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Weekly News Friday, September 5, 2014
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You Can Help
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 ADA Bathroom
We need $1,500 more!
You can help Westminster be more inclusive. Donate to our ADA Bathroom project here. Read more here
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Get Involved
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Help make Westminster the warm and inviting place we are called to be! Sign up to be a Sunday morning greeter, to provide flowers, or bring goodies for fellowship time after worship. If you are interested in helping, please sign up through Sign Up Genius, on t he sign up sheet in Mackey Hall, or by contacting Carly Jones (330-263-2398330-263-2398) in the church office.
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Worship At Westminster
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Sunday, September 7, 2014
Worship service at 10:45am in Mackey Hall. Dries preaching. Communion will be celebrated. Monthly Social Justice Potluck at noon following worship.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Worship service at 10:45am in Mackey Hall. Dries preaching. At 9:30am children and adults are invited to join College of Wooster Nursery School staff for a tour of the transformation of our play yard into a Wild School Site.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Worship service at 10:45am in Mackey Hall. Dries preaching. Adult Current Affairs Discussion at 9:30am. Children will help pack CWS school kits after worship. No Children's Education at 9:45am.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Worship service at 10:45am in Mackey Hall. Collegiate ministry organization, UKirk, leading worship. Adult Current Affairs Discussion and Fellowship at 9:30am with Children's Education at 9:45am.
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Success once again!
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Thanks to your diligence and generosity, we have collected enough school supplies to complete at least 100 kits. We'll pack both hygiene and school kits after worship on September 21st. We will need about 40 GALLON SIZE FREEZER BAGS and 6 MEDIUM MOVING BOXES (from Lowes) and many volunteers. Please contact Linda Barbu if you can assist with purchasing items or packing kits.
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Looking to Get Involved?
|  Westminster could use your help! Hospitality Coordinators are needed on Sunday mornings to help with Fellowship time before church. There is no preparation to be completed during the week and little training is needed to fulfill the role (please see attached job description for more information). You can sign up for a month at a time, or take it week by week. Please let the church office know if you are willing to help or would like more information.
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Reflection of the Week
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In November the Ohio state legislature will be considering a vote on statewide protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations. For Westminster, who has been a member of The Covenant Network since 2001 and joined More Light Presbyterians last year, this is an important issue of justice. As you can imagine, for our legislators to affirm Ohio as a "non-discrimination" state will take all of our involvement. This coming fall there will be three events in which your involvement can make a difference:
- Saturday, September 13th, 2014 from 10:00am-1:00pm, "Conversations with People You Know" training at Westminster. See below.
- Friday, September 26th through Sunday, September 28th, the "Ohio Power Summit". See below.
- Sunday, October 12th, 4:00-5:30pm,The 6th Annual "Open the Door to Equality Rally" held at the Gazebo in downtown Wooster.
Join us as we work to make our great state of Ohio more generous and just, like the God we serve!
Blessings,
Dries
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Conversations with People You Know
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 WHAT: 3-hour training at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mackey Hall, to lift up listening as a spiritual practice. Learn and refine how to craft and share our stories about why we care about LGBT people and changing laws to make life better for all. We will explore how to engage people we know in conversation about LGBT people, with faith and value messages, especially as it relates to transgender justice and the freedom to marry.
WHEN: Saturday, September 13, 10:00am - 1:00pm (lunch provided)
WHERE:
Westminster Presbyterian Church, 353 E. Pine St. Wooster
WHY: Personal conversations, especially with people of faith, are one of the most effective ways to encourage anyone to open their hearts and minds about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It is a social justice strategy that is very effective in communities of faith.
GOAL: To inspire and enable friends and family to listen and share about each others' attitudes, support, and misgivings about LGBT people. We hope to build a team of justice-seeking, faithful conversationalists throughout Ohio.
REGISTER: Sign up here or contact Pastor Dries for more information.
Some components of our training and our work in creating a team of conversationalists:
- Giving people of faith who are supportive or leaning to support an opportunity to talk with each other
- Focusing on Listening as a Spiritual Practice -- how do we listen with empathy and understanding
- Crafting our stories with faith messages
- Practicing listening and curiosity in the training with each other
- Making a list of whom you want to contact for a conversation
- Building a huge team of conversationalists in Ohio
- Connecting our conversations to Equality Ohio's work towards gaining protections for LGBT people in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations, in addition to Why Marriage Matters Ohio's public education campaign for marriage equality
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Practice Spirit,
Do Justice
Ohio Power Summit:
A Leadership Training for all People of Faith
Where: Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, 2095 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44313
When: 4 pm Friday, September 26 through 4 pm Sunday, September 28.
