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Home / Mission and Outreach / Peace, Justice & Inclusion / Advocacy & Organizing

Hunger Offering

March 11, 2019 by Kate Brinkley

Every other month, Westminster and the Presbytery of the James invite you to give five cents for each meal you enjoy to relieve hunger locally and globally. A small amount from each of us creates big change. In 2018 congregations in this Presbytery contributed $68,153 to the Hunger Ministry. On Sunday, March 31, an offering will be received during worship with the proceeds going to our support food relief for our neighbors locally and those across the world.

The majority of funds distributed provide emergency food relief to people in need. These include emergency food centers; school backpack programs, and county food pantries. Other funds support efforts to eliminate the causes of hunger, such as agricultural training so that recipients can become self-sufficient.

A small portion of donations support advocacy groups. Bread for the World, a faith-based network, campaigns nationally for policy change. Locally, Virginia Hunger Solutions works to improve food security through state programs and improved policy.

These are some of the programs you support through the Hunger Offering:

  • Advocacy efforts to improve access to free breakfast and lunch programs for Virginia schools
  • Community grain banks for food security in Cameroon
  • Seeds for farmers in Haiti following hurricanes
  • Snacks to support education for child laborers in Guatemala

Filed Under: Advocacy & Organizing, Benevolence, Mission and Outreach, Mission Trips, Peace, Justice & Inclusion

How Do We Test For The Gender of the Heart?

July 26, 2018 by Westminster Presbyterian Church

             “The only dependable test for gender is the truth of a person’s life, the lives we live each day.  Surely the best judge of a person’s gender is not a degrading, questionable, examination. The best judge of a person’s gender is what lies within his or her heart. How do we test for the gender of the heart. . . ?”                                                                  Quote by Jennifer Finney Boylan in Becoming Nicole                                                                         

               This morning, before heading off to Westminster Pres., I finished reading Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt. A few months ago, this book was recommended to me as an educational resource to understand the growing interest and issues related to transgender people.  Becoming Nicole provides a clinical, sociological and psychological perspective on what it means to be a transgender man or woman growing up in America. And yet, Nutt’s book is so much more than these words imply.

In essence, this is a book about family. It’s about the people who are touched and transformed by a son or daughter’s personal struggle to come to terms with his/her/their identity.

It’s a book about a father who, in the beginning, resisted and reacted poorly to his son’s realization that he could no longer continue to live in the body from his birth. It’s a story about how, despite his own personal struggles, this same father never stopped loving his child.  Indeed, Nicole’s father now travels across the country speaking out on Nicole’s behalf. He has become his daughter’s strongest advocate and admirer. He is, and always will be, Nicole’s dad.

It’s about a mother who fought for her child’s right to be herself in the public schools.  Over the years, while others thought she was somehow mistaken or used poor parenting judgment, Nicole’s mother was convinced that, from an early age, Nicole was unique and deserving of dignity and respect.  To me, her commitment to her daughter demonstrates, once again, that a mother’s unconditional love is stronger than another person’s lack of understanding.

It’s also a story about Nicole’s twin brother, Jonas. It’s about a brother’s steadfast love and support through good times and bad. “I never had a brother,” Jonas once said to Nicole, “You were always a sister to me.”

This book is as informative as it is simply beautiful. In some chapters, the reader will find him/her/themself immersed in pronouns, medical realities, and transgender politics. But in other chapters, a tear will come to the reader’s eye.

As Nicole once said, “Stories move the walls that need to be moved.” I wholeheartedly agree. If this issue has become a “wall” in your family or you want to know more about families facing this particular situation, put Becoming Nicole on your summer reading list.  My prayer for all of us is that such earthy and personal stories will “move the walls that need to be moved” whether they exist in a cultural context or in our hearts.

Blessings, Ken

FYI, Westminster Presbyterian Church will be hosting a pastoral care conference  for pastors, chaplains, and spiritual caregivers, October 21-23. The conference will focus on how churches and pastors care for transgender persons and their families.

https://innovation.sfts.edu/transgender-care/

Filed Under: Advocacy & Organizing, Community Board, Families & Children, J2A, LGBTQ+, Mission and Outreach, Notes from Ken, Peace, Justice & Inclusion, Prayers For Our Community, YAC

March For Our Lives Coming To Westminster

July 25, 2018 by Westminster Presbyterian Church

Last Friday, I was contacted by Rev. Gay Lee Einstein  (Presbyterian Pastor) to see if Westminster Presbyterian Church would be willing to host the high school students from Parkland, Florida as they tour the country registering young people to vote and sharing their first-hand experiences of gun violence.  Yes, this is the same group of students who spoke at the rally in Washington DC on March 24th of this year. And so, I am happy to announce that the Session of Westminster Presbyterian Church has approved the usage of our Fellowship Hall for this event.

On Friday, August 3rd from 6:00-7:30, The March For Our Lives: Road to Change tour will be having a rally at Westminster Presbyterian Church. This event is open to the public and I’m sure there will be a flurry of media exposure.  What an exciting opportunity for us and Charlottesville.  Please check out the link below for more details.

Let us continue to believe and pray that gun violence is not an unsolvable issue.             Ken

 

https://marchforourlives.com/

 

Filed Under: Advocacy & Organizing, Ending Violence, Facilities, Families & Children, J2A, Mission and Outreach, Notes from Ken, Peace, Justice & Inclusion, Prayers For Our Community, YAC, YAC+, Youth News

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Congregational Annual Meeting Sunday, January 22

January 4, 2023 By Westminster Presbyterian Church

All Westminster members are invited to the the Congregational Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 22. The purpose of the meeting is to nominate and elect trustees, receive the church budget, and vote on the Pastors’ Terms of Call. Everyone is welcome to a sumptuous meal in Fellowship Hall following the meeting. Annual Reports from the […]

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but the greatest of these is love.”
−1 Corinthians 13:13

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Westminster follows the Presbyterian Book of Confession and is a confessional church. You can view/read the Book of Confession at the PC(USA) website by clicking on the following link: https://www.pcusa.org/resource/book-confessions/.

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