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In the last week, Kenosha residents have grappled with a police shooting, deadly and destructive unrest in their streets and the weight of the nation’s collective outrage. The city needs to start healing, many said Thursday. Hundreds of people gathered in Harbor Park along Lake Michigan to pray for Jacob Blake, shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer Sunday, and for peace and justice in their city. “Transform our city, Lord God,” local faith leader John Lalgee exclaimed to cheers and outstretched arms.
As outrage and protests continue to shake Kenosha, Wisconsin after the police shooting of another young Black man, the mother and the pastor of Jacob Blake are calling America to prayer. Before the Blake family began their press conference Tuesday afternoon, attorney Ben Crump introduced Pastor James E. Ward, Jr., the pastor of Blake’s family for more than 30 years, to lead the group of assembled family members, attorneys and media representatives in prayer. Ward explained that at Blake’s mother’s request and at Attorney Crump’s request, he wanted to set the tone of the press conference by briefly representing their…
Private schools in Dane County are pushing back — including weighing a potential lawsuit — against an order from the local health department that suspends most in-person instruction for the start of the new school year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Heads of private schools say an order issued Friday by Public Health Madison and Dane County requiring schools to teach students in grades 3-12 solely online is overly broad and poorly timed, and upends plans to give parents a choice between face-to-face or virtual learning options for their children. The order, which applies to both public and private schools, took…
(RNS) — Pam Schulz has never seen anything like it. Just about every home in the Cedar Rapids area has been impacted by the storms that swept across the Midwest last week with hurricane-force winds, according to Schulz, the executive director of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, a congregation in Marion, Iowa, affiliated with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. Some have trees downed in their lawns. Some have trees through their houses and on their cars. Some, more than a week later, still don’t have electricity. And unlike the flooding that swept Cedar Rapids about a decade ago, the damage…
“Schools shut down and immediately we were brainstorming, what are the kids and families going to need?” said Cherokee Heights Middle School social worker Abby Ray in an interview with Collaboration Project’s Jon Anderson and Westminster missions chair Pamela Wilson. Providing food for families who depended on the now-closing school food programs rose to the top. Ray reached out to Laura Glaub, social worker at Thoreau Elementary, as the two schools had many shared families. “What can we do?” she asked. They had two days to get food out of school food pantries and develop a plan. Glaub approached Westminster Presbyterian for…
With ever-evolving social restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, mourning the death of a loved one can be difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s why Fitchburg businesses like Gunderson Funeral and Cremation Care, 2950 Chapel Valley Road, and Agrace Hospice and Palliative Care, 5395 E. Cheryl Pkwy. have conceptualized ways to serve their clients in their grief process despite distancing.
MADISON — Barring local county health departments issuing an order for closure, Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison will return to in-person instruction this fall, but how that looks from school to school will vary. “All of our schools are very different,” said Michael Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Madison.
TOWN OF ROXBURY — A leaky roof has created a rare vantage point in northwestern Dane County. The view from the top of the scaffolding that surrounds the steeple of St. Norbert Catholic Church will only be around for another month or so. But the work, which includes repairing and replacing some of the stone and mortar along with upgrades to the spire, is designed to preserve, restore and stabilize the church building. The goal of the $1.2 million project is also to ensure that one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Wisconsin remains viable.
PARDEEVILLE, Wis. – The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office is launching a police chaplaincy program to help its deputies and community members deal with traumatic situations. “Deputies see a lot of different, difficult situations weekly, sometimes daily,” said Capt. Jim Stilson. “It’s not so much the incident and what they see. It’s also dealing with the families and humanity of it.” Stilson said tough situations, such as notifying a family they’ve lost a loved one, can stick with you.
The American Solidarity Party, which supports “the sanctity of human life, the necessity of social justice, our responsibility to care for the environment, and promotion of a more peaceful world,” is expected to be included in the Wisconsin November 3 election ballot when slots are decided by the Wisconsin Election Commission on September 1. David Bovee, Wisconsin ASP Chair, announced in an email to supporters the successful result of the 2020 Wisconsin petition drive on behalf of presidential candidate Brian Carroll and vice presidential candidate Amar Patel: