From Your Session:

The Westminster Session met on February 28, 2024 for their regular stated meeting. They voted to approve the March 2024 Fifth Sunday Drive to benefit the Marion and Polk Food Share (MPFS) Farm and Garden Program, which makes tools available at their Community Garden Sites. They also voted to approve new members Kay and Bernie Woody. The focused discussion with invited Nominating Committee members Jackie Hilfiker and Susan Tanabe centered on the number of new elders and deacons that will be needed starting in June and the placement of elders into the new elder/mission areas. 

Sandy McLean, Clerk of Session

Participate

The next Women's Night Out will be Monday, March 11, 2024, 6pm, at The Flight Deck Restaurant, which is at 2680 Aerial Way SE in Salem. Please RSVP by Sunday, March 10, to Chris Duval, duval15@comcast.net, or phone 971-218-0361. It will be fun to watch the planes take off and land while we dine together. 

Looking Ahead



3/3 @ 12 pm: Usher CPR

3/9 @ 11 am: William Roth Memorial Service

3/11 Red Cross Blood Drive

3/11 @ 6 pm: Women's Night Out

3/19 @ 6 pm: Men's Night Out

3/24 @ 4 pm: Light Shines in the Darkness concert

3/29 @ 6:30 pm: Good Friday Service: A Modern Day Passion

3/30 @ 9 am: Easter Egg Hunt

3/30 @ 2 pm: Jim Randle Memorial Service

3/31 @ 10 am: Easter Sunday Morning Service

Access the full church calendar here. To add or correct something, please email office@salemwestpres.org.

New Member Highlights--Bernie & Kay Woody

A little over one year ago we moved to Salem, OR from Bass Harbor, Maine. We attended a Congregational Church in Maine for the 20 years we lived there. We spent our working years in Connecticut, where we raised our two children. Our son returned to the state of CT after he finished his college years. Our daughter moved to OR after she graduated from college.

Kay--I spent 25 years teaching students with learning or behavior difficulties (often both!). After retiring, I became an avid gardener in Maine (and I certainly am having trouble transitioning to daffodils in February!) Summers were spent in my flower and vegetable gardens or as a volunteer in a local butterfly garden. Now, I am ready to do less gardening and to develop and improve other hobbies, primarily my weaving skills. Little did I know that the Willamette Heritage Center has a weaving studio and weaving lessons, but now I am involved in that.

Bernie--I attended Mac Murray College (Jacksonville, IL) University of Illinois, and Rensselaer Polytechnic University with a Physics Major. My working career was spend at United Technologies Research Center in Hartford, CT. UTRC is the central corporate research facility for United Technologies Corp, a conglomerate of Pratt and Whitney, Sikorsky, Hamilton Standard, Carrier, Otis and several smaller business units. I was Principal Scientist in Chemical and Environmental Sciences. I retired in 2002 to Bass Harbor, Maine to be close to Acadia National Park and to enjoy a more relaxed pace of life on Mount Desert Island. My outside interests are in hiking/backpacking, photography, woodworking and cars. I volunteered for many years at a museum for antique cars in Maine, maintaining, driving, restoring and learning 1900 - 1925 technology.

We came to Salem to be close to our daughter and live in a city for the first time in our lives. We left close ties to our church family in Maine and desire to become part of another one in Salem. We have attended several churches while searching for a friendly, active congregation of firm believers sincerely worshiping our God and actively seeking to be an asset to the community. We feel at home at WPC and appreciate the sermons giving such insight to the connection between today’s life and the teaching in the Bible. We are pleased at the open and inviting atmosphere as well as the way Communion is honored. We believe that we can continue to grow in our faith and understanding of God’s plan for us by being members of this church family.

New Member Highlights--Colleen Peissig-van Gelder

I have been attending WPC since 2013, and became a member recently. I have typically been attending the service online, and am so thankful for that opportunity as my husband and I spend a lot of our weekends fixing up our cabin in Oakridge. I have been working at ODOT for about 5 years now, but have hopes of retiring in a few years. I love hiking, gardening and reading in my off time. I love the messages Pastor Kelly gives in her sermons, and the church family is always so welcoming when I am able to attend in person.