Come and be part of an inspiring statewide community of faith to support LGBTQ inclusion! In Ohio, the state legislature will be considering a vote on statewide protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the workplace, housing and public accommodations.
This training will prepare over 200 people of faith to make a bold impact within their congregations for LGBTQ justice; to educate people about the harms caused to LGBTQ people by discrimination; and, to ready their congregations, lay leaders and clergy to build relationships with legislators around Ohio. Sponsoring faith organizations include: the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Institute for Welcoming Resources, Integrity Episcopalians, More Light Presbyterians, Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ, Reconciling Works: Lutherans for Full Participation, Reconciling Ministries Network, Equality Ohio Education Fund, the Ohio Faith Council.
Training topics are for people at the beginning of their welcoming journey and for those who have been on the path for a while.
These include:
- Why is transgender justice key to an LGBTQ welcoming movement of faith?
- How can we increase our skills and knowledge about transgender people's needs in our congregations and in public life to become the best ally we can be?
- Understand and use Conversations with People You Know to lift up listening as a spiritual practice within individual conversations and learn how people you know feel about LGBTQ inclusion.
- Learn how to be a congregational leader and effectively develop teams of people to advance LGBTQ justice through strategic key activities including: educational conversations, visibility, letter-writing to legislators, letters to the editor, relationship building with questioning legislators and non-welcoming people of faith.
If you are interested in attending or would like more information, contact Pastor Dries.
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September Social Justice Potluck
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Join us on this Sunday, September 7th, Communion Sunday, after 10:45am worship as we "extend the table". The program at this first Social Justice Potluck of the academic year will be a conversation led by Pastor Dries, A Vision of Peacemaking. Come share your thoughts and ideas. We will celebrate summer picnic fare. All the makings for fresh sandwiches as well as deviled eggs will be provided. We ask those attending to bring fruit or dessert to round out the table. Students do not need to bring a dish. RSVP through Sign Up Genius or to Carly Jones in the church office.
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Oscar Bradfute Memorial Service in Xenia, Ohio
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 On Sunday, August 31, 2014 Westminster members joined Anna Marie and David Bradfute and Naomi & Olivia Ross in Xenia, Ohio as we celebrated the life of Oscar who died who died May 13th in Davis, California. Anna Marie and Oscar were long time, beloved members at Westminster.
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Women's Bible Study
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Join Westminster's women and Pastor Dries as we study
"Reconciling Paul: A Contemporary Study of 2 Corinthians"
2014-15 Horizons Bible Study
When: Second Tuesday of the month, beginning September 9th at 10:00am.
Where: The Lounge
Paul's writings are some of the most influential in Christianity. Revisiting the struggles Paul faced and the authenticity and integrity of his theology is an essential task for churches today in the midst of great change. Paul, like us, wrestled with and questioned his faith as he tried to live as authentically as possible in an ancient world that, like ours, was also in the midst of great change. What can we learn from visiting 2 Corinthians and considering Paul's theology and ideas as they relate to the context of our time?
Author Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty invites us all to read Paul's letter afresh in light of today's issues. Concepts of shared partnership, power in weakness, healing, reconciliation, love, and a new apostolate all figure prominently in her reading of Paul.
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People to People Donations
|  The Benevolences Committee would like to focus our efforts on providing applesauce and canned fruit to People to People during September. Beyond this, there is a special need for peanut butter, jelly, canned chicken noodle soup, and pork and beans. Cleaning out your linen closet? People to People is experiencing a shortage of blankets, shower curtains and new or gently used bath towels.
It's never too soon to be thinking about the Christmas Toy Project! In order to use toy donations for the 2014 project, they must be received by Dec. 2. Teen and age 6-11 gifts are very welcome!
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Inter-generational Tour of our new Wild School Site
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On Sunday, September 14 Westminster children and adults are invited on a garden tour! College of Wooster Nursery School director Joyce Murphy and teachers, Margaret Bourne and Apple Hopkins, have graciously offered to share their motivation and vision for the play yard beside Mackey Hall. Join us at 9:30am on the Mackey patio and get a firsthand tour of the exciting transformation taking place right in our backyard.
Wild School Site
Last fall The College of Wooster Nursery School was awarded a Wild School Site Grant through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. Wild School Sites provide outdoor educational opportunities and improve the schoolyard habitat for wildlife and people. The Nursery school has been in the process of completing their $500 grant project this summer. The project focused on the serious hillside erosion due to the building's downspout drain on the south wall of Mackey Hall.
