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Kenosha — Father Benjamin Reese stands at the altar and lifts the Eucharist with his outstretched arms, for the smattering of faithful in the pews. There is no sound, but the clanging of its gold-plated vessel. Six women, on their knees, begin to pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee… But Reese is silent. His own prayers these days are internal. Robbed of his voice by a degenerative — and ultimately fatal — disease, Reese continues to serve alongside Father Dwight Campbell at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Therese of Lisieux parishes in Kenosha.
It may not be immediately clear what God has to do with “Rent” or “Ragtime” or “Shrek,” and that’s OK. The Rev. Kerri Parker, pastor of McFarland United Church of Christ, isn’t always sure at first, either, and she’s the one leading this summer’s “God on Broadway” series at the church. On Aug. 3, she’s scheduled to give a sermon on “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a 2005 Broadway production.
Monday’s storms left a popular church retreat in Iowa County without power, displacing campers and staff. Paul Petersen, director of Bethel Horizons, said the 20 adult campers on site at the time huddled together to ride out the storm.
A fast-growing church in Verona is close to finalizing plans for the purchase of a once-popular bowling alley and banquet facility that has fallen on hard times. Sugar River United Methodist Church, which has nearly tripled in size in less than a decade, hopes to turn Wildcat Lanes in Verona into its new home. The congregation currently meets in a former city library building but has outgrown that leased space.
When Ric Stanghelle finished putting his third son through college, he thought he’d put the extra money toward retirement. Now the Wisconsin pastor might spend it on taxes. The Obama administration and a broad spectrum of religious groups are urging the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a federal judge’s 2013 ruling that pastors’ tax-exempt housing allowances violate the First Amendment.
Mary-Kate Martin spent the last three years doing a job she loved, teaching English at La Crescent High School in Minnesota. And she was just getting good at it. “One teacher told me, after your third year teaching — not that it’s ever going to be a piece of cake — but you’re going to be good to go,” said Martin, who is from Marshall. “I really feel that this year. I feel like by far this has been my best year teaching, really connected to the students.” But Martin, 27, recently turned in her resignation, instead pursuing what she…
A Waukesha County judge has dismissed charges against an Oconomowoc woman who left her handgun in a church restroom. Susan Hitchler, 66, was charged in April with negligent handling of a weapon, a misdemeanor. The complaint indicated that on March 19 she had left her handgun in a stall of the women’s restroom at Elmbrook Church.
Although it hasn’t seen a lot of national attention yet, an important new report out of Wisconsin tells us anew that married fathers play a key role in the social and economic stability of society. Compiling and analyzing government data over several decades, The Wisconsin Family Council found that married two-parent families had significantly higher median incomes and were far less likely to be in poverty or receive government assistance than single-mother or single-father homes. Married two-parent families also saw less teen sexual activity, lower teen pregnancy, lower rates of drug and alcohol use and higher educational success than…
Madison has been home to a lot of failed church plants over the years. And one of them had a delicious ending.Lance Ratze moved to the Madison area from the Twin Cities in 2006 in order to plant a new Assemblies of God church. “As soon as we arrived in Madison, we were met by a lot of pastors who said, ‘This is a church planters graveyard.’ We were determined, this was going to be different.”
Julaine Appling was one of the leaders of the push for the 2006 Wisconsin constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage, and she says now she foresaw a judicial threat toward the definition of marriage. Appearing Sunday on journalist Mike Gousha’s statewide TV show “UpFront”, Appling, the executive director of Wisconsin Family Action, said it was “inappropriate” for U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb to rule against what state voters approved.