Author: Gordon Govier

A South Side church plans to convert 4,000 square feet of its current building, including its sanctuary, into a community center for one of Madison’s most racially and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Fountain of Life Church and its Nehemiah Community Development Corp. announced in a festive groundbreaking ceremony Friday evening that its existing facility at 633 W. Badger Road will undergo a $300,000 renovation to become the South Madison Center for Culture and Community, described as a neighborhood gathering place to bring various cultures together.

Everett Mitchell has a simple — and compelling — reason for why he gives so much of his time doing community service work. “Because somebody gave it to me,” he says. Growing up in inner-city Fort Worth, Texas, Mitchell, now the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s director of community relations, says the reason he made to college and in to a career was because of people who took time out to help him get ahead. Mitchell also serves as pastor at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church on the east side of Madison.

MADISON — Wisconsin’s bishops reaffirmed their opposition to a federal mandate that all health insurance plans provide coverage at no cost for contraceptive and sterilization services. In a June 15 letter to officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the bishops renewed their argument that the religious exemption to the mandate, first announced last year, is flawed. The HHS mandate is one of several limits on religious liberty that Catholics will highlight during the upcoming Fortnight for Freedom. This 14-day observance runs from June 21 through July 4, 2012, and is dedicated to prayer, catechesis, and…

Main Street in Janesville, Wisconsin was buzzing today as a crowd of a couple of hundred people gathered in front of Rep. Paul Ryan’s home office, waiting for a bus to arrive. The bus carried four nuns on a tour across the Midwest, challenging both the policy and the theology of Ryan’s budget plan for the U.S. The crowd and the bus were far different than the scene on Monday in Janesville when Mitt Romney’s bus and its entourage rolled into town as part of the Republican presidential candidates’ sweep across the heartland.

MIDDLETON — The annual African Market at Sunset Ridge Elementary School in Middleton had double meaning because the profits were donated to help students at a needy school in Africa. The first graders make items every year to sell at the market, which was started at Northside Elementary in Middleton and is patterned after those in Africa as a way for students to learn more about the country. This philanthropic endeavor also helps students learn how they can give back, said Karin Koenig, a first grade teacher at Sunset Ridge. Each year, the first grade classrooms choose what group will…

Summer vacation is underway and children have time for exploring new things, including faith in Jesus Christ. With summer camps, 5-Day Clubs, and Vacation Bible School, opportunities abound for sharing the gospel message. Madison has a cool Christian camp in its own backyard, the Lake Waubesa Bible Camp, on the eastern shore of Lake Waubesa. The first camp for grades 2-4 begins tomorrow.

Music, food and a healthy dose of Gospel characterized Madison’s 23rd annual Juneteenth Day celebration. At the South Side park on this day, children waited their turn to play in the “bouncy house,” young people teamed up for basketball, and adults chatted with friends and family. Music ranged from hip-hop to jazz to gospel. Read more of this story.

Wisconsin Family Action’s Director Julaine Appling addressed a group of 450-500 supporters assembled outside of Kastenmeier Courthouse in Madison on Friday at the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom” Rally. The crowd, one of many across the nation, gathered to express opposition to the Obama Administration’s HHS Mandate, set to be ruled on by the Supreme Court at the end of the month. Appling made it imperative during her speech at today’s rally that, “This idea that we have no right to take our faith outside of the four walls of our churches and outside of the four walls of our…

The desire to ensure more people around the world have safe water to drink prompted Christina Miller to pursue a master of international public affairs degree at the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. “I think we take it for granted that we can go to the bathroom or kitchen and turn on a faucet and we have water in our glass,” Miller says. “We take showers daily and waste water continuously. There are so many places in this world where water, safe and drinkable water, is very hard to come by.” The welfare of women and children is…

Authoritative figures on local church membership are hard to come by. The U.S. Census Bureau has not asked questions about religion since the 1950s, so the task falls to other organizations. Fortunately, every 10 years, a group called the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies collects data on the number of congregations and adherents within each state and county. The latest numbers, just released, offer an interesting look at who’s up and who’s down in Dane County.