MC News
Andy and Jenny Czerkas have been recognized nationally for their holistic approach to free food distribution. Andy Czerkas, an information technology instructor at Madison College, is one of five finalists for the national AARP Hunger Hero Award, which carries a $15,000 donation.
I’ve been asking myself that question a lot recently. I’m a junior living in the dorms. That doesn’t make sense. At least that’s what people tell me. At the University of Wisconsin – Madison, it’s widely understood that once you finish your freshman year in the dorms, you’re out of there. In fact, freshmen start signing leases for apartments within a month or two of arriving on campus. Dorms are a rite of passage for freshmen, but generally students don’t choose to live in them for a second, and certainly not a third, year. So why am I living in the…
The headline seemed more suited to The Onion than “Scientific American” magazine: “Religious experiences shrink part of the brain.” But the article was real, as was the recent study by researchers at Duke University. I reached out to the study’s lead author, Amy Owen, whom I recognized from her research on forgiveness at UW-Madison.
Clara Franklin had no idea she was about to cause such a ruckus when she took the stage May 1 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Madison. The historically black congregation was celebrating its 100th anniversary with a special service, and Franklin, 86, the church’s first female deacon, was asked to give a few reflections. She was just a couple of minutes into her remarks when she faltered, then crumpled.
CHAMPION, Wis. – Philip and Barbara Hesselbein came to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help to pray for a grandson who has an inoperable brain tumor. Darlene Searcy prayed for her family and for herself; she has cancer. Mary Spakowicz, who also has cancer, came “because God will hear me here.” The afflicted and the faithful have long made pilgrimages to the quiet country site east of Green Bay where Belgian immigrant Adele Brise said in 1859 that she saw the Virgin Mary three times. For the past few years, maybe 30 or 50 people had trickled in…
Fifty years ago, Marlys Mittelstadt, of Monona, put off starting her new job as the organist and choir director at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Madison because she was having a baby. She officially started serving the congregation when her youngest child was six weeks old. “It was 50 years (of performing) on Sept. 15,” she said. On Sunday, she played at her last service and while she plans on performing recitals in the future, she said she will miss Sundays.
This Sunday, September 18, is National Back to Church Sunday, when people in churches across the country are encouraged to invite their friends and neighbors to join them in church. More than 7500 U.S. churches are participating, including Lutheran, Assemblies of God, Methodist, and Nazerene churches in southern Wisconsin (although none actually in Madison, according to the event website). Although participation seems limited in the Madison area, the idea is a good one. A quote from LifeWay Research, featured on the website, says, “82% of the unchurched are likely to attend church if invited.. yet only 2% of church…
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will have to pay nearly $500,000 in legal costs incurred by a Catholic student group that sued over the university’s refusal to fund some of the group’s activities. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision a year ago that UW-Madison’s policy of turning down funding requests from student groups for student activities involving prayer, worship and proselytizing violates their First Amendment right to free speech. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the UW-Madison’s appeal of the ruling.
MADISON–For many of us, we’ll never forget where we were when the images of airplanes crashing into the Twin Towers seared their way into our collective memory forever. As the death toll continued to climb, some started searching for answers from a higher being. “Most every church saw a dramatic increase in worship attendance,” said Rev. Scott Carlson, of the Sun Prairie United Methodist Church. “I think it was in part, people trying to make sense of the tragedy that took place.”
The sky over Madison was filled with contrails on this evening ten years ago. I was with my son and my dog and sat for awhile in a park along Lake Monona as the sun dropped toward the western horizon. I counted four jets in the air at the same time. Earlier in the day a vintage WWII B-17 bomber had been flying around Madison. The next evening, of course, there were no planes in the air over Madison or anywhere else in the country.