A Declaration of the Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery

As followers of Jesus, we proclaim that we are called to love God and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:37-39), to treat the most vulnerable among us as we would treat God (Matt. 25:31-46), and to cherish “the splendor of the flowers of the field” and all creation (Matt. 6:28-29).

Many current government policies stand in opposition to these values and truths. They erect barriers that make it more difficult for us and other people of good will to love our neighbor, support the vulnerable, and cherish the earth’s splendor. Therefore we feel called to stand publicly, humbly and nonviolently with all communities of faith and people of good will in opposition to these policies.

Here We Stand

• We object to policies that dismantle our constitutional democracy as well as to policies that undermine Congressionally-funded programs and services providing food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, and care for the earth.
  
• We reject Christian Nationalism as a dangerous and heretical ideology. It distorts the message of Jesus, and threatens the dignity and freedom of all people.
  
• We speak up in opposition to government policies that threaten the well-being and dignity of targeted populations and individuals and we stand in solidarity with immigrants, LGBTQ persons, women, and all those who are persecuted because of race or ethnicity.
  
• We value and care for a healthy and life-giving earth and oppose policies that endanger the well-being of our planet and the living creatures who inhabit it.

We recognize that compassion and care for the vulnerable are central to the beliefs and values of all spiritual traditions. We invite all communities of faith and conscience in the United States to join us in speaking up and resisting policies of our government that violate inherent human dignity and inflict suffering on the most vulnerable, including earth’s plants, animals, water, and air.  – April 27, 2025. 

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Holy Wisdom Monastery’s mission is Weaving prayer, hospitality, justice, and care for the earth into a shared way of life. It is located in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Sunday Assembly is a worshipping community and one of the ‘community of communities’ at Holy Wisdom Monastery. Here We Stand is a consensus statement on behalf of Sunday Assembly that affirms who we are and what we are called to proclaim as followers of Jesus. The declaration stands as a courageous witness to the Gospel in the face of injustice, exclusion and violence.

We welcome your support of the declaration and invite you to add your name and any comments you wish to make in the comment section below. All comments are reviewed manually before they appear on our website to maintain a respectful, safe, relevant discussion and to filter out spam. Comments usually appear within 24 hours, Monday-Friday. 

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Our mission is to weave prayer, hospitality, justice and care for the earth into a shared way of life. Here are some of the ways we invite you to live our mission with us.

Prayer

Holy Wisdom Monastery offers opportunity for spiritual growth every day of the week. Offerings include engaging in communal prayer, spending time in nature, attending a program or joining one of our spiritual communities, Oblates of Holy Wisdom Monastery, Center for Clergy Renewal or Sunday Assembly.

• Talk with a trained spiritual guide.
• Come for a spiritual or environmental program.
• Participate in communal prayer.
• Worship with us on Sunday in person or online.
• Become an Oblate candidate.
• Take a Deep Breath retreat for clergy or apply for the Center for Clergy Renewal.

Hospitality

Our Benedictine tradition of hospitality means that all people are welcomed here as Christ. We invite you to experience this hospitality on a personal retreat, in our peaceful, contemplative spaces, by joining us for a meal, by bringing your group on retreat or celebrating your special event at the monastery.

• Come on a personal retreat. Enhance your retreat by borrowing our binoculars, yoga mats or snowshoes.
• Bring your group for a retreat, meetings or event.
• Celebrate your special events: weddings, baptisms, reunions, birthdays and retirements.
• Honor your loved one with a memorial service or funeral.
• Volunteer – foster a sense of hospitality for others.
• Join us for lunch or dinner as part of your retreat.
• Experience our meditation trail or explore our nature trails.
• Visit the monastery library or oblate library.

Justice

At Holy Wisdom Monastery, justice means living in right relationship and respecting ourselves, others and all of creation. Get involved today.

• Volunteer as a monastery porter and welcome all who come here.
• Give a financial gift to the monastery to continue the ministries of the sisters.
• Join the Sunday Assembly Social Justice Group.
• Support our partner organizations: Luke House, MOSES, Hispanic Ministries & SARTHI. Learn more on our Sunday Assembly page in the How to connect further section then under Social Justice Opportunities.
• Attend one or our programs or experiences focusing on justice.

Care for the Earth

Caring for the earth is part of our mission, rooted in Benedictine values of stability and respect for all of creation. The sisters have a long history of environmental stewardship and invite you to help with this work.

• Attend an environmental program or tour of Wisdom Prairie.
• Volunteer at our Wisdom Prairie Workdays, help us monitor our trails or take care of the courtyard.
• Bring your kids or grandkids to Kids on the Prairie.
• Support Wisdom Prairie.
• Join the Friends of Wisdom Prairie.
• Hike our nature trails that are open to the public.

