Westminster United Church

Worship services are held each Sunday morning throughout the year, starting at 10:30 a.m. Special services are also held on Ash Wednesday (evening), Good Friday (morning), and Christmas Eve (early evening and late evening). Communion is celebrated several times during the year.

Westminster United Church officially came into being on November 18, 1990. For a number of years, services were held in the gymnasium at Mary Johnston Public School. We took possession of our current building in June, 1996, and officially opened it to the public on September 5, 1996.

We share the building with Temple Shalom, a Jewish congregation, in a relationship that is relatively unique in Canada, but one that has worked well for both congregations.

Westminster is open, accepting, affirming, challenging, and stimulating. We seek a life in which love and justice figure prominently. We try to reach out to those who share our vision of the world as a place of peace and hope. We seek to live lives that honour and serve our God.

Worship services at Westminster United Church take place in the Sanctuary each Sunday at 10:30am. Our worship begins with everyone, and then, after a time with the children, often with the Minister, they move off to their Church school classes. For the very young, Westminster United Church provides a nursery.

Our current minister, the Reverend Mary Savage, provides a variety of worship experiences for all ages and stages of the spiritual journey. Music is an important part of our worship time, and we are currently enjoying the new and dynamic addition of a grand piano in our sanctuary.

We invite you to become a part of our varied life as a congregation as we seek to serve the God who calls us to life that is vibrant and filled with the good hope of peace and love, the greatest of all gifts.

To establish and develop a Church organization to be known as Westminster United Church of Waterloo, for the purpose of worshipping God, to grow and develop in knowledge and understanding of God's work and purpose in the world.

To create an environment of openness for all people. To affirm that all who seek to live faithfully regardless of ability, age, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, or social circumstances are welcome to full participation in the life of the congregation. To foster full opportunity for full participation by all in the wider church.

To develop and promote meaningful Christian Education programs for the children and youth of the congregation, to develop and nurture a fuller understanding of God and the principles of faith of the United Church of Canada.

To present all programs in such a manner as to elicit enthusiastic participation by this most important segment of the congregation.

To carry out God's ministry of love and caring within the immediate Westminster community where congregational members live and work, including global outreach in a world where God's people can benefit from Christian love and support.

To act as disciples of Christ and to follow the Christian teachings of the church.

To strengthen our Christian faith through increased knowledge of God, learned through participation in worship services and other church activities.

This version celebrated September 1999

We acknowledge that as a congregation of the United Church of Canada, Westminster is subject to the laws and discipline of the United Church with respect to worship. We respect the right of the minister "to conduct services in the church" and the right of the Session (exercised at Westminster by the Church Council and its worship committee) "to oversee the administration of the sacraments and the order of public worship", as stated in the Basis of Union.

We look for the structure of our worship to the Protestant tradition which emphasizes the Word (in Scripture, prayer and sermon) as well as the Sacrament of communion, generally combined with the expression of the human spirit through music.

We intend, while primarily reflecting in our worship the immediate heritage of the United Church, to make room also for texts, music, and other expressions drawn from other Christian traditions, especially the ancient church, and, on occasion, from other faiths; we also hope to develop such expressions reflecting our own talents and needs.

We expect that the doctrine taught in our worship shall be in essential agreement with the Christian faith as generally held in the United Church and expressed through its theological statements. That expectation is not, however, meant to forbid speculation, the expression of doubt, the use of metaphors, or the expression of the Christian faith in new terms for a new generation.

We interpret Christian doctrine with an emphasis on love, liberation and inclusion and expect to hear it interpreted in that fashion in our worship. We assert that worship, although it may be led by an individual, is an act of the whole people present. We attempt to have members of the congregation take visible parts in every service of worship, we include in each service opportunities for the whole people to speak and sing, and we note that listening with an open heart is also an act of worship.

We seek to conduct worship in an orderly and reverent manner, and to make it possible for worshippers to concentrate on the Word of God as it is being proclaimed. At the same time, we assert that the wholehearted expression of joy is a good thing in God's eyes. We are determined not to intimidate those who seek to take part in worship or to destroy their comfort with unnecessary stiffness.

We turn to the Bible in every service of worship, using whatever translations and texts may suit the occasion, but most often preferring those modern translations that are most suitable for dignified public reading, such as the New Revised Standard Version. As closely as possible we follow the Revised Common Lectionary, which links us to other churches and ensures due attention to all parts and themes of the Bible.

We hold fast to Christian faith and the doctrine of our own church as the path to God for ourselves, but we allow that other churches and other faiths are also of God. Especially, we deny that God's Word brands the Jewish people and the Jewish faith as evil, and we avoid the use of Scripture translations and interpretations that might seem to say so.

We choose to express our prayers and proclamations in language that includes all kinds of people, and especially we choose to avoid language that suggests that God or God's people are of one sex only. That statement is not meant to forbid the deliberate use of provocative language for artistic purposes, or the use of traditional Christian texts (including hymns and older translations of the Bible) where historic or ceremonial reasons outweigh the difficulties created by language that to a modern ear seems exclusionary.

We welcome all people to take part in our worship. We declare that the Sacrament of communion is open to all who wish to partake, whether or not they are formally associated with our church, and that it is open equally to adults and to children.