MC News
Almost every night for the last six weeks, Lauren Anderson and several friends have gathered at midnight at Faith Community Bible Church in Madison for an informal, self-led communion service. The UW-Madison students break bread together and pray, believing the intense, focused devotional time elicits tangible results, from deeper personal connections to God to greater unity among believers.
In a lengthy television interview with the political correspondent for Christian Broadcasting News, a calm but determined Gov. Scott Walker talked openly about his faith, his determination not to lose the recall election set for June, his views on unions, and what he would have done differently in the winter of 2011 regarding changes to collective bargaining.
There was a time when everything the Rev. Richard Pritchard did or said made news in Madison. For several decades starting in the 1960s, Pritchard was a prominent culture warrior. He decried X-rated book stores, massage parlors and nude dancing. He fought against same-sex marriage and lent his spiritual counsel to Citizens Concerned for Our Community, an anti-pornography group. He was a beacon of morality to some, a homophobe and a prude to others. Still, even his enemies found him gentlemanly and good-humored. That was the Pritchard who met me at the door of his Downtown independent-living residence late last…
Good Friday is not the holiday it was a few decades ago. No longer can every Christian employee count on getting time off to attend Good Friday services. And for those who do get the day off, a new dilemma: attend the traditional afternoon services or the evening services that some churches now offer. For Madison residents the coming Good Friday offers one additional option, a display of art and music by local Christian artists focusing on the events of the Passion narrative, from Jesus’ betrayel to the resurrection.
Ours is a pluralistic society where various cultures, ideologies, and religious perspectives vie for attention in the marketplaces of ideas. Historically, the university campus has been a place where robust pluralism is most evident. It is a tragic loss that one of those voices — orthodox Christian faith — is now being muted.
Nearly 300 couples will renew their wedding vows in Milwaukee churches this Sunday as part of Black Marriage Day, a national initiative aimed at bolstering marriage in the African-American community.
A crowd of more than 400 people from several area congregations gathered Downtown over the lunch hour Friday to protest a federal plan that would require employers, including churches and church-affiliated enterprises, to pay for contraceptives in their health care plans. Part of a nationwide protest, the rally filled the plaza in front of the federal court building, 120 N. Henry St. Bishop Robert Morlino spoke to the crowd, exhorting them to fight the rule, part of President Barack Obama’s health care plan, that goes into effect in August.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, one of the nation’s largest Christian denominations, issued a draft statement Thursday calling for reform of the nation’s criminal justice system. The statement comes as Wisconsin interfaith leaders, including those of the ELCA’s Greater Milwaukee Synod, are mobilizing in support of similar reforms in Wisconsin.
For the first time in history, a criminal court has ruled on a case of antiquities forgery. One antiquities collector has been acquitted of all charges and another has been acquitted of all but several minor charges. The verdict is still out on the validity of an inscription that ties an ancient relic to the family of Jesus of Nazareth, although many Bible scholars say they have made their own decision.
Zenan was such a small place it scarcely rates a mention in the Bible. It’s included in a list of sixteen towns and villages in the southwestern foothills of the tribal region of Judah reported in Joshua 15:37-41. It may also have been mentioned in Micah 1:11 (spelled Zaanan). Madison resident Jeff Blakely may know the location of Zenan. He believes he started excavating there last summer, at a site today called Khirbet Sumeilly. Khirbet Sumeilly is just four miles from where he launched his career in archaeology four decades ago.