We believe that God continues to call us to these identified ministries:
• to proclaim the inclusive love of Jesus Christ
• to nurture every member into the covenant of the Christian life
• to embrace with holy expectation the pursuit of wisdom
• to assert leadership in the ongoing life of The College of Wooster and Wayne County communities
• to exercise compassion in material form to those in need
• to work for peace and reconciliation in the world
What we believe is best summarized in the words of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer:
“We are not waiting for a messiah to save us or for the apocalyptic end. We do not understand human oppression as a punishment from God, nor do we believe that oppressed people should place hope in God’s redeeming violence. We believe Jesus shows us how to live, not that God sent Jesus to die for our sins.
We embrace Jesus’ infinitely loving God and are weary of theologies, music, rituals, and liturgies that express gratitude for the blood sacrifice of Jesus that saves us from the presumed wrath of a punishing Deity. We seek to embrace God’s invitation to abundant life and find it difficult to relate to God as the Divine Puppeteer who controls all things and intervenes based on the number and merit of our prayers of petition. We are not preparing for heaven or awaiting Jesus’ second coming but seeking to celebrate God’s living presence among us. We do not look forward to the violent defeat of our enemies or their permanent punishment in hell but rather we struggle to love enemies and break spirals of violence.
We see God in ordinary places and ordinary time. We experience the power of the invitational God in our passion for justice, our concern about violence, our pain and sorrow over poverty, inequality, war, and destruction, our mindfulness of beauty, our embrace of community, our gratitude for music that inspires, our shared meals, our deepest longings,our work for peace, our sense of mystery in creation, our experiments in nonviolence, and in our religious experience of God as the compassionate, invitational Spirit at the heart of all life, inviting us everywhere and always to abundant life.”
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Bret Hesla. Worship in the Spirit of Jesus: Theology, Liturgy and Songs without Violence. The Pilgrim Press: Cleveland, Ohio (2005).
Westminster Presbyterian Church has a long history of addressing social issues and peacemaking. At Westminster, social concerns have tested and defined our faith. Members of Westminster have, since its inception in 1874, been leaders in women’s rights, civil rights, and peacemaking at local, national, and international levels. As a community, we are inspired by the call from God in Micah 6:8:
To do justice – We will act in solidarity with and speak on behalf of peoples deprived of their human rights, dispossessed of material well being and suffering from violence.
To love kindness and mercy – We will provide assistance to the weary, hungry and broken; and work for peace and reconciliation in the world.
To walk humbly with God – We will venerate the earth and its bounty and will strive for equitable sharing and sustainability of God’s world with all peoples – locally, nationally, and internationally.
Westminster accepts electronic donations through the Presbyterian Mission Exchange
353 E. Pine St., Wooster, OH 44691
Call Us: (330) 263-2398
Email Us: [email protected]
or via this form: Contact the Office
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All services currently held in person or via streaming services.
Please contact our office for information about in person services or for the links for virtual services.
