring folks to where you are. Don’t leave them where they are. Go with them to a place neither of you has been,” said Brian McLaren to a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) national staff members here on December 3, 2010.

McLaren, a noted author whose most recent books include Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again, spoke to some 50 staff from all six agencies of the PC(USA) on the topic of the future of the church.

Each December Presbyterians join Christians around the world in turning our thoughts to the place of Jesus’ birth – the little town of Bethlehem. When we do, the image is typically of a still, small, sleepy village, which continues on oblivious to the ages. But nothing could be further from the truth. As tourists to Bethlehem know, the “little town” is all but surrounded by the 25-foot concrete wall, built for Israel’s security, but creating significant difficulties for Palestinian residents. While tourists are ordinarily able to pass quickly through the massive check-point that controls the route to nearby Jerusalem, Palestinian residents and those who would visit them often endure long hours of delay and harassment there.

The Presbyterian Chuch (U.S.A.)'s Office of Public Witness (OPW) here is seeking financial support to "reinvigorate" its internship program, which trains Presbyterian young adults for prophetic witness and public policy advocacy work.

After several years of informal talks, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Seventh-day Adventist Church held their first formal dialogue in late-October in Chicago.

Life is not sweet for workers at a sugar estate owned by the family of Philippines’ President Benigno Aquino III, a visiting church group has found.

For playwright Marcus Gardley, the theater is his pulpit and plays are his sermons.

“We believe in change and ask that you continue to pray for us.” This was the message an international team of church representatives heard again and again, as they visited people and churches in Myanmar recently.

Longtime Presbyterian Christian educator Geraldine Mary Jones died in Savannah, GA on Nov. 2. She was 83.

A Philippines Protestant leader has renewed an appeal for supporters to help persuade President Benigno Aquino to free 43 detainees, most of them church-based health workers detained for more than nine months, and whom the military has accused of being communist rebels.

When Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee wrapped up a visit to Israel on Nov. 15 with 40 pastors in tow, he sought out the places where Jesus walked, preached and prayed some 2,000 years ago.