The PHP development team has released an updated version of PHP. PHP 5.3.2 contains a number of bugfixes and some security improvements.

For a full list of changes, be sure to check out their changelog.

This is the 3rd release of the PHP 5.3 series, so expect that web hosts will begin to upgrade their servers. Depending on the type of hosting account you have, the server you are using may be upgraded and begin using the new version, or you may be given the option of which version of PHP to use for your site.

As a web steward, it may fall on you to work with your church or ministry's web host and if it does, be sure to begin testing your site on the new version of PHP. There are several functions that have been deprecated and will cause errors and problems with content management systems and their modules if they are written using the old functions.

XOOPS 2.4.x has been rewritten to run on PHP 5.3 and the upcoming ImpressCMS 1.3 will also run on PHP 5.3. Individual modules have not begun to announce PHP 5.3 compliance, or even PHP 5.0. Setting up and testing on a local environment for testing is quite simple using XAMPP, WAMP or MAMP. Visit their websites for more information.