Holy Week News

Dear Westport Presbies,

An Easter Message from our Pastor:

WERE YOU THERE…..
               WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?…….WHEN THEY NAILED HIM TO THE TREE?
                                WHEN THEY LAID HIM IN THE TOMB?      WERE YOU THERE……

You are invited to attend Good Friday worship on March 29 at 7:00 p.m. in person or online for a Tenebrae service of Scripture, Shadows, Song, and Loving Vigil. Together we will be there to witness and keep vigil with Jesus, his enemies, and followers through scriptures telling of his passion in the Gospels and Psalms. Come and experience all the drama of Jesus’ last days on earth.

On Easter morning, March 31 at 11 am in person worship and online worship, we will rejoice together as we learn of Jesus’ Resurrection, speak words of affirmation, sing songs of joy, and share Easter Holy Communion.  We will also celebrate our Chapel resurrection window that survived the 2011 fire. It is an amazing window and tells the whole Holy Week story!!

The following Sunday, April 7 at 11am in person and online, we will celebrate communion once again as we proclaim Jesus’ resurrection appearance to followers Cleopus and Mary his wife, with the Road to Emmaus story. More beautiful organ, choir and congregational singing will fill our beautiful sanctuary.

Holy Week, Tenebrae, Easter and Resurrection Blessings to All,

-Pastor Susan Wesley Hartley

News In and Around the Community:

Jim Turner reports that our Earth Care Congregation Certification has been renewed for another year!

Did you know we have an EarthCare Team?  If not, it’s past time to introduce you to them!  We now have a webpage on our website dedicated to our Earthcare Mission and the team’s efforts.  Please contact Jim if you wish to be involved!  There are several things the team is trying to do, but right up at the top of our wishlist are solar panels.  Our church is a heavy user of electricity due to costs of heating and cooling a giant building which contains a delicate, temperature-sensitive organ, along with five washers and five dryers in the basement that are used throughout the week by the Showers Mission to wash clothes for the homeless, along with all the groups who are in and out of it on a regular basis.  Our beloved choir member, Tim Thomas (Marian’s husband), was a strong believer in Solar panels, and money was donated from his estate to start a solar panel fund at our church (I bet you didn’t know a Solar Fund was started!), and the team has started work on figuring out how far we need to go to actualize solar panels.  For more info: https://westportpresbyterian.org/ministries/mission-outreach/earthcare/

Regarding our church directory, if you have submissions for our church directory, let me (Martine) know!  Our directories include Name, Photo (some of us are bad with names), Address, Email, Cell/Home phone number, Birthday, Anniversary date.  The online directory will only be accessible to the people entered into it and must include a valid email address for access.

Upcoming Events:

See our calendar for activities in and around the church!  https://westportpresbyterian.org/events-calendar/

• Good Friday Tenebrae service at 7PM on March 29, Easter Service at 11am on March 31
• Our church is a polling location.  VOTE on April 2nd!
• April 6 – 7PM Historical English dance in the church basement (taught/hosted by Martine and Deanna). All are welcome. Come 15 min early for a beginner intro lesson.
• Wednesday night Zoom Bible Study meets on April 10 and 24 at 7pm.  All are welcome; please contact the church for the link
• April 12-21, Metropolitan Ensemble Theater performances of The Virgin Trial
• April 19 – Brown Bag Concert. The Sweete Accords will perform.
• April 24, 6PM Westport Showers Committee is hosting a de-escalation training at our church.  All are welcome; does not require volunteer work with Westport Showers.  Have you had encounters with someone that you thought could have been handled better?  Come!

Volunteer Opportunities:

• Scout Troop 60 is doing their annual Blue River Valley cleanup on the morning of April 6.  Anyone is welcome to join.  Contact Joe Raach for details.
• Jim and Susan are inviting anyone who’d like to join them at the next Christians Against Christian Nationalism gathering, April 18, at the East fountain at the Country Club Plaza.  There will be monthly gatherings in different locations around the city.
• With Westport showers growing as fast as they are, more volunteers are always needed.
• Join the De-escalation training on April 24th!

Prayer List:

Keep Tom Welty, our parking lot manager, in your prayers as he recovers from his surgery (which was March 20).
Eddie Lewis, our lost new member, has been found!  He now works on Sundays, and therefore cannot attend church with us.

If you know of anything that should be included in our monthly letters, please send me (Martine) a note!

Keep the faith!  WPC

Friends can subscribe themselves to the list.