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It’s a giveaway like no other — a massive liquidation that ultimately will help hundreds of people. As the Madison Catholic Diocese prepares to convert much of its historic headquarters into rental housing, it is clearing out thousands of pieces of furniture and other items and donating them to charities and nonprofit organizations.
At a commercial kitchen on Madison’s North Side, workers in hairnets churned out hundreds of oatmeal raisin cookies, cinnamon rolls and morning buns on a recent Friday morning. Two days later, the baked goods were sold in the lobbies of area churches after worship services let out. The program, called Just Bakery, is a relatively new initiative of Madison-area Urban Ministry (MUM), an interfaith social justice organization with a long history of helping ex-prisoners re-enter society. By training and employing people with criminal records, the organization is leading by example, said Carmella Glenn, Just Bakery program coordinator.
Faith and civic leaders will gather Jan. 27 at the Italian Community Center for the fifth annual State of Milwaukee Symposium sponsored by the evangelical Christian group BASICS and the National Christian Foundation’s Wisconsin chapter. More than 200 people are expected to attend the event, whose focus will be “Engaging Leaders in a City Transformation Movement.” Speakers will include Eric J. Swanson, co-author of the 2010 book “Transform a City,” which explores the ways Christian churches can address social problems that plague urban areas.
The five people running for Madison mayor all seem like decent enough eggs with some decent and — Christopher Daly’s proposal for a Madison public bank notwithstanding — realistic ideas for how to make Madison an even better place to live. One proposal sticks out, though, and not necessarily like a sore thumb. In an area where politicians aren’t given to thanking God for their successes and the most-depended-upon “higher power” is frequently government, one candidate suggests Madison city officials might need faith in something more than just liberal orthodoxy to solve problems. If elected, Richard V. Brown Sr. says…
Julaine Appling is often asked if she’s afraid of being on the wrong side of history. The short answer: she’s not. “There’s no right or wrong side of history,” the president of Wisconsin Family Action says in her office. “History’s being made every single day. It’s not predetermined. I’m making history now. So are you. What I am concerned about is being on the right side of truth.”
All its profound religious and historical significance aside, this book is a work of art. The St. John’s Bible — a modern realization of an ancient text — was created well within the lifetime of most of the people reading this. The seven-volume Bible is a work of stunning calligraphy, vibrant colors and illuminations laced with unexpected modernity. Grounded in the Midwest, is also the first handwritten, illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in 500 years. This huge undertaking is the subject of “Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible,” an exhibition at the Chazen Museum of…
Some spectators mistook the procession around the Capitol Square for a festive occasion, thinking the horses were pulling a carriage with newlyweds. It was a much more somber event than that. The carriage was an 1800s hearse with an empty casket in the back. The mourners, about 75 of them, walked to the side in silence, some carrying candles. This was the seventh year a group of local clergy members and others have organized a memorial service to honor people who died without shelter in Dane County and elsewhere in the past year or in recent years. It was held…
Forty percent of Americans are evangelical Christians, and many of them reject evolution. Jeff Hardin, chairman of the University of Wisconsin’s zoology department, takes this personally. Hardin is an evangelical, but much of his evangelism is directed at his fellow believers. He wants to persuade them that evolution and Christianity are compatible.
Along with Easter, Christmas is a time when many Christians who otherwise aren’t regulars at a church return to the pews. The Rev. Kirk Morledge, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Waunakee, said he doesn’t consider these people visitors — and they frequently don’t, either. “Many of them regard us as their church, even though they may attend just twice a year,” he said. “And we consider them very much a part of our faith family.”
For the tens of thousands who enter its gates on any given Sunday game day (or another day), Lambeau Field is a sight to behold. For David Jones, one of more than 77,000 people in attendance at the Green Bay Packers’ game Monday night, his experience was out of the ordinary among those packed into one of the National Football League’s oldest stadiums. Turns out Jones’ first trip to cheer on his beloved team in its iconic arena started with a spiritual act.