In order to take some-much needed time off and to allow readers to focus on family and congregation during the Christmas holiday, the Presbyterian News Service (PNS) will be closed, except for emergencies, from Dec. 23-Jan. 3.

Stories will be posted on Dec. 22 and will resume Jan. 3, 2012. With the close of the year, PNS will have posted more than 1,000 stories in 2011.

Cuba’s recent economic reforms are “like healing surgery” ― intended to improve but not abandon the socialist principles of the Cuban revolution, a leading Cuban economist told a delegation of 15 U.S. religious leaders here Nov. 30.

Evangelical leaders in Colombia say they’re concerned about the future of their nation in the wake of recent legislation that has decriminalized euthanasia, eased abortion restrictions and could legalize same-sex marriages, reports the Latin America and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC).

2011 was supposed to be the year the world ended. Twice.

Churches in Egypt are praying and helping migrants, who flee home due to political turmoil, violence and uncertain future. There is a great need to develop stable democratic societies if the “Arab spring” is to bear fruits. Or else it might turn into an “Arab winter” with religious minorities at the risk of persecution.

The U.S. blockade of Cuba is a fundamentally theological issue because, in choosing isolation over reconciliation, the U.S. has chosen to serve mammon rather than God, Cuban Presbyterian theologian Reinerio Arce told a theological symposium of Cuban and U.S. religious leaders here Dec. 1.

Ask most any higher education student in the United States what their biggest issue is with campus living and the answer will be: the food.

Same in Cuba, says Rolando Verdecia, student body president at the Seminario Evangelico Theologica (Evangelical Theological Seminary or SET) here. “Of course, food is an issue everywhere in Cuba,” he quickly adds.

As international observers say that general elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo were flawed, churches also have been highly critical of the process that re-elected President Joseph Kabila, but are appealing for peace among a restless electorate.

The death of Osama bin Laden and the reactions it produced among people of faith was rated the No. 1 religion news story of 2011 by the nation’s leading religion journalists.

The Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) polls its members annually to compile a list of the top 10 religion stories of the year. About 90 religion beat specialists took the poll this year.

The liturgical dancers circle each other at a distance, then move closer together, then join in an intimate pas-de-deux. They then separate, dance alone at opposite sides of the chancel, then come swirling together again, the man sweeping the woman off her feet and up into the air in a graceful lift before setting her gently back down onto the floor.

The dance ― of separation and connection ― is both beautiful and haunting … especially because it depicts the ambiguity and ambivalence of human relationship in the age of HIV/AIDS in Cuba.