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Come worship with us
We worship inside at 10 AM on Sunday mornings; the service also streams on Facebook live.
The links below and on our Facebook page are (usually) updated every week so you can access the service from home. Watch for emails with the latest updates and instructions.
Come in person or click here to join us at 10 am on Sunday, February 23rd
The bulletin for the service is here and the litany for the Manna Offering is here
Masks are optional at all indoor services and events at the church
Older service videos may be found here and on our Facebook page
The most recent WHISTLER is here; older WHISTLERs may be found here
On Sunday, January 5th, we bade farewell to Susie Webster-Toleno, our beloved pastor of 22 years, and we would like to thank everyone who joined us last Sunday to give Susie the send-off she deserved. We will be spending the coming year searching for a new pastor to call, and we ask for your support while we search and when we call a new pastor.
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The films will be shown on Thursday evenings, beginning February 13th, upstairs in the sanctuary of the church, at 7 pm. Admission is by donation (to benefit the church’s building fund) and light refreshments will be available.
February 13th: The first film is the story of a single victim of the holocaust; KITTY: RETURN TO AUSCHWITZ is a 1979 British TV film directed by Peter Morley. The NY TIMES said: “This [documentary] might be better called a testamentary. It is the story of Auschwitz by a survivor, a woman named Kitty Felix Hart… Mrs. Hart is the narrator, and she and her grown son… are the only ones seen… There is no music and little other sound than her voice.” Indeed, the film is made bearable in part because you see so little, and only hear what happened to Kitty and her family, though that is quite a story. The film runs an hour and 22 minutes.
February 20th: The second film is a story of the French resistance; WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT is a 1987 film directed by Pierre Sauvage. The NY TIMES said: “From 1940 to 1944, the 5,000 people of Le Chambon – a community of profoundly religious Protestants – sheltered 5,000 Jews…In 1944, Pierre Sauvage was born in Le Chambon… now an American documentary filmmaker, Mr. Sauvage returns in ‘Weapons of the Spirit’ to the place where, he says, ‘a Jewish baby had the good fortune to see the light of day in a village uniquely committed to his survival.'” The film runs an hour and 33 minutes.
February 27th: The third film is a story of the German resistance; STORY OF A LOVE: FREYA is a 2016 film directed by Antje Starost and Hans-Helmut Grotjahn. The film tells the story of Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke and their decision to gather friends they can trust to create a roadmap to a future “Germany with a human face” after Hitler’s anticipated defeat. (Angela Merkel has said that “the Kreisau Circle was among the first to think consistently in European terms… Their idea was that Germany would be part of… a united Europe, in which Christian morals and social reform should determine politics.”) Actors Nina Hoess and Ulrich Matthes read from the many intimate letters Helmuth and Freya wrote each other over the years, from their first meeting in 1929 to his murder by the Nazis in 1944. The film also features interviews with Freya herself and with her surviving son, Helmuth Caspar; it runs an hour and 27 minutes.
March 6th: The fourth film is a story of history and memory in post-war Germany; NOW… AFTER ALL THESE YEARS is a 1981 German TV film by Harald Lüders and Pavel Schnabel. The NY TIMES said: “The unusual fact about Rhina is that at one time, half its citizens were Jews. By 1939, the Jews were gone, no sign of them left but a desecrated cemetery… Mr. Luders and Mr. Schnabel… found a village of people who denied any part in… what had happened to” their Jewish neighbors. The directors managed to track down former residents of Rhina in New York, and of course they tell a different story; but what really sets this film apart is that they then return to Rhina with the footage from New York. It is a powerfulstory, told in a mere 60 minutes.
Many films have been made about the events of World War II. Ray Huessy has chosen these four films in part because they all show the war’s impact on particular people, in part because they were all made with the participation of the survivors and their families, but also because they are all marked by unusual (indeed, all too unusual) restraint. He will provide a brief introduction to each film, and he hopes that you will consider staying after the showing of each movie for a period of questions and discussion, because part of the point of the series is that there are no “answers.”
Video and audio of sermons, service music, and prayer times may be found here
More music, poems, and other offerings for the COVID era may be found here
Music made at West West for pre-COVID services may be found here
Several centuries of sacred music made elsewhere may be found here
The work of Christian activists, writers, and poets
(of our time and other times) may be found here
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You can make a contribution to the church through PayPal here:
When you click on the button and are connected to your PayPal page, please remember to
“add a note” to let the church know the purpose of your donation: whether it’s
a pledge payment,a donation to the building fund or to the manna offering,
or something else
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Who are we?
We are a small band of progressive Christians supporting each other as we try to live as disciples of Jesus. We seek to learn from him, to follow and love him, and to live that love by loving the people Jesus loved – the lost, the last and the least.
We seek to be a blessing to all of God’s creation, to promote peace wherever we can, to work together with people of other faiths and of no faith. We believe that no matter who you are or where you are on your journey, you should be made welcome.
We try to live by that faith, to make our church a sanctuary in every way: a space for worship, a place of safety, and a place where souls are nourished and prepared for their work in the world. We think God is doing remarkable things here in Westminster West, and we’d love to have you be part of it.
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What is our congregation like?
The United Church of Christ comes out of the Reformed (or Calvinist) tradition; our congregation is made up of people from that tradition and many others–we don’t require a particular test of faith. Not many of us take the Bible literally, but all of us take it seriously. As members of the United Church of Christ, we believe that God is still speaking, and that we need “ears to hear” that word. We believe that God’s wisdom comes to us through Scripture, but also through art and music, through conflict and joy, and on many other paths.
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What are our services like?
We value serious thought and true diversity, to help us face shared questions and insights. We love silence as much as music or the word. Although our style of worship is notably informal (and although we believe God has a sense of humor and try not to take ourselves too seriously), our services seek to worship and honor God in every way. Our preachers follow the Narrative Lectionary, a four-year cycle of readings that begins with the Hebrew Scriptures and leads us through readings from the Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles.
For some time, we had no pastor; we all led worship and many of us preached. Some of us still do, but in 2002 we called Susie Webster-Toleno to be our pastor, and she continues to lead us today. We’re grateful for her rare loyalty, her challenging leadership, and her unfailing support of the life of our congregation.
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Come worship with us!
Music is central to our worship experience. We sing hymns mostly from the New Century Hymnal, occasionally from the Pilgrim Hymnal or the Sacred Harp or from the Taizé community. Our choir is a talented pick-up ensemble; they meet at 9 am on Sunday to learn new music and then sing it as the anthem during the service at 10. The anthem can be anything from Bach and Palestrina to Ellington and Amidon, from folk and gospel to jazz and world music. New voices are always welcome. The music our musicians play for preludes and postludes is similarly wide-ranging.
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We celebrate Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month. The scriptures tell us that Jesus spent a good deal of his ministry feeding people and welcoming even the unlikeliest of followers, so we keep an open table: All who wish to share in the bread and cup are welcome.
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Thinking of joining us for a service?
You’ll find answers to some frequently asked questions here.
Want to know more about what inspires us?
Here are some useful links and resources posted by our pastor and members of the congregation:
things that inspire us and that might inspire you.
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And lest we forget–you can still get copies of our church cookbook, Beyond Soup Night: Recipes from West West for only $25. It’s the congregation’s answer to all the requests for recipes from Soup Nights over the years–most of the soup recipes are there, along with a lot of others. If you come to the Fair, you can order a copy along with your dinner, or add a copy to your winning Silent Auction bid and we’ll get it to you along with the treasure you scored.
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