New Member Highlights--Beverley Arthur

I am a native born Californian, but have lived in New York and Arizona. A highlight of my life was teaching first grade for five years in Heidelberg, Germany. I have two sons, one in New York and one in Salem. Luci Sherwood (she and husband Dan are friends of Westminster and live part time in Arizona) and I met at Orangewood Presbyterian in Phoenix. She told me about Westminster, and I started attending before she moved back for the summer. I was married to my best friend, but God needed him as a bass singer in the heavenly choir, 26 years ago. I am very happy to be a part of the Westminster family and enjoy attending as many church events as possible, as long as someone can provide transportation.

Pray for...

Sally Neely at the passing of her brother.

Friends and family of Carol Huber at her passing on Thursday.

Support, love, and honor for Lucas during this time of life.

Give

Have You Noticed Anything Fishy?

Westminster is participating in One Great Hour of Sharing to support Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Hunger Program, and Self-Development of People. If you want to join and support those causes, we encourage you to find one of the cardboard fish banks around the church and take it home with you, and start putting your loose change or bills into the fish banks. Bring them back on Palm Sunday, March 24, and the church will send those special offerings to support these causes. There will also be envelopes by the pledge box in the sanctuary and QR codes if you prefer to make a special offering in that way. If you would like additional information, please find a member of the stewardship committee after service and ask them to get you a flyer or check out this website.

Marion Polk Food Share Garden Program 5th Sunday Special Donation: Look in the narthex this month and you’ll see a wheelbarrow! It needs to be filled with items for our Marion Polk Food Share garden friends and their youth garden projects. Place your smaller gently used or new items in it. If you have any of the larger items listed below, fill out a card with your name, name of tool and a contact number and also place in the wheelbarrow. Please bring them by March 31.

• Garden gloves
• Hand tools (spades, small hand hoes etc.)
• Larger tools (shovels, rakes, hoes, loppers)
• Our community gardeners are always looking for lawn mowers, rototillers and weed whackers, but these may be a bit too large for the wheelbarrow- fill out card to donate

Sponsored by Mission Peace Ecojustice Committee

This month, bring in Easter candy or small items to surprise and delight children at our annual egg hunt. A box will be in the narthex March 8-27.

Attention South Salem Westminster friends with big driveways and/or secure parking! 



We're looking for a new HOME for the church van! Our van has been generously stored in West Salem the past two years with the Mathers, but we'd like to bring it closer to us! Keeping the van on site at Westminster has made it a target for gas and catalytic converter theft, and we'd like to avoid this! If you have space at your house to welcome a new 12-passenger house guest, please let Vik know! 

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Salem is proud to partner with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive nearly every other month. This one is coming up March 11, 2024.

“Hosting a blood drive coincides with Westminster’s core values of giving back to the community,” said Pam Gardner. “With a simple blood donation, we have the ability to help save the life of someone who could be a coworker, loved one or neighbor.”

“The short amount of time it takes to donate can mean a lifetime to a patient with a serious medical condition. We urge eligible donors to join us in the selfless act of giving blood.”

Donors of all blood types are needed, especially those with types O negative, B negative and A negative. According to the Red Cross, type O negative is the universal blood type that can be safely transfused to anyone, and is often used to treat trauma patients.

You can use your computer, tablet or smartphone to conveniently sign up using the Red Cross blood donor App which can be found at https://www.redcrossblood.org/blood-donor-app.html (computer), at the Android Play Store or at the the Apple app store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blood-donor-american-redcross/id911428916. Or you can always contact Bill Nelson at bnelson@pacificomm.net (503- 576-1278) or Pam Garland at pamalamagarland@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Bill Nelson and Pam Garland and all the volunteers that help us out at Westminster on blood drive day. 

Westminster Presbyterian Church