News
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…
I was previewing a documentary on race inside the studios of WKOW television last month. There were perhaps two dozen of us there — mostly police officers, clergy, social workers and elected officials — watching and then being interviewed to supplement the program. As the documentary wound to a conclusion, I noted that Gee’s was perhaps its most prominent voice. That is no surprise. Gee is a well-known pastor, community organizer and civil rights leader noted for his oratorical skill. A lifelong Madisonian, he leads Fountain of Life Covenant Church and the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development.
ALLOUEZ, Wis. – Nearly 160 years ago, on Oct. 9, 1859, Mary appeared to a young Belgian immigrant living in Kewaunee County, located in eastern Wisconsin on Lake Michigan and near Green Bay. Today, it’s the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. On Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption, the U.S. bishops formally designated the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion as a national shrine.
A Downtown Lutheran church will partner with Catholic Charities Madison to operate a day resource center this winter for the homeless, filling a critical hole in the local safety net that had worried social service providers. The center will operate from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday from Nov. 1 through March 31 at Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin Ave., according to the Rev. Scot Sorensen, the church’s senior pastor.