Author: Gordon Govier

A seminary student’s request for the leader of The Episcopal Church (TEC) to come and witness unity between U.S. Anglican conservatives and progressives instead prompted a public wave of disunity—which has now been ironically (albeit tragically) tempered by the student’s unexpected death. Terry Star and two other students at Nashotah House, a theologically conservative Anglo-Catholic seminary in Wisconsin, had asked the seminary to invite Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to “come and see ACNA (Anglican Church in North America) and [TEC] in harmony” because she had once advised them not to attend the seminary, Nashotah dean Edward Salmon told the…

My first radio job in Madison included recording news feeds from field reporters and community leaders, including some commentaries from the Rev. Richard Pritchard, who died this week at the age of 100. That was my first contact with the spiritual leader who was the conscience of the community for much of his long life.

Charonne and Kevin Ganiere never really pictured themselves as foster parents. They’d always talked about adopting, maybe when their two small sons were older. But they couldn’t envision bringing children into their lives, loving them as their own and then letting them go — back to their biological parents or an adoptive family. It just seemed too painful. That was then. Today, the Ganieres are parents to five children younger than 10, including three toddlers welcomed through the local foster care system, with no guarantees that they will be able to adopt them. Devout Christians, the Germantown couple see their…

Madison’s Brat Fest, billed as the World’s Largest Brat Fest, is growing into a regional Memorial Day attraction. Among the developments announced today was the addition of a Christian music stage for the 2014 festival and a Sunday morning commmunity worship service.Brat Fest director Tim Metcalfe met with about 50 local pastors and Christian business leaders for breakfast this morning and unveiled details of a number of developments that will make Brat Fest a much larger annual celebration for the Memorial Day weekend. Of highest interest was the connection to the mid-July Christian music festival that has been held at…

Thrivent Financial released its new logo Monday, dropping “for Lutherans” as the tradition-bound organization undergoes a seismic shift to open membership to all Christians. The updated logo also simplifies what was a twisting heart-shaped symbol to more clearly depict a red heart with a cross in it. The new tagline: “Connecting faith & finances for good.”

State Journal: We’re about a year into the reign of Pope Francis. He’s charmed a lot of the world. What have you come to admire most about him? Morlino: What I most admire about him — and it’s really God’s gift to him — is his presence to people.

Lent is that time when we all-too-worldly ones learn and relearn the great scandal that lies at the heart of the Christian faith — Christ came to save sinners, only sinners. Much of the time we get away with the fiction that we are, after all, down deep, rather nice people who have no need of salvation. We know we may not be the best people in the world, but we are not the worst. We are making spiritual progress, lifting ourselves (by ourselves) out of the muck and mire of what once was called “sin.”

About midway through last month’s Sochi Winter Olympics, Steve McConkey issued a press release as president of 4 Winds Christian Athletics, a Madison-based ministry that works primarily with U.S. track and field athletes. McConkey bemoaned what he called the “pro-homosexual policies” of the U.S. Olympic Committee, noting the committee recently added sexual orientation to the non-discrimination policy that participating athletes must agree to. McConkey said that he could envision a time when Christian athletes who oppose homosexuality will be victims of “reverse discrimination” for their beliefs.

Following in the footsteps of The Passion of the Christ almost exactly ten years ago, another major motion picture about Jesus Christ is opening up in theaters in Madison and across the country this weekend. Like Mel Gibson’s Passion, The Son of God has a full-scale Hollywood promotion blitz behind it. Only this time there’s also a social media campaign.In a promotional video for the movie, movie producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett state, “This is the first major motion picture on the complete life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection since The Greatest Story Ever Told, which was…

An Anglican seminary’s invitation to Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has been accused of making statements outside of the church’s traditional understanding of Christ, has drawn ire and led to at least one resignation. Dean Edward L. Salmon, Jr., of the Nashotah House’s historic seminary chapel in Nashotah, Wis., invited Schori for the first time to preach on May 1. And what followed was uproar.