Month: December 2014
All its profound religious and historical significance aside, this book is a work of art. The St. John’s Bible — a modern realization of an ancient text — was created well within the lifetime of most of the people reading this. The seven-volume Bible is a work of stunning calligraphy, vibrant colors and illuminations laced with unexpected modernity. Grounded in the Midwest, is also the first handwritten, illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in 500 years. This huge undertaking is the subject of “Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible,” an exhibition at the Chazen Museum of…
Some spectators mistook the procession around the Capitol Square for a festive occasion, thinking the horses were pulling a carriage with newlyweds. It was a much more somber event than that. The carriage was an 1800s hearse with an empty casket in the back. The mourners, about 75 of them, walked to the side in silence, some carrying candles. This was the seventh year a group of local clergy members and others have organized a memorial service to honor people who died without shelter in Dane County and elsewhere in the past year or in recent years. It was held…
Forty percent of Americans are evangelical Christians, and many of them reject evolution. Jeff Hardin, chairman of the University of Wisconsin’s zoology department, takes this personally. Hardin is an evangelical, but much of his evangelism is directed at his fellow believers. He wants to persuade them that evolution and Christianity are compatible.
Along with Easter, Christmas is a time when many Christians who otherwise aren’t regulars at a church return to the pews. The Rev. Kirk Morledge, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Waunakee, said he doesn’t consider these people visitors — and they frequently don’t, either. “Many of them regard us as their church, even though they may attend just twice a year,” he said. “And we consider them very much a part of our faith family.”
For the tens of thousands who enter its gates on any given Sunday game day (or another day), Lambeau Field is a sight to behold. For David Jones, one of more than 77,000 people in attendance at the Green Bay Packers’ game Monday night, his experience was out of the ordinary among those packed into one of the National Football League’s oldest stadiums. Turns out Jones’ first trip to cheer on his beloved team in its iconic arena started with a spiritual act.
Several months ago, Mark Krueger of Middleton felt moved by his faith to do something more for the community. He looked at his skills and landed on what he knows best: the law. He and his wife, Michelle Hernandez, are attorneys and operate the law firm Krueger & Hernandez. Its main offices are in Middleton and Baraboo, with satellite sites in Chicago and New York City. Through the church they attend, Global Presence Ministries in Monona, the couple has started a free legal clinic. It operates from 9 a.m. to noon on Fridays at the church, 6406 Bridge Road.
The new prayer room recently opened at 6406 Bridge Road in Monona is unlike any other of its kind in the area. Not only a center of celebration, where laughter is heard among the singers and worshippers, the new prayer room encourages creatives to actively paint, sculpt, dance or play music during the service, giving vent to the creative Holy Spirit in each person. The vision of Global Presence Ministries is “Bringing God’s Presence, Advancing His Kingdom, Transforming Nations,” and members bring this vision to light by practicing their core means, prayer and worship.
A Downtown church is renting the recently renovated Orpheum Theater to put on a free Christmas concert Saturday featuring a 150-voice choir. “We wanted to make a gift to the Madison community and a gift of what we consider to be the story of Christmas,” said the Rev. Carly Kuntz, the lead pastor at First United Methodist Church.
Last June, just before summer break, I met with groups of young African-American males during my student listening tour. I visited each of the Madison high schools in an attempt to find the cultural and academic pulse of young black males. I needed to hear for myself how they felt about what’s being said — and thought — about them in our community. Those discussions were one part of a much larger conversation I had engaged in with several hundred local African-Americans since writing “Justified Anger” one year ago. My personal essay for the Cap Times called on Madison to…
A group of activists and religious leaders told a standing-room only crowd at the state Capitol the goal to decrease Wisconsin’s prison population from about 22,000 to 11,000 by the end of 2015 is still achievable. WISDOM, a statewide faith-based coalition, released its blueprint to end mass incarceration in Wisconsin during a presentation on Wednesday.