Community

The sisters have a long history of forming a variety of communities at the monastery. We invite you to explore our communities and get involved.

• We welcome women of any Christian denomination to enjoy quiet contemplation in nature and the heart-centered joy of our inclusive, open-minded sisters’ community, the Benedictine Women of Madison at Holy Wisdom Monastery.
• All are welcome to worship with the Sunday Assembly, an open and affirming community where people from various Christian backgrounds come together to worship.
• The Oblate community meets regularly to help one another grow spiritually and to integrate Benedictine spirituality into their lives.
• Friends of Wisdom Prairie support caring for the earth through volunteering, donating and learning.
• Pastors find renewal through the gifts of Benedictine monastic spiritual and community in the Center for Clergy Renewal community.
• Our Young Adult Community offers unique experiences and friendship for young people. Contact YoungAdults@holywisdommonastery.org for more information. Register here.

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Sumbitted by The Religious Leader Caucus of MOSES: Sr. Joan Duerst, O.P., Patricia La Cross, Mark Petersen, Marsha Baldwridge

As a community of communities, MOSES members share the core belief that each human person is precious and redeemable by all we call Holy: the Lord of Israel, Jesus, the teachings of the prophet Mohammed, and the practices of Buddhism and other non-theist spiritualities.

Our whole Wisconsin network (MOSES is one of 11 WISDOM state affiliates) has been asked to broadly urge our members to join a letter campaign. This effort aims for the release of 2 individuals in our prison system who have been incarcerated since their youth, and have matured and transformed themselves under the most repressive circumstances.

Forgiveness – as any other exercise – involves practice, challenging our perceived limits, and honesty. Please take the time to read the following, and prayerfully consider writing a letter asking that mercy be shown to the persons described.

Governor Evers proclaimed April 2023 as Second Chance Month, saying “compassion, empathy, and forgiveness [are] Wisconsin values, and “redemption, second chances, and efforts to invest in people are important to the future and prosperity of the state.”

Our request is that he consider commuting the sentences of two individuals, Israel Saldana and Michael Maldonado, who need a second chance because they received disproportionately long sentences for crimes they committed in their youth, back in the 1990s. They deserve a second chance because they have already served so much time and demonstrated so much maturity and good character that they would have qualified for parole before now if the length of their sentences had not ruled out that remedy. Our preference would be to see them released immediately to rejoin their families, free except for an appropriate period of community supervision. If that seems too drastic, we suggest that you at least commute enough of their sentences to make them eligible now to be considered for parole.

Historical precedents in Wisconsin. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was a common practice for Wisconsin governors of both parties to grant commutations to reduce the sentences of prisoners who had been convicted of serious crimes (including first-degree murder), when their behavior behind bars suggested sufficient rehabilitation to return to society as responsible, job-ready citizens. Governors that invested in acknowledging transformed lives by allowing this second chance included Governors Warren Knowles, Patrick Lucey, Lee Dreyfus, and Tony Earl. They commuted several dozens of life sentences. [2019 paper by Harlan Richards]. This humane and logical tradition of giving second chances ended abruptly with the election of Tommy Thompson, who presided over the enormous growth of Wisconsin’s prison population from 1987 – 2001. Thompson has since changed his mind about the wisdom of his previous course and now states, “We lock up too many people for too long. It’s about time we change the dynamics. I apologize for that.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/5/2018].

Summary

Human Impact: Other states have used executive clemency to reduce unnecessarily long sentences. According to an article in The Guardian, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown “commuted the sentences of 144 people convicted of crimes as serious as murder yet have demonstrated “extraordinary evidence of rehabilitation.’” Governors of both parties in North Carolina, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Ohio have granted clemency for similar reasons in recent years, though not in such numbers. As The Guardian points out, this kind of clemency is “well within established tradition.” Although the use of executive clemency has been rare since the “tough on crime” movement began in the 1980s, for much of history, presidents and governors regularly used clemency to recognize a prisoner’s ‘exceptional rehabilitation’ or to correct an injustice done by prosecutors or judges.

Both Israel Saldana and Michael Maldonado were convicted of first-degree murder nearly 30 years ago and given sentences that seem inordinately long, especially since there were extenuating circumstances in each case. Saldana was a young man who did not use a weapon in his crime. Maldonado was an impressionable child of 15. The codefendants in both crimes were treated less severely and are now free. During their decades behind bars, both Saldana and Maldonado have shown outstanding evidence of rehabilitation, including exceptionally good conduct records, completed programs, training, and proficient employment.

