Do you want to become a better antiracist? Conference Minister Franz Rigert is laying plans for a four- to five-day trip to Alabama sites that played key roles in the Civil Rights movement. The trip, expected to take place between Jan. 28 and Feb. 7, will include visits to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, and the 16th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham. Additional details, including costs and specific dates, are forthcoming. Email Franz if you’re interested in learning more or helping to plan the itinerary.

Twenty-four young people are enrolled in the 2025-2026 Living Faith online confirmation program offered by the Damascus Project. They come from nine Wisconsin and two Minnesota congregations and are split into two cohorts that meet twice each month. Living Faith is taught by the Rev. Uriah Williams and designed especially for congregations with just one or two young people of confirmation age and for churches that don’t have a resident pastor or lay leader available to teach confirmation. Four participants in the 2024-2025 Living Faith cohort were confirmed in the spring. Email Uriah to learn more.

There’s a new face around the Conference office these days. She’s Sophie Moldenhauer, an 18-year-old Berlin native who arrived earlier this month for a yearlong gap year between high school and college. She’ll be splitting her time between the Conference, Daycholah Center and Our Saviour’s UCC in Ripon, where she’ll live with Pastor Kevin Mundell and his wife, Kelly. Kevin has been a longtime participant in our German exchange programs. Make sure to say hello to Sophie if you see her at Conference events.

If you are a church musician or otherwise involved in designing and leading worship for a progressive faith community, you’ll want to check out the conference to be hosted by the Convergence Music Project Oct. 15-18 in Columbus, Ohio. The theme is “Sing Truth: Leadership For Resistance and Resilience,” and the event will focus on finding, creating and using songs in the context of worship, spiritual formation, and social transformation. Speakers and musicians will include Wisconsin Conference favorites and Convergence Music Project leaders Bryan Sirchio, Andra Moran and Christopher Grundy. Learn more and register. 

Pastors, if you serve a politically divided congregation, you won’t want to miss this fall’s Conference-wide retreat for authorized ministers.  Preaching in a “Plaid Parish” will take place Oct. 12-13 at Cedar Valley Retreat Center in West Bend. Register today. Later in the month, members of the Wisconsin Conference Conflict Transformation Team will lead a two-day retreat aimed at helping congregations learn how to deal with conflict and gain healing from a biblical perspective. The retreat is scheduled for Oct. 24-25 at Daycholah Center. Learn more and register.

• Conference website homepage
• Online event calendar
• Facebook page

The General Fund of the Wisconsin Conference helps us connect, support and resource pastors, leaders, and congregations. Your gift allows the Conference to provide relevant and timely help during the pandemic and beyond. Donate to the General Fund