Blog
by Gordon Govier The meeting of the Wisconsin State Committe of the American Solidarity Party (ASP) at a Fitchburg restaurant Saturday started and ended with a prayer. “It’s our first big face-to-face meeting since COVID,” said state party chair David Bovee. It was not a big meeting. Three committee members were present and a half-dozen interested and curious local residents joined them. The State Committee meets on a monthly basis and meetings post-COVID have been online up to March, 2026. A few items of business were dispatched, including election of officers. Much of the discussion focused on how to build…
“My rolodex is full of people you introduced me to,” pastor Amanda of Madison’s Edan Center told Diane Hanson, CEO of United Madison Christian Givers, as she explained the impact of UMCG on her ministry to survivors of sex trafficking. At last Tuesday’s UMCG fundraiser she explained how attending a UMCG workshop opened “a floodgate of community support and aligning with like organizations.” All of those connections come into play when, for example, a couple living in a rental car in a church parking lot have nowhere else to turn. Other UMCG grant recipients like Shelter from the Storm and…
By Barry Adams – Wisconsin State Journal – Paul Lang thought his job was going to be fairly straightforward. In 2022, he began work inside St. Bernard Catholic Church on Madison’s East Side to refurbish the choir loft and create space for pipes behind the alter so two restored vintage pipe organs could be installed. But the $3 million project is now a small part of what has become a $33 million transformation for the nearly 100-year-old church building and the 150,882 members of the Diocese of Madison. In February, the diocese hopes to consecrate St. Bernard’s as a cathedral…
In a message at the beginning of the 2025 fall semester, the University of Wisconsin urged students to review their class schedule and “note with your instructors any need for academic flexibility due to religious or cultural observances.” The note added that relief from an exam or assignment should be requested within the first two weeks of classes. The university and other state schools have a religious observance policy as mandated by state statute. The UW policy states: “A student’s claim of a religious conflict, which may include travel time, should be accepted at face value. A great variety of…
By Patricio Crooker – Madison Capital Times – Led by retired Madison Police Chief David Couper, a crowd of protesters literally took up a cross on Saturday to send a message that President Donald Trump’s policies are cruel to vulnerable people. Marchers carried an 8-foot-long wooden cross, mimicking the suffering of Jesus Christ as he carried his own burden leading to his crucifixion, as told in the Christian bible. Couper and many of the other protesters are members of the clergy, representing a variety of faith communities. Read more of this story.
“People are not our enemies, they are our mission,” said Rev. Dr. Elie Hasbani, the speaker at this year’s annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by Milwaukee’s Christian Courier newspaper. The Grand Ballroom of the Wisconsin Club on West Wisconsin Avenue was filled with several hundred attendees. Rev. Hasbani is a native of Lebanon, was trained as a soldier by Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and was severely wounded when he stepped on a landmine. He came to the US in 1991 and now pastors Ethnos Church in Milwaukee, while also operating a ministry called Running for Hope that provides healthcare in…
By Samara Kalk Derby – Wisconsin State Journal – Abundant Life Christian School parent Kari Aeschlimann was feeling reflective Tuesday morning. A day earlier, customers had packed area Culver’s restaurants to support a fundraiser for Abundant Life, where a student killed a teacher and a student in a shooting Dec. 16. What had started as a local benefit to raise money to help Abundant Life families blossomed into a statewide effort, in which at least 80 Culver’s restaurants donated a portion of the day’s proceeds to the fundraiser. “There are no words to express what a beautiful outpouring of love…
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -A mother and her three kids received a life-changing gift after navigating hardship and homelessness. Bianca Hightower shed tears when she received a car for her family at City Church on Saturday morning. Organizations Generous Jalopy and Waunakee Christian Brothers Automotive donated it to her. Read more of this story.
By Michael Foust – Crosswalk.com – The backup quarterback who led Green Bay to a victory Sunday says he is “thankful for another opportunity to glorify God” and is eager to support the team in the future however needed — whether on the field or from the bench. Packers QB Malik Willis, filling in for injured starter Jordan Love, completed 12 of 14 passes for 122 yards and one touchdown and ran for 41 yards in his team’s 16-10 victory over Indianapolis at Green Bay. The Packers evened their record at 1-1. “It feels awesome,” Willis told a national television…
By TIM SULLIVAN – MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It was the music that changed first. Or maybe that’s just when many people at the pale brick Catholic church in the quiet Wisconsin neighborhood finally began to realize what was happening. The choir director, a fixture at St. Maria Goretti for nearly 40 years, was suddenly gone. Contemporary hymns were replaced by music rooted in medieval Europe. So much was changing. Sermons were focusing more on sin and confession. Priests were rarely seen without cassocks. Altar girls, for a time, were banned. At the parish elementary school, students began hearing about abortion…