Wisconsin could benefit from commuting sentences: As Bryan Stevenson said, “Each one of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” There is obviously far more to Israel Saldaña and Michael Maldonado than the mistakes they made when they were young. These men have grown up and transformed themselves, developing talents, skills, and strengths of character that would make them valuable members of their local communities and the state workforce. Enabling men like them to rejoin their families and communities before they grow any older would benefit all of us. We need your support to acknowledge extraordinary evidence of growth, potential, and transformation from these men. Release them so their progress does not go to waste. Providing a second chance for these incarcerated individuals allows them to make amends while they take critical steps to be productive members of their community. Your support for redemption also saves taxpayers money because commuted individuals become employed and pay taxes when they are released. Wisconsin’s core values inspire hope that we are a people of second chances and that humanity deserves compassion, empathy, and forgiveness.

We are asking you to do something a little more time and labor-intensive than the usual email or phone call. After you read the letter, please send a letter or postcard through the US Mail to him yourself. Ask him, in your own words, to use his power to commute the sentences of Michael and/or Israel. – David Liners, State Director of WISDOM.

If you have already signed a petition or written a letter for this cause, please try to do so again, so that this effort is not buried. Many of us have found this to be a prayerful act of solidarity.

Questions? Please contact Patti: lacross.patricia@gmail.com, HWM MOSES Representative

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A diverse group of affirming religious communities spanning the faith spectrum are joining together for Madison’s second annual recognition of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, held this year at Temple Beth El. The planners of this event feel the need to recognize the ongoing harm faced by the transgender community, especially by Black transgender women. Rabbi Jonathan Biatch of Temple Beth El says, “our goal is to elevate, to raise up” toward “the intention and the action of the Creator.” He adds, “acts of memory evoke love, acts of memory evoke action.” Cantor Jacob Niemi adds that “it’s important to hold space” not only for those “who are still with us but those whose voices are no longer present, for them to be seen in their fullness.”

The event will be held Sunday, November 20 at Temple Beth El, 2702 Arbor Dr, Madison, WI, and will center transgender people and transgender faith leaders and musicians, as well as allies. Vica-Etta Steel, vicar at St John’s in Madison, says, “I am a Queer woman, transgender. I have felt the way words of faith have been twisted into weapons and held at the hearts of we who are trans, but I also see how so many faiths are doing the work to return to their transgender siblings, parents, and children. In this service, we acknowledge the pain and strive toward healing.”

This event is open to the public. We invite you to join us on Sunday, November 20, beginning with fellowship and Queer Community organizations at 6:00 pm with the service starting at 7:00 pm. You can also join us via livestream at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpWBgayaL6d-Wb3lDPPCy7g.

Co-sponsored by:  

• Briarpatch Youth Services (Teens Like Us Program)
• Circle Sanctuary
• Congregation Shaarei Shamayim
• Covenant Presbyterian Church
• First Baptist Church of Madison
• Holy Wisdom Monastery
• Lake Edge UCC
• League of Women Voters of Dane County
• Memorial United Church of Christ
• Middleton Community Church UCC
• Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ
• Pres House (Queerly Beloved; FACETS)
• PHA
• St. John’s Lutheran Church
• St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
• Temple Beth El
• Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice

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Madison, WI – In solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community, a diverse group of affirming religious organizations and community partners will unite for Madison’s first Pride Interfaith Service on Thursday, August 18, 2022, at First Baptist Church in Madison from 5:00-8:00 pm. This event is open to the public.

The planners of this event feel the need to speak queer affirmation loudly. Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, explains that “for far too long, faith communities have been a source of pain and discrimination for the LGBTQIA+ community.”

This event addresses the pain and harm caused by religious institutions, but also celebrates queer joy and love. It begins at 5:00 pm for a time of food and fellowship, featuring the Holy Cow Food Truck and local LGBTQIA+ organizations, followed by the Pride Interfaith Service at 6:30 pm. The service can also be viewed online at live.firstbaptistmadison.org.

Rev. Tim Schaefer, pastor of First Baptist, says, “As an openly queer pastor, I have experienced the Church as both a source of my trauma and a source of my liberation. This service is our way of acknowledging the complicated relationship our faith communities have with the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Charles McLimans, a gay faith leader and CEO of Holy Wisdom Monastery is proud to serve as one of the organizers of the Pride Interfaith Service, “As we strive for greater inclusivity in the world and in the church, we wish to lift up the LGBTQIA+ community at this event and welcome all who wish to celebrate and support us.”

