Friday Newsletter

The floor replacement is taking longer than expected, so the women's restroom will not be open for Sunday service. Please use the family restroom located next to the kitchen and Boulder hall, additionally the women's restroom downstairs for bluebells will be available. Renovations are expected to be completed early next week. Thank you for your patience.

This month’s Listening Session: The Budget & Finance Committee will host a budget information session after worship this Sunday (Feb. 8) in the Eastminster Room.The 2025 end-of-year and 2026 budget will be available for questions and conversation. 

Congregational Vitality Committee and Social Justice committee are sponsoring a “Our Stories “ 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!

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.

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  

Women's Night Out

Feb. 9  6:00 pm

Chopstick Brothers 3135 Commercial St SE

RSVP Sue Ray 503-319-0511

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

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, March 9 (3/9/2026)

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

Bus/Staff arrival time: 12 pm - 7 pm

Location: Boulder Hall

Continued prayers for Mike and LeAnn Goodenberger as they have health challenges.

Both Bill McMorris-Adix and Richard Ray as they adjust to assisted living.

Prayers for Linda McCreery who will have a knee replacement at noon on Tuesday.

Prayers for Chris Duval who will have an angiogram on Tuesday morning.

Prayers for Duane from Medford Westminster.

Prayers for Michele Hare.

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.