Author: Gordon Govier

UW–Madison’s Robert Enright is receiving a 2019 Expanded Reason Award in recognition of his pioneering work on the power of forgiveness. This international award from the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid, Spain, and the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, recognizes extraordinary teachers and researchers. The recognition utilizes an international panel of seven judges who examine books and journal articles to ascertain who across the globe is best conducting innovative and important scholarship that cuts across the social sciences and philosophy or theology. Enright, a professor with the School of Education’s highly regarded Department of Educational Psychology, is being recognized…

Memorial Library has a long — and somewhat fraught — history, and when it opened on July 27, 1953, the arrival of the first book was cause for celebration. The day the shelves opened, the UW’s leaders lined up to watch retired librarian Laurence Burke haul in that first volume: a copy of the Coverdale Bible, printed in 1535 — the first complete Bible published in English.

Rev. Carmen Porco, the longtime executive director of Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin, has been a well-known and highly respected anti-poverty activist for decades. But there is quite a bit about Porco’s life, especially his very interesting childhood growing up in poverty in his parents’ barroom in West Virginia, that people don’t know much about. Author, speaker, and diversity expert Dr. Charles Taylor discovered quite a few of those amazing little stories while he was writing the new 222-page biography of Porco’s life story titled “The Carmen Porco Story – Journey Toward Justice.”

Despite weather in the upper 80s early Saturday morning, more than 230 participants came out for the very first Madison Gospel 5K Run/Walk. Runners, numerous volunteers and more than 20 organizations celebrated the event’s theme; “Faith, Family and Fitness.”

MADISON, Wis. – The Salvation Army of Dane County, located on E. Washington Avenue is working on plans to build a $25 million homeless facility on Madison’s east side. The plans include a five-story building with an emergency shelter, transitional housing, a gym, auditorium, chapel, a playground, an apartment complex, mental health facilities, a dental facility, a medical facility, a multipurpose room, shelter bed spaces, laundry rooms, lounge spaces, office space and more.

Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen is still new in town. “I still use the GPS to get around the city,” he says with a laugh. “Some roads I haven’t traveled down there in Madison. Some people I haven’t connected with. And still learning the city.” Yet in his three years as pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church, one of Madison’s oldest and most storied African American churches, he’s impressed enough of his colleagues that he’s been named president of the African American Council of Churches in Madison (AACCM).

Bishop Harold Rayford is leaving town after 13 years. Rayford, 52, has accepted the call to lead Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Columbus, Ohio. “Coming to Madison for many people has been a blessing and it’s been a blessing for me,” said Rayford, who came to Madison in 2006 to lead The Faith Place in Sun Prairie..” I love it here. You know, I enjoyed living here. My son is here, my grandchildren are here. The only reason I’m leaving is because I felt compelled to take this additional assignment.” In an exclusive interview Thursday, Rayford said…

A brief break in Monday afternoon’s off-and-on rain showers allowed young volunteers to nail additional layers of plywood to the roof of Pauquette Park’s shelter and restrooms. They were doing God’s work, according to their supervisor, the Rev. Scott Dadam, pastor of Portage’s River of Life Church, 102 W. Franklin St.. And, in the mind of City Administrator Shawn Murphy, they were a godsend.

The Madison Catholic Diocese’s new bishop, Donald Hying, delivered a message of love and a promise of openness Tuesday during his installation as spiritual leader of 182,000 parishioners. “Please don’t ever be afraid to approach me, challenge me, tell me hard truths,” Hying told hundreds of parishioners and priests during the two-hour celebration at Saint Maria Goretti Church on the city’s Southwest Side.

For Uchenna Jones, it’s all about family. As a labor and delivery nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital, she helps start new families. And as the organizer of the Madison Gospel 5K, the Motivated Females walking group and the Sole Sisters Run Madtown running group, she helps keep those families healthy. The first-ever Madison Gospel 5k will take place on July 20 and include a full-fledged health fair, as well. “My whole thing is family health,” she says. “Look at all these programs that we have that say, ‘Okay, we have to focus on the kids.’ The kids are only as…