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Home / Mission and Outreach / Peace, Justice & Inclusion / LGBTQ+

Advent & Christmas at Westminster!

November 26, 2019 by Kate Brinkley

Join us to prepare the way through Advent — and celebrate Christmas: from the Advent Workshop on the First Sunday of Advent, all the way to Christmas Eve with a child-friendly service at 5 p.m. and a traditional candlelit service at 8:30 p.m.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 1
First Sunday of Advent
Worship at 11 a.m.
Advent Workshop, 9:45 to 10:40 a.m.

Wednesday, December 4
Fellowship on Tap, 5:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8
Second Sunday of Advent Worship, 11 a.m.
Session Meeting, 12:30 p.m.
Christmas Kick-Back, 1 p.m.
Open Study Hours begin, 2 to 10 p.m., and run through December 16

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10
Tuesday Evening Study Group, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 15
Third Sunday of Advent Worship, 11 a.m.
All-Youth Brunch, 9:30 a.m. Common Grounds
Lessons & Carols, 5 p.m.
Come and enjoy a traditional service of Lessons and Carols led by the Choristers and Singers choirs. Readings and carols retell the story of Christ’s birth, with candlelit singing of Silent Night. Gather for a potluck meal and carol singing in Fellowship Hall afterward.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19
Christmas Eve Choir Rehearsal, 6 p.m.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20
Youth Christmas Party, 6:30 p.m. Common Grounds

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22
Fourth Sunday of Advent Worship, 11 a.m.
No classes for adults, youth, or children.
Christmas Eve Choir Rehearsal, 9:30 a.m.
Caroling, 3 p.m. All are welcome to join in song and share carols with those in our congregation in need of Christmas cheer. Directions and song sheets available when we gather in fellowship hall.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24
Christmas Eve Worship, 5 p.m. This child-friendly service includes carols and candlelight.
Christmas Eve Worship, 8:30 p.m. Share the joy of the season in a communion service with carols and candlelight on this holiest of nights. Organ prelude begins at 8 p.m.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER, December 29
First Sunday of Christmas Worship, 11 a.m.
Guest preacher, Colleen Earp

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5
Epiphany of the Lord Worship, 11 a.m.
Pick up a star word to guide your spiritual practice this year!

Filed Under: Administration, Adult Choir, Adult Education, Adult Lunch, Advent, Advocacy & Organizing, Baptism, Benevolence, Bible Study, Book Review, Choir, Choristers Children's Choir, Christian Formation, Christmas, Common Grounds, Communion, Flowers, Sound & Ushers, Community Board, Confirmation, Easter, Ending Violence, Facilities, Fall Break, Families & Children, Featured, Fellowship, Fellowship On Tap, Gleanings Monthly Magazine, Graduate Students and Young Adults, Green Team, IMPACT, J2A, Landscape & Gardening, Lectio Divina, Lectureship, Lent, LGBTQ+, Library, Life Long Song, Memorials, Migrants and Refugees, Mission and Outreach, Mission Trips, Montreat, Music Notes, New Acquisitions, New Member Classes, Notes from Jonathan, Notes from Ken, Notes from Lynne, Notes from Megan, Notes from Tracy, Nursery, PACEM, Parent's Night Out, Pastor's Blog, Peace, Justice & Inclusion, Personnel, Prayers For Our Community, Racial Justice, Rite 13, Seasons, Sermons, Session, Silent Auction, Singers Choir, Special Music Sunday, Spring Break, Stewardship, Summer, Summer Musical, Teacher's Notes, UKirk, Presbyterian Student Fellowship, Uncategorized, University, Mission & Outreach, Vacation Bible School, Westminster Organ Concert Series, Winter Break, Women's Retreat, Worship and Music, Worship in the Courtyard, YAC, YAC+, Youth Education, Youth Mission Trip, Youth News

How Do We Test For The Gender of the Heart?

July 26, 2018 by Ken Henry

             “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, Christian Formation, Community Board, Families & Children, J2A, LGBTQ+, Mission and Outreach, Notes from Ken, Pastor's Blog, Peace, Justice & Inclusion, Prayers For Our Community, YAC, Youth Education

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Open Study – Common Grounds

December 9 - December 17
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December 15 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Welcome

Lessons & Carols

December 3, 2019 By Kate Brinkley

Come enjoy a traditional service of Lessons & Carols led by the Choristers and Singers choirs. Readings and carols retell the story of Christ’s birth, with candlelit singing of Silent Night. Gather for a potluck meal and carol singing in fellowship hall afterward.

Recent Posts

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  • Advent & Christmas at Westminster!
  • Letter from the Newly Installed Associate Pastor
  • A Place at the Table – Stewardship Report
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“So faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.”
−1 Corinthians 13:13

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Sustained by grace, we are called to serve Christ, share God’s love, and work for justice in a complex world.

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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: http://www.pcusa.org/book-confessions.

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