Friday Newsletter

It’s time for the 2026 Annual Meeting. Please mark your calendars: 

Feb 6 - Annual Reports due to office@salemwestpres.org

Feb 8 - Budget information session 2025/2026 hosted by Budget & Finance, after worship

Feb 13 - Annual meeting agenda requests, limited to buying/selling real property, congregational merger/dissolution, updates to pastoral terms of call. Send motions to the Sandy, McClean, Clerk of Session, clerk@salemwestpres.org

Feb 13 - 2025 Annual Report available

Feb 22 - 10am - Worship/Annual meeting/Mortgage payoff party

This Sunday , February 1, stop by Social Justice Committee table in Boulder Hall to pick up post cards and stamps. Write to our Senators ( or Senators of any state) telling them to remove ICE funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026. 

Leave them in the basket and SJ will mail them.

The Women's bathroom flooring remodel will take place February 4th - 6th and will reopen on February 7th.

Women's Night Out

Feb. 9  6:00 pm

Chopstick Brothers 3135 Commercial St SE

RSVP Sue Ray 503-319-0511

Thanks to all for the 152 pounds of food and two Winco gift cards for our January kick off to start 2026.

Thanks also to the TOP crew, Arlis Shellman, Bob Netz, Lori and John Dalen for the delivery, weighing, and shelving our donations. With the added food needs in our community all the food we share is received with much gratitude. 

And now for some BIG news: Westminster will once again be celebrating February 8th when the Seattle Seahawks play some other team in the big bowl game. But Westminster will also celebrate that event with 

            " WESTMINSTER'S SOUPER BOWL SUNDAY"

It's a simple celebration. All of us will brings cans of soup to fill BIG BLUE. Nothing like a bowl of hot soup on a frosty day, have a bit of fun, and help our neighbors with good nourishment! mmmmGOOD  

Sunday, February 8th Rosalyn McKeown-Ice is preaching. Her sermon is “Gospel Healings.” Rosalyn is becoming WPC’s Commissioned Ruling Elder. She will be establishing a ministry in the local prison system. She and her husband, Gene Ice, have volunteered for years at a local drug court in Wartburg, Tennessee, which is a court-ordered, low-security, residential program for non-violent felons with addiction disorder.

MISSION ACCOMPLIHED! The last mortgage payment for Boulder Hall is history, thanks to your generous contributions! Now it’s time to pat ourselves on the back and party. Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 22nd. Immediately following the Annual Meeting, we’ll all gather in our TOTALLY PAID FOR Boulder Hall and celebrate to joyful music by the Gail Gage Jazz Band and enjoy a scrumptious baked potato bar and a tower of desserts. To round everything out, we’re asking for one more donation to the cause --- Salads! If you can bring a salad to share that would be fantastic.  

This is a big moment in Westminster’s history – hope to see you all there!

Women's Retreat May 1-3

Vacation Bible Camp: August 31-September 4

If you would like to be on the planning team for VBC, please contact Terri Crall.

Oops!

The 2025 Giving Statements sent recently mistakenly say 2024 at the top of the page. My apologies! Every other date on the page is correct for your 2025 donations and the totals are accurate for your taxes. If your financial advisor needs you to give them a statement that says 2025 at the top of the page, please request a replacement statement from me and I will provide one. Thank you all for your generous gifts to Westminster Presbyterian last year!

   --Terri Crall

Congregational Vitality Committee and Social Justice committee are sponsoring a “Stories Time “ on February 8 from 11:20-12:15 in Russell Hall.

All are invited to hear from Buildings and Grounds and Salem Environmental Faith Network about Caring for Creation in our church and in our community.

Bring your beverage and please come!

Have you ever been curious about the weekly peaceful protests of the Oregon Chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign in downtown Salem? About a dozen members of WPC participate in Moral Mondays. One of our WPC members was invited by Earth Charter International to write about protesting peacefully. Here is the link to her article https://earthcharter.org/peaceful-protest-moral-mondays/. She describes why she protests and her experiences.

Please join the PPC on Mondays at noon at First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Winter and Chemeketa NE. We have an education segment of 30 minutes and then we walk and sing our way to the state capitol building holding bright yellow protest signs. (Free signs are provided.) We return to the church by 1:00. We hope to see you there.

Blood Drive Date: Monday, April 9 (3/9/2026)

Blood Drive Hours: 1:00 PM- 6:00 PM

Bus/Staff arrival time: 12 pm - 7 pm

Location: Boulder Hall

As we share fellowship and news through email, it’s important that we also protect one another from digital threats. We’ve noticed a concerning trend: during times when our pastoral staff is away, scam emails impersonating church leadership tend to increase.

With Pastor Kelly going to be away this weekend, please be extra cautious with any email that appears to come from her, other staff, or the church office.

Here’s what to watch for:

• Urgent or Secret Financial Requests: Any message claiming to be from Pastor Kelly or a staff member asking you to quickly purchase gift cards, send money, or handle a confidential financial matter is almost certainly a scam.
• Strange Email Addresses: Check the sender’s email address carefully. Scammers often use addresses that look similar to ours but have small misspellings or come from public domains (e.g., `gmail.com` instead of our church domain).
• Unusual Tone or Grammar: If the wording seems odd, impersonal, or uncharacteristically urgent, it’s a major red flag.
• Unexpected Links or Attachments: Do not click on links or open attachments in suspicious emails.

What to Do:

If you receive a questionable email, do not respond. Instead, please contact the church office directly by phone to verify. This is the safest way to handle any request that feels off.

Let’s use this as an opportunity to care for one another. If you suspect you’ve received a scam email, you can help us by forwarding it to office@salemwestpres.org so we can alert others.

We are grateful for your discernment and your help in keeping our community safe, especially while our pastors are serving elsewhere.