Leaders of the Protestant Christian Batak Church, a Lutheran church in Indonesia, have condemned the beatings and stabbings of its pastor and church members in Bekasi, outside the capital Jakarta in West Java, on Sept. 12.

Following two days of meetings with religious and government leaders, Pope Benedict XVI on Sept. 18 turned his attention to his own flock as met with victims of sexual abuse and warned of the dangers of legalized assisted suicide.

As on previous occasions, controversy — this time, in the form of thousands of protestors marching through central London — threatened to distract from Benedict’s intended message, which focused on the redemptive power of suffering and the dignity of old age.

At a morning Mass in London’s Westminster Cathedral, Benedict apologized to victims of sexual abuse, and associated their “immense suffering” …

Earlier this month, six recent seminary graduates gathered here before embarking on the first calls of their pastoral careers. And while they all have different joys and challenges ahead, their calls are alike in one big way: they’re all part of the inaugural year of a new pastoral residency program in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

For the Rev. Barbara Anne Keely the Christian's journey can be described through an analogy with trees — trees she grew up around in the northwest and others she watched in winter at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina.

Church leaders and activists in Sri Lanka are warning that the Indian Ocean island could become a “constitutional dictatorship” after the country’s parliament voted changes to the nation’s fundamental law.

The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

The history of Christian denominations is pockmarked by centuries of doctrinal disputes and stormy schisms.

Then there are Christian leaders, such as the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, the soon-to-be outgoing general secretary for the Reformed Church in America, who have taken a stand against such feuds.

The 65-year-old said he made the decision to step down prayerfully, believing he’s completed the contributions he was called by God to make in the RCA.

Despite long-standing fissures in Christian unity, Granberg-Michaelson is a tireless drum major for ecumenism, said the Rev. Jerry Dykstra, executive director of the Christian Reformed …

And now the more than 10,000 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations can take additional steps to do their part, with the help of a new program from Environmental Ministries.

When the Rev. Marcia Clark Myers spoke of God's call to leave country and family in order to enter a land of risk and promise, her allusion reached far beyond the example of Abram and Sarai deep into the contemporary landscape of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), where out of nearly 2,300 PC(USA) ministers and candidates seeking new calls, few are willing to consider a church of 100 members or less.

Finland’s first female Lutheran bishop has been consecrated at a service in Helsinki Cathedral at which she said that both Church and society need to strengthen trust.

Since 1985, scholars affiliated with the Jesus Seminar have been casting doubt on the authenticity of sayings attributed to Jesus and questioning whether he saw himself as an end-times prophet.

As the seminar marks its 25th anniversary Oct. 13-16 in Santa Rosa, Calif., it’s generating far less attention and controversy than in years past, when the media spotlight gave members a platform to reach millions.

Now observers are debating a new question: What difference has the Jesus Seminar made? Once again, the jury is divided.

Among the seminar’s 100 fellows is a strong sense that the group has effectively made …