Author: Gordon Govier

Every year a select group of international actors presents a dress rehearsal, first performance, and final performance all at the same time, at the University of Wisconsin international fellowship Christmas dinner. The actors dress for the part, and follow the script and the directions of the stage manager. For some in the audience, and maybe even some in the cast, it’s the first time they’ve heard the story of Jesus’ birth. Between two and three hundred international students and scholars, plus local volunteers gathered at Mount Olive Lutheran Church on Whitney Way last Saturday evening for the annual dinner. The…

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin State Patrol has selected its first group of chaplains. The patrol issued a news release saying the 19 volunteer chaplains were appointed Friday. The chaplains are ordained or licensed clergy and currently police chaplains. Read more of this story.

MADISON, WI –Today, Choose Life Wisconsin, Inc., announced it is now an Authorized Group with the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of requesting a specialty license plate.“The choose life plate has been almost ten years in the making,” said Julaine Appling, Choose Life Wisconsin president. “We are excited that within the next eight to twelve months, Wisconsin pro-life citizens will be able to purchase a beautiful license plate that expresses their views on life while also directly helping our state’s life-saving, woman-helping Pregnancy Resource Centers. Read more of this news release (PDF).

There’s the television serial 24, and then there’s Tish Harrison Warren’s new book, liturgy of the ordinary. Both cover the events of a single day but Warren says her book is “the anti-24, the most boring parts are included.”

MILTON, Wis. – As a new twist on Little Free Libraries, Hope Lutheran Church in Milton has started a Little Free Pantry. Pastor Garrett Struessel said the idea came from a church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Instead of books, the pantry is filled with supplies like food, toiletries and cleaning products.

Growing up, the Lin family Thanksgiving tradition was simple: my brother and I playing football with church youth group friends, buying last-minute groceries, assisting mom and dad with cooking and cleaning, and then heading to the potluck dinner at our Taiwanese Church. The dinner always included one small symbolic turkey along with 99 other delicious Chinese dishes. It was around Thanksgiving that I observed one interesting thing about my parents. They never said “Thank you” very much, that weekend or any weekend for that matter. They never expressed it to the other cooks in the church kitchen or to the…

Far too often, the Black Christian students’ response to what’s happening in this country and on their campus, have been overlooked. As a staff member on UW-Madison campus with the Impact Movement, a ministry that serves students of African Descent, I have come to realize that many Black Christian students encounter and struggle with this reality differently than students who are not of the Christian faith. After it was announced that Donald Trump has been elected as the 45th president of the United States of America, I was flooded by messages from my students and peers. A leader in the…

The idea came from an Immanuel Mennonite church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, that designed the sign for its own congregation after an uptick in racist incidents across the country post-election. After several incidents targeting minorities in Madison in the last two weeks, Madison pastor Michael Winnowski decided to promote the signs locally. The sign reads: “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor” in English, Spanish and Arabic.

Matthew McCormick was administering a test to a social studies class at Monona Grove High School earlier this fall when, upon reviewing the test questions, he came across one that stirred his conscience. The question asked students to complete the sentence, “Gender is defined by _____.” The correct response, according to the answer key was “culture.” But, McCormick, a Catholic, didn’t believe it.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican legislator has been holding weekly Bible study sessions for lawmakers in his state Capitol office for the past three years, raising questions again about where the line between church and state lies in the building. Administrative rules require state employees to use state buildings only for official work. Critics say the meetings are inappropriate, even though praying before legislative session days and religious displays in the Capitol rotunda have been upheld as legal.