Westminster’s 150th Anniversary opens the floodgates of memories kept and moments yet untold. Until memory goes wherever it goes when it’s gone, I’ll hold dear the people of Westminster. I still see the faces and hear the voices of the PNC — Dan Houston, Oscar Bradfute, Sue Coleman, Dick Beery, Pauline Ihrig, Edna Comin, Rich Bell, Fran Loess — who whet my appetite for the unique combination of church and academy which was Westminster.

The call at that time was two-fold: Pastor of Westminster and Pastor to the College, more like a wishbone than two sides of the same coin. The Pastor to the College was an ex officio member of the College Board of Trustees; member of the Religious Dimensions Committee; “Chaplain-like” voice at public College events; and ministry with COW faculty and administration, as well as with students.

As is always the case with churches and marriages, neither you nor I really knew each other before the knot was tied. The miracle is that you stayed with me, as you did with Barrie and Cindy, and would do with Mark, gently calling attention to the slip of a split infinitive — eternal thanks to Pauline Ihrig making the catch without one hint of the meanness that sometimes comes with criticism — and the unfailing support and encouragement of the Session whose Ruling Elders’ wisdom that kept us true to our best selves.

FOUR O’CLOCK TEA

A month or so after settling in as Pastor of Westminster and Pastor to the College, a member of Westminster called to ask if I might join her and “the Dean” for tea. They had looked forward to meeting the new pastor, but the Dean’s stroke had prevented them from coming to church. Although they were still home-bound, the Dean was now well enough to resume their customary tea time every afternoon at four o’clock. We arranged a date for our visit.

In the days that followed, I wondered whether “tea” meant a cup o’ tea or something more formal, like the High Teas at Oxford or Cambridge. It seemed likely they would have had one or more sabbatical leaves during his years as Dean of Faculty in the golden era of Howard Lowry’s presidency. Perhaps High Tea had become part of life after a sabbatical in the British Isles. Mrs. William Taeusch met me at the door with all the warmth of a loving grandmother and the dignity of a queen. She was in her late 80s; I was 36. Dean Taeusch was likely in his 90s when the stroke slowed him down.

The experience was not what I had expected. It was not High Tea where the tea drinkers are proper and unrevealing. This tea was revealing, and more impactful than a High Tea. Mrs. Taeusch asked the question that pulled back the curtain from the land of Oz. Every member of the faculty and staff had signed a covenant of moral turpitude as a condition of appointment or employment. They had solemnly pledged that they did not, and would not, imbibe in alcohol. They presented themselves as teetotalers.

“Well,” said Mrs. Taeusch with a mischievous twinkle in her eye while the Dean looked on with a smile, “in our home you’re welcome to have a cup o’ tea, or, if you prefer, you may enjoy something else. Bill and I prefer Sherry.” I chose the Sherry. They seemed relieved and delighted.

In the hour that followed, the Taeuschs told their new pastor a dirty little secret that wasn’t a secret: the difference between appearance and reality at the College. I learned why the blinds had gone down at “tea time” and wondered what secrets were hidden now.

APPEARANCE AND REALITY

Looking back all these years later, the tea with the Taeuschs serves as a metaphor for how I came to see the calling at Westminster and the College: shining the light of the crucified-risen Christ on the difference between appearance and reality — who we are when the shades are up, and who we are when the shades are down.

My sense of ministry had been honed by the critiques of religion as illusion (Marx, Feuerbach, and Freud) and participation in Christian-Marxist Dialogue. The gospel of Jesus crucified and risen tears apart the temple veil, revealing the demonic power of the un-named ideological convictions that frame what we see, how we see it, and how we respond. Naming the powers that hurt and destroy was central to my understanding of ministry.

Tea with the Mrs. Taeuschs and “the Dean” confirmed the value to church and College alike of bringing to Wooster theologians-in-residence and guest preachers William Stringfellow, Paul Lehmann, Mohammed Kenyatta, William Sloane Coffin, Angolan Bishop Emilio de Carvalho, and Cuban seminary dean, Adolfo Ham. These visits led to ongoing working relationships with faculty of the political science, history, sociology, history, philosophy, and religious studies departments. Faculty welcomed Westminster’s theologians-in-residence to join them in their classrooms and informal home gatherings.
If the walls of the Church House ’s upper room could talk, they would tell the untold stories of church members, student, faculty, and administrators wrestling, like Jacob at the Jabbok, wrestling with the Presence we cannot see.

They would tell of students “coming out” for the first time; of faculty and spouses struggling with whether they really belonged at the College, sometimes to the cliff of suicide; of shouts of rage for having been tricked and left alone, staring into the abyss; of students working through what it meant to be a woman — straight, gay, or bi-sexual — and what, if any, difference it made; of the lamentations by the most inside of the insiders, whose outward appearance in suits, ties, and academic robes and hoods that reminded everyone who was high and who was low in the pecking order of the academy, but who, behind the blinds, in nothing but slippers, sneakers, ragged shirts and sweat pants, felt like motherless children, orphans caught in the split between appearance and reality, longing for home under the shelter of the Most High.

