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This was year four of Madison’s collaborative week of service, and do we ever have the stories to back up the momentum and value of this experience! Over 300 volunteers from 24 Madison churches contributed 898 volunteer hours of work at 12 public schools and other sites around Madison. Most folks volunteer at one site: the site their church is working at, the site that works best for their schedule, or the one closest to their neighborhood. And with so many volunteer sites and different shifts, it’s hard to get the full view of this event. So, we gathered leaders…

On a clear day, from the tower of the Holy Hill Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, you can see the skyline of Milwaukee, 30 miles away. Madison is 65 miles in the other direction. Perched atop the highest eminence in southeastern Wisconsin, its presence is stunning, especially in the fall when the leaves of the surrounding hardwood forests are at peak color. As the name suggests, it could be described as one of Wisconsin’s holiest sites. It is a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic church, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. It’s also on…

Charles Yu, a pastor on the staff of Madison’s Blackhawk Church, is among a broadly diverse group of Christian leaders featured by the National Association of Evangelicals in a video which explains that evangelical is a religious term and not a political term. An email from NAE explains: Political, social and cultural trends have changed the public perception of evangelicalism, particularly in the United States. Many people now assume that evangelicals are white, American and Republican. While some evangelicals are those things, millions of self-identified evangelicals are not. This new video from the National Association of Evangelicals addresses what it…

By Fred Grossenbach – Backpack drives are taking place all over the city as school openings approach.  This year Lighthouse Christian School and Church partnered with Christ Church Madison to “take it up a notch” to bless the community in multiple ways. Christ Church provided over 300 backpacks. Assisted by a generous grant from the Madison Christian Giving Fund, Lighthouse provided free school supplies.  Pencils, pens, notebooks and calendars were available for free on a first come first served basis. But there was more: a bouncy slide and face painting for the kids, a taco truck, music and the Extended…

Francesca Pica – Wisconsin State Journal – Just off Highway M in Middleton is a hidden place, sheltered by dense trees and blanketed with grasses. Out of sight, though, doesn’t mean off-limits. On the contrary, the Benedictine sisters who run Holy Wisdom Monastery invite visitors and hope it’s a welcoming place for all, worshipers and the general public alike. The spacious, white-walled monastery offers free water and coffee, a log to request prayers during the daily service, and volunteers eager to assist. Outside, the sisters, who live in the monastery and lead the group, invite visitors to wind their way…

World Relief Wisconsin will be better equipped to welcome newcomers to the Fox Valley as the Oshkosh office moves in August to the Hyde Family Community Center, 545 Monroe St. As a community partner in the new center—a component of the Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh’s recent $18.5 million expansion—World Relief Wisconsin will provide refugees arriving to the Fox Valley with a more accessible, family-friendly space to seek services. Read more of this story.

By Dean Robbins – Photo by Bryce Richter – ON WISCONSIN magazine – UW–Madison launched the Center for Interfaith Dialogue last year — and not a minute too soon, given the onset of the Israel–Hamas war. Though it had been in the works for a while, the center opened just as the university urgently needed a place where students from different religious backgrounds could get to know one another and engage in civil dialogue. Interim director Ulrich Rosenhagen envisioned a program in which undergraduates serve as “interfaith fellows,” educating themselves about religious traditions while fostering a spirit of understanding in…

WMTV-NBC/15 profiled the work of Hope2Others, a Sun Prairie ministry that is working to bring improved medical technology and medical training to Tanzania so that more babies will survive and thrive. Leigh Mills talked with Meriter nurse Karen Klemp and Meriter nursing manager Sue Shafranski in this feature. More information on this ministry at http://www.bringinghope2others.com/.

A PowerPoint presentation packed with graphs showing the decline of religious observance in America filled the fellowship hall at Madison’s Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Saturday morning. “I take no joy in showing you any of these graphs,” said Eastern Illinois University political science professor Ryan Burge. “This is me.” For the past 17 years Burge has also been the pastor of an American Baptist Church in central Illinois, but it’s planning on closing this summer. “We had eight people in worship last Sunday,” he said. UPDATE ON THIS STORY APRIL 2nd STORY FROM THE RELIGION NEWS SERVICE: The last service…

By Michael Foust – Crosswalk.com – Hot dogs and peanuts are familiar sights at baseball games, but fans at a recent matchup in Nashville experienced something unexpected: a baptism. After a game Saturday between the Nashville Sounds and the Memphis Redbirds, a portable baptistry was brought onto the field, where Nashville’s Brewer Hicklen baptized teammate Wes Clarke while players and fans cheered.  The Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Redbirds, also Triple-A, are affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. Nashville won the game, 4-1.  Both players wore “Jesus Won” shorts during the baptism.  Read more of…