With the help of The College of Wooster Grounds crew, they created a dry creek bed on the hillside with rocks and native plants. A children's rain garden was planted at the base of the new water flow. More garden was also added to the area with a creative birdbath and feeder. It has been a wonderful year for the milkweed plants, too. The Nursery School is well on its way to becoming a Monarch Waystation. We invite you to come enjoy the new environment.
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Wednesday Night Book Study: "Zionism Unsettled"
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 When:
Wednesday evenings, 6 -7pm
September 3 - November 5
(not too late to join in)
Where:
Westminster Presbyterian Church,
353 East Pine St. in the Lounge
The study series will be facilitated by Dries Coetzee,
Donald & Nahida Gordon.
Light snacks will be provided.
Book will be for sale for $10 at the sessions. Contact Carly Jones
(330-263-239330-263-2398) to request a copy or for more information.
In our strong commitment to a just peace in Israel/Palestine and in our desire to bring intellectual integrity to matters of faith, Westminster Presbyterian Church invites you to join us for a 9 week study of the booklet, "Zionism Unsettled"by the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Zionism Unsettled embraces critical issues that uncover one of the root causes of the occupation, including:
- What role have Zionism and Christian Zionism played in shaping attitudes and driving historical developments in the Middle East and around the world?
- How do Christians, Jews, and Muslims understand the competing claims to the land of Palestine and Israel?
- What steps can be taken to bring peace, reconciliation, and justice to the homeland that Palestinians and Israelis share?
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| Wooster Friends Opportunities |
 The Wooster Friends' Meeting invites everyone to the following activities during the month of September. Programs begin at noon and last for about an hour (or longer, for those who want to stay and continue the discussion).
September 7: Shaun and Ashley McFee will present the Royal Family Kids summer camp for seven- to eleven-year-olds who are or have been part of the foster care system. Both Ashley and Shaun have been camp counselors for several years, and they assert that "though it can be quite difficult, it is always rewarding to see how much the kids appreciate it." Take a look at the camp's website in preparation for this program.
September 21: Mike Hinshaw will speak to us about the "schisms" that divided American Quakers during the 19th century, and the echoes of those divisions among Friends today.
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| Green Tip of the Week |  PUT AWAY YOUR KETTLE; SEARCH OUT THE SUN! Fill a clean, clear glass jar with fresh water and tea bags (at least three bags per half-gallon of water). Cover the jar and place it in full sunlight. Tend to your chores, read a book, take a nap - pay the jar no attention! In a matter of hours, you'll have energy-free "sun tea" to pour over ice and quench your thirst. Information provided by www.earthshare.org |
Presbyterian Church (USA) Weekly Blogs:
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What's happening at Westminster this week?
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All events can also be found on our website
www.wpcwooster.org
We hope to see you there!
Saturday, September 6th
4:00pm - Memorial Service for Sylvia Urang in Mackey Hall
Sunday, September 7th
9:30am- Choir Rehearsal in Mackey Hall
10:45am - Worship in Mackey Hall, Pastor Dries preaching
12:00pm - Social Justice Potluck in Mackey Hall Tuesday, September 9th
8:30am- Agape Latte in Kauke Old Main
10:00am - Women's Bible Study in The Lounge Wednesday, September 10th 8:00am - Benevolences Committee Meeting at Greenleaf
6:00pm - Zionism Unsettled Book Study in The Lounge
7:00pm - Choir Rehearsal in Mackey Hall Thursday, September 11th
6:30pm - Dance Group in Mackey Hall Saturday, September 13th
10:00am - "Conversations with People You Know" Equality Ohio Training in Mackey Hall Sunday, September 14th
9:30am - Choir Rehearsal in Mackey Hall
9:30am - Inter-generational Sunday School by College of Wooster Nursery School Staff
10:45am - Worship in Mackey Hall, Pastor Dries preaching
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"We are an Intentionally Inclusive Church"
Westminster Presbyterian Church embraces the "house" metaphor for our community as we worship at the Westminster Church House and have a strong sense of hospitality and desire to be a welcoming and inclusive church for all. We endeavor to give voice to a "progressive" expression of Christianity that emphasizes among other things:
- intellectual integrity in matters of faith;
- acceptance of all people regardless of race, creed, age, cultural background, or sexual orientation;
- openness toward the value of other religious traditions;
- a strong commitment to social justice, peacemaking, and the care of our planet.
Sincerely,
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Andries J. Coetzee
Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church
353 East Pine Street, Wooster, OH 44691
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