But the walls of the upper room would tell more than the secret “dangers, toils, and snares” they hold in silence. They would gladly tell of the faith, courage, and resilience that sometimes, by grace alone, led to that deeper knowledge about which Jean Calvin spoke in the first sentences of the first paragraph of the Institutes of the Christian Religion:

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, comes of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.”

How that works remains a mystery to my small mind, but I know it’s true. Closer to hand on your 150th Anniversary is Bill Weiss’s “History of Westminster,” a kind of practical theology and wise counsel. “Both church and college,” he writes, “face daily challenges. Perhaps the final instruction to church and college is from a source often attributed to Plato: ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.’”

Thank you, friends, for the kindness. I wish I could be with you as you celebrate Westminster’s Sesquicentennial.

When we visited Westminster Presbyterian Church for the very first time in 1970, the congregation was worshiping in the COW gymnasium. The powerful sermons of Ray Swartzback, the music and the friendliness of the likes of Pauline Ihrig, Sarah Painter, Florence Griffith, Clare Adel and Willy Schreiber, Fran and Hank Loess, Helen and John Monroe and others clamoring over the bleachers to welcome us helped us recognize we had found a church home. We transitioned from a Gym to McGaw Chapel to the Church House for worship during the past 50 years and the hospitality, welcoming and fostering of community never ceased for us.

As a way of becoming acquainted with the Westminster family, since we had no ties to the COW, we began a journey in Christian Education that lasted decades. We were smitten by the children in our third and fourth grade classes in the ’70’s, initially meeting families of the Taggarts, Bairds, Graves, Raitts, Morrises, Cropps, Bradfutes, Plusquellecs, Dixes, Lewises, and Colemans. By the the early ’90’s we were teaching the 7th and 8th grade morning class in the Bridal Chapel of McGaw because the Church House rooms were fully occupied. The children and youth stretched our journey of faith over the years with our preparations from a variety of curricula, their probing questions and unquenchable knowledge-seeking.

Youth Christian Education from 1974 during the next 20 years included many opportunities for children to participate in educating the congregation. Yearly, there was the Youth Recognition Sunday and the Children’s Christmas Program of music, plays and the traditional Pageant, with Peter Havholm often personally shepherding the angels during his narration. Talent shows, open houses and Easter programs showcased children’s contributions. The youth group led worship after their retreats or mission projects – especially during the 90’s when the group was so large.

Christian Education in the Adult morning program was another facet for growing our faith, sometimes with the ministers up in their office or COW faculty who attended Westminster or lay folk, like Alan Van Dyke and Oscar Bradfute when we met in the Church House lounge. Don and Nahida Gordon educated us in immeasurable ways, before we left for our new home in Rochester, NY. Family retreats during the 80’s and 90’s were another learning opportunity, at the then primitive Wooster Outdoor Center (oh, those squeaky, sagging wire bed frames and mattresses) or Camp Bethany, next door to Rich and Josie Drushal.

A strong impact on Sandy’s vision of faith were the Wonderful and Wise Women of Westminster. She never attended the group that met during the week-days in the 70’s and 80’s, a remnant from the 50 years prior to the 70’s. However, the week-end retreats, one-day sessions and serving on committees with wonderful women were inspiring to her. One memorable retreat at Inspiration Hills on January 25 and 26, 1992, included Pat Galster, Kathryn Culp, Mary Kilpatrick, Fran Loess, Jane Hider, Mary Drabenstott, Dorothy Iams, Shelley Peterson, Barbara Bell, Linda Barbu, Candy Relle, Josie Drushal, and Silvia Schweighofer, now that is a group of remarkable Church Ladies! While Sandy was impacted by the women of Westminster, Gordon Stewart inspired Dick; Gordon started Dick on his journey of questioning and Andries Coetzee continued to influence Dick on his journey.

Westminster always had both a local and global focus and our international understanding broadened when in 1992 Sandy was part of the first adult Borderlinks study group in Tucson and Nogales. We followed the example of our children; the youth group went to the border in 1991. Global awareness continued as Dick went with the Westminster Borderlinks group in 2012. Our South Africa trip with Westminster in 2013 broadened our understanding of apartheid, reconciliation and hope. 

A special note of community was fostered during our early years at Westminster. Gordon Stewart and Cindy Jarvis organized family groups in 1978 for a one year commitment to meet in each of four couple’s home at least one time during that year. The Beerys, Jacobs, Pyers and Snyders met and then continued that commitment for another 11 years with some side bars of a camping trip and preparing the Sunrise Easter breakfasts for several years, especially after the children outnumbered the adults and we had many helping hands.

Our memories of the ministers (senior, associate, assistant, interim, pastoral care) and their spouses, COW students, Westminster Interns, church secretaries/office administrators, Directors of Music/organists and congregation members over the past 50 years have left indelible marks on our journey as seekers and questioners. Not only did they support us in our faith journey but many became special friends. We rejoice in celebrating the 150th Anniversary!

Dick and Sandy Beery