This event is being co-sponsored by the following congregations and organizations:

HOSTED BY:

• First Baptist Church of Madison

PARTICIPATING FAITH COMMUNITIES:

• Advent Lutheran Church of Madison Christian Community
• Bethany United Methodist Church
• Christ Presbyterian Church
• Circle Sanctuary
• Community of Hope UCC of Madison Christian Community
• First Unitarian Society of Madison
• Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
• Holy Wisdom Monastery
• Jewish Social Services of Madison
• Memorial United Church of Christ
• Middleton Community Church UCC
• Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church
• St. John’s Lutheran Church
• St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
• Temple Beth El

COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

• Briarpatch Youth Services
• Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin
• JustDane
• League of Women Voters of Dane County
• Madison Area Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Association (MATA)
• Outreach LGBTQ+ Community Center
• Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
• Vivent Health
• Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice

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For more than 30 years, the Luke House Community Meal Program has brought Dane County church groups and other faith-based communities together to help feed local people who are in need. 

Faith is what motivates the volunteers who prepare and serve food, and then eat with guests. The Community Meal Program is an important and practical way of being united together as one with other faith organizations. On the second Tuesday of each month, members of Holy Wisdom Monastery participate in preparing, serving and sharing a meal at Luke House.

For more information on volunteering sign-up and COVID safety precautions, contact Mary Hoddy, 608-217-6664, mary.hoddy@wisc.edu.

Join us in celebrating the 17 generous 2021 & 2022 Luke House donors who have contributed a combined $5,545, in support the Holy Wisdom Luke House social justice initiative, as of August 16, 2022.

1. Anonymous
2. Barb & Dan Abbott
3. Sandy Adams
4. Shawn Ahern-Djamali
5. Mary Alberts and Don Spencer
6. Abbie Loomis
7. Michel & Patrick McGettigan
8. Alison & David McKee
9. Jane Oberle & Dan Roelke
10. Amy L. Ryan
11. Neal & Diane Smith
12. Aggie Steichen
13. Michael & Therese Stevens
14. Maureen Van Dinter
15. Sandy Wojtal-Weber
16. Kathy Woytych
17. Steve Zwettler & Barbara Brummer

If you’d prefer to offer a financial gift, we invite you to share a one-time or monthly reoccurring gift. 

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“Words and names are the ways we human build relationships”

-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss

In this installment of reSTORYation, we invite you to deepen your connection to the land by exploring the place names given by others who have tended and honored this place.

Phonetically spelled, Deyo-ha-waunee is the Ho-Chunk name for Lost Lake.  Lake Mendota is called Wonk-sheck-ho-mikla. These names derive from Ho-Chunk oral traditions which can be further explored in the 1927 publication Lake Mendota Indian Legends. (attached)

The map below animates some of the oral tradition behind the local Ho-Chunk place names, as relayed to Charles Brown, Wisconsin state archeologist in interviews with the Ho-Chunk.  Note that both the map and the 1927 booklet were produced by white people, and consider if and how that influences your interpretation.

For further exploration…

This map, created in partnership by the Ho-Chunk Nation, UW-Madison and the city of Monona shares Ho-Chunk place names for the entire four lakes area. This document also teaches us about the Ho-Chunk Creation Story, land stewardship practices and related vocabulary. http://www.mymonona.com/DocumentCenter/View/6505/FinalMap_web?bidId=

This map allows you to explore spatial extent of Indigenous territories, languages and treaties across the globe.  https://native-land.ca/

Prompts for reflection…

Maps represent a particular way of viewing the world in that they tend to emphasize ownership, fixed boundaries and power. After viewing these maps, you may wish to reflect on the following considerations:

• What are the challenges associated with mapping Indigenous territories?
• What sources are used in each map? Whose stories and biases are reflected?
• How do traditions of written history and oral history differ in their impact on cultural memory?
• What place names are you familiar with that have roots in Ho-Chunk or other Indigenous languages?  

And a note about language…

Language evolves over time. Examples of this can be found in some of the materials we’ve shared here. For example, the 1927 booklet and map use several terms that are better avoided today. We’ve included a couple of these dated terms below, accompanied by suggested replacements and a bit of context.

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The sisters and Holy Wisdom Monastery community are saddened by the sudden death of Dick Wagner on Dec. 13, 2021. He was a community servant and gay rights leader for decades in Madison and beyond. Click here to read his obituary.

