madison
By Nicole Pollack – Wisconsin State Journal – Luther Memorial Church on Madison’s Near West Side is asking the developer of a planned 15-story student apartment building to compensate it for what it projects will be lost output from the church’s new solar panels and damage to its century-old sandstone exterior by leaving the church covered in shadow for much of the day. The apartment building would be taller than the peak of the church roof, and church officials said it would shade the church — and the church’s solar panels — far more than the four-story structure the building…
By Juliana Tornabene and Leigh Mills MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – It’s a parent’s unending love and faith in God, that’s held the Garduno-Martinez family together in the 10 months since the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School. The Madison family has experienced some of the most painful times imaginable, as then 17-year-old Samy Garduno-Martinez, who loved cross country and spending time with friends, was one of the students critically wounded following the school shooting. Read more of this story.
By Christ Rickert – Wisconsin State Journal – Becky Mack had a rough start to life. Raised along with her four siblings by a drug-addicted, “nomad” father, she suffered abuse and was intermittently removed from his care by child welfare workers until she went into foster care for good at the age 8 when the family moved to Madison. But 28 years later, Mack is proof that a rough start doesn’t have to define the finish. With some help from sources both earthly and divine, Mack got her high school diploma, then her certified nursing assistant license, then her nursing…
By Cara Buckley – New York Times The prairie sisters of Wisconsin would never call themselves renegades. Not in their decision to open their Roman Catholic community to Protestants. And not in their decades-long work restoring 170 acres around their monastery to ecological health, transforming lawns and farm fields into thriving oak savanna and native prairie that is riotous with wildflowers and grasses, insects, rabbits and birds. The sisters of Holy Wisdom Monastery outside Madison, Wisc., say these actions fulfill their highest calling: to welcome all people and care for the Earth as a sacred place. The sisters have won…
In a message at the beginning of the 2025 fall semester, the University of Wisconsin urged students to review their class schedule and “note with your instructors any need for academic flexibility due to religious or cultural observances.” The note added that relief from an exam or assignment should be requested within the first two weeks of classes. The university and other state schools have a religious observance policy as mandated by state statute. The UW policy states: “A student’s claim of a religious conflict, which may include travel time, should be accepted at face value. A great variety of…
By Nicole Pollack – Wisconsin State Journal – The former Lakeview Moravian Community Church has stood for about 70 years on a triangular block in Madison’s Eastmorland neighborhood. Now empty, the single-story building at 3565 Tulane Ave. will soon be demolished for 26 lower-cost apartments and a new Eastmorland Community Center. The church’s two congregations, known collectively as Common Grace, have relocated temporarily to St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Monona but will return after construction to worship in the community center’s multi-use performance space. Upwards of 75 people showed up Wednesday to celebrate the church and community center breaking ground…
The 74th Annual Tour of Madison for New International Students was one of the largest tours in recent memory. An announced total of 358 student signed up for the tour, arriving at Engineering Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus on a sunny Labor Day afternoon to be introduced to their new home city. In a second auditorium in Engineering Hall almost 200 volunteers from several dozen Madison area churches gathered to be briefed on the logistics of this annual all-volunteer effort. Students and volunteers alike had to navigate a disruptive construction zone on the engineering campus, due to the…
By Barry Adams – Wisconsin State Journal – The mission here is care and compassion. And over the years, Madison’s oldest church congregation has lived up to its charge, behind and beyond the red doors that stand out amid the weathered sandstone at the corner of West Washington Avenue and Capitol Square. Grace Episcopal Church hosted the city’s men’s homeless shelter from 1984 to 2020 and continues to minister to the homeless. The church has operated a food pantry for more than 50 years, offers free concerts and has undertaken mission trips to Haiti. But caring for its own building…
By Patricio Crooker – Madison Capital Times – Led by retired Madison Police Chief David Couper, a crowd of protesters literally took up a cross on Saturday to send a message that President Donald Trump’s policies are cruel to vulnerable people. Marchers carried an 8-foot-long wooden cross, mimicking the suffering of Jesus Christ as he carried his own burden leading to his crucifixion, as told in the Christian bible. Couper and many of the other protesters are members of the clergy, representing a variety of faith communities. Read more of this story.
A few religious leaders will carry an eight-foot wooden cross up State Street at 11 a.m. Saturday to protest the cruelty of Donald Trump’s government. They will start at Lake and State streets and will finish at the state Capitol. Everyone is invited. Madison, of course, has many protests, but this one stands out because of the backstory of its principal organizer. For much of his adult life, David Couper was Madison’s transformational police chief, employing innovative policies and hiring a diverse and well-educated workforce. Couper’s mastery as police chief extended to peacefully accommodating Madison’s many protests, always honoring First…