MC News
Dane County has chosen Catholic Charities Madison to run a long-sought and highly-anticipated day resource center for the homeless. The center, to be located six blocks from the state Capitol, is expected to open next summer and be more comprehensive than anything previously offered in the community.
Madison is a generous city, but not the most generous city in Wisconsin. The Barna Research Group has identified the 50 most generous cities in the U.S., based on donations to charities and churches. It seems as though more donations go to churches than to non-profit organizations. Barna reports: “The majority of adults (especially in the top five cities) give to churches.”
Madison, Wis. (WMTV) — Some athletes who compete in the Ironman are also giving back to their community. Ironman Wisconsin draws a few thousand athletes from around the nation. Some athletes are also raising money for charities locally and around the world. Jim Stevens, is a triathlete from Cottage Grove. He is competing in the Ironman and is a member of Team World Vision.
The temptations to skip church on Sunday morning are many, from sleeping in to getting an early start on mowing the lawn. But new research on religious attendance and well-being may give some people cause to reconsider. People who attend Sunday worship not only feel better during the time they are in church, but they are happier throughout the week than non-churchgoers, according to two new studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read more of this story.
Every year on September 1st the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, and Protestants of all stripes come together in unity to pray for God’s good creation. On what is now known as the Global Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation we at the Madison office of Care of Creation would like to invite you to take part as well.
BEAVER DAM, Wis. – A Beaver Dam church is looking at ways to stay welcoming to the public but become more secure, after it was burglarized twice. Rev. Mark Jensen, the pastor at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, makes it his church’s mission to include the community, but he said someone took advantage of that when the church was burglarized two different times in the span of a month.
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” reads the plaque quoting the gospel of John placed by the class of 1955 on the north wall of South Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus. “To the university community that’s good poetry,” said Jon Dahl, a campus staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. “We [as Christians] know that to know the truth is to know Jesus.” Dahl, who has been in campus ministry for 26 years–20 years on the Madison UW campus, led a short guided tour from State Street up Bascom Hill following Thursday’s Upper|House…
An expert on American religious history says it’s “problematic” that the term evangelical is losing its religious connotations and becoming a political description. Douglas Strong, the dean of the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), spoke at a special presentation at Upper|House on the University of Wisconsin campus Thursday morning, attended by 50 people. Strong said the religious term has a rich history, going back to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. And it does also have a political history, but a different political history than is associated with it now.
Across the city Saturday, Milwaukee’s faith community pitched in to offer help and hope in a new effort in partnership with city leaders to assess what’s needed to address urban problems. More than a dozen churches participated in “All Things in Common,” which was billed as a citywide block party but in reality was a chance to find out from folks who are hurting what they really need in the months and years ahead.
JANESVILLE—When Laura Diehl visited her daughter Becca the last time, she knew something was wrong. So she made supper for her Janesville family and drove back to the hospital in Madison. Laura was too late. By the time she arrived, Becca’s heart gave out. Ironically, the chemotherapy that saved Becca’s life at age 3 damaged her heart and cut her life short at age 29. Laura’s oldest child died Oct. 12, 2011. “When Becca died, it took me to an extremely dark place,” Laura said. “I didn’t know such darkness existed. I was isolated and alone.” She did not know…