Author: Gordon Govier

Theresa Wilks became known in college for always wearing basketball shoes, excelling at sports and never doing anything contrary to her Catholic faith. Classmates took to calling her “Mother Teresa.” It was a jokey nickname at first, but it made her wonder, “Is this a sign from God, all these comments people are making?” Now 27, Wilks, who lives and works at Camp Gray, a year-round Catholic camp near Baraboo, will leave in two weeks to enter a convent near St. Louis.

The volunteers of Habitat for Humanity of Dane County are currently building Habitat’s 200th home for a local family. Construction began in the spring and Habitat’s Summer 2012 newsletter reports that completion is expected in 2013.Habitat volunteers from local faith communities, and others, have been building homes for over a quarter of a century. When the home is ready for occupation there’s always a house blessing ceremony and the new home owners are given a Bible.

“You’re kidding, right?” That’s the reaction David Liners often gets from people when they hear about the 11×15 campaign. It’s a short name for an ambitious effort launched in February by a cross section of the state’s faith leaders. The goal is to reduce Wisconsin’s prison population from its current size of about 22,000 inmates to 11,000 by the end of 2015. In other words, whack it in half in four calendar years.

Masterworks from the world’s oldest museum art gallery are coming to one of Madison’s newest. Forty-five artworks traveling from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, will be featured in “Offering of the Angels: Painting and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery,” a historically important exhibition that opens Friday Aug. 24 at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Ave. “Offering of the Angels” is organized around the Christian theme of the Eucharist, with depiction of important imagery from the Old and New Testaments including original sin and the fall, the Virgin Mary, the Last Supper, the passion, the cross and the…

MADISON — In May 2012, the St. Paul University Catholic Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison was granted approval by the City of Madison to build a new chapel and student center at 723 State St. “After four years of conversations with the City of Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, our neighbors, and many key benefactors and supporters of St. Paul’s, we are very happy to have a building design that we know both meets city approval and most of our needs,” said Fr. Eric Nielsen, director of the center.

The American people are not happy, with the country stuck in a recession and led by self-serving politicians. But in their American optimism they believe that better days are ahead. What if they’re wrong? Several leading Christian intellectuals who have come to the U.S. from abroad are not as optimistic. The English social critic Os Guinness has a new book out, A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future (InterVarsity Press). Vishal Mangalwadi, from India, delivered a lecture series at the University of Minnesota, Must the Sun Set on the West (now available through his website, www.revelationmovement.com). Mangalwadi…

Last year, the State Journal became curious about how a storefront church grows into a thriving congregation — or doesn’t — so we began tracking one. We chose Madison Alliance Church, but it could have been any of a number of religious startups that pop up around the city from time to time.

BOSTON, MA 6 August 2012 – The Lausanne Movement has appointed a Lausanne Senior Associate for Creation Care.  Rev. Edward R. Brown, Executive Director of Care of Creation, an environmental mission organization based in Madison, WI, accepted the position in June at the Lausanne International Leadership meeting.

A chill went up my spine when I got home from church on Sunday and heard about the shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, just a few miles from where I live. I was stunned because the shooting was taking place just as I was preaching at Elmbrook Church on Psalm 46:9: “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.” I had said: imagine if today the suicide bomber’s detonation device shorted out, all tanks and artillery stopped working, all AK-47′s…

The Downtown Madison site of St. Raphael Cathedral, which was destroyed by arson in 2005, will be turned into a park-like public space that will include an elaborate walking path commemorating Christ’s final hours.