At the monastery, Dick was a long-time member of Sunday Assembly. He championed LGBTQ+ rights and introduced many people to the monastery. He was involved in the monastery’s fundraising efforts and was a regular sponsor for many events. He wrote the case statement for the campaign to raise the money to purchase the 55 acres which is now Wisdom Prairie. After his first book, We’ve Been Here All Along Wisconsin’s Early Gay History (2019) came out, he gave a presentation to the Holy Wisdom community on Wisconsin’s gay history. He was a humble leader and a good friend to so many. Click here to read more about Dick Wagner

Click below to listen to radio interviews by Stu Levitan on WORT radio with Dick about each of his books.

December 20 – Madison Book Beat

December 27 – Madison Book Beat

A celebration of Dick’s life will take place at Holy Wisdom Monastery in the future when it is safe to gather.

To uplift Dick Wagner’s legacy, Holy Wisdom Monastery has set up a designated fund through the Benedictine Life Foundation, the Dick Wagner Memorial Fund for Justice. 

Donations will foster efforts in equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives that Dick would have been proud to support. 

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The relationship began during a time when our son Ian was travelling in India for language and cultural studies; it was the 2005 to 2006 academic year. Soon after he arrived there, he was walking the streets of Delhi and saw a young boy with a cleft palate who seemed to be quite timid in comparison to the other kids his age on the streets. Ian took the boy, whose name was Akshay, to a hospital nearby and asked what it would cost to have the cleft repaired. He was told it would be about $450. He emailed me and asked if I could raise that amount. I told him I would try. We raised the funds and also connected Ian with Smile Train, an organization that is dedicated to providing cleft palate repair in underdeveloped countries.

The Delhi branch of organization arranged for the surgery for Akshay. Since he had no family in Delhi, Ian stayed with him during the hospitalization and recovery. Ian then placed Akshay in an ashram on the outskirts of Delhi, where the residents said they would care for him. Ian stayed in touch until he returned to the U.S. at the end of the 12-month period.

In 2007, Ian returned to Delhi for a six-week course in Urdu. When he went to check on Akshay, he was told that Akshay had run away. One of the other children at the ashram told Ian that Akshay said he was from Patna in Bihar province and that was where Akshay said he was planning to go.

Ian travelled to Patna to check on Akshay and found that he had been held in a government detention house for street boys and that he had then been transferred to Sarthi, an organization that specialized in placing young boys in a small hostel so that they are better cared for and enrolled in a school. Ian got to know Tarkeshwar the director of the program.

Ian remained in touch with Tarkeshwar after he returned to Madison. Soon thereafter Ian started raising funds to help support a couple of the boys at Sarthi. Some of his friends contributed and we joined them.

After we became members of Sunday Assembly and my relationship with Holy Wisdom and with Sisters Joanne Kollasch and Mary David Walgenbach was deepening, I asked Sister Mary David whether it would be possible for us to transfer the funds to Sarthi through Holy Wisdom, so that contributors could claim their donations as charitable contributions. The Board of the Benedictine Life Foundation considered the matter and agreed to allow this. I believe soon thereafter, they decided to adopt Sarthi as one of the social justice ministries of the Monastery.

Chickee and I committed to supporting one of the boys there. It was about $480 per year according to Tarkeshwar. The young boy was named Kallu. In the photo above, you can see him at age 12 years old compared to when he was five. It is gratifying to see how he is developing.

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Give Back with a Backpack goal reached

In joyful outpouring of financial and in-kind contributions, we are excited to share that the Give Back with a Backpack project campaign reached the goal of donating 40 backpacks to Midvale Elementary School students. 

Donors

A special thank you to the many donors who supported this social justice Hispanic/Latinx ministry.  Due to the financial generosity, we were also able to purchase 40 early-reader books in both English and Spanish.

Sandy Adams
Anonymous
Amy Bonomie
Sue and Charles Bradley
Elise Duwe
Janine Edwards
Kathy and Neil Heskin
Holy Wisdom Oblates Candidates Class of 2021
Joan Sullivan
Joyce and Gary Wodka
Sue Koleczek
Marcia Krater
Abbie Loomis
Charles McLimans & Richard Merrion
Julie Melton
Kathleen & Ron Shanovich
Christine and Mike Smith
Neal Smith
Nancy and David Topp

Social justice

In support of our social justice ministries, we worked together with you on the Latinx/Hispanic Give Back with a Backpack project.  

Our goal was to provide 40 Latinx children from the Midvale Elementary School with backpacks. This small gesture will provide a strong start to the school year and give the students confidence and comfort as they begin their first day with pride.

In partnership with Target, our students will also receive the needed age-appropriate school supplies to be included with their backpacks.

Thank you for providing your financial gifts, time and backpacks for our neighbors at Midvale Elementary School.

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