Sunday Service

9:00 am

Formation

10:00am

Sunday Service

11:00 am

Uniquely Westminster

Services to Others

Serving the Church, Community, and World

The basis for the missional discipleship at Westminster is found in Mark 12:31, “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” We strive to meet our neighbors where they are, and find neighbors locally, regional, and in other countries. We extend the hand of friendship and fellowship in doing the work of Christ in the world. Our efforts are centered on the fundamentals of life: food, clean drinking water, adequate shelter, basic medical care, and the like.

We find our neighbors in local homeless shelters, area prisons, Knoxville neighborhoods, Southern Appalachia, as well as the Dominican Republic and Peru. We don’t just send money where our hearts are, we use our financial resources to supplement where our hands are.

We welcome you to join us as we work with our neighbors to find solutions for problems in our world today.

Formation

One of the great ways to get involved into the life of Westminster Presbyterian is participating in fellowship events sponsored throughout the year. We strive to offer several different events so that regardless of interests, age, and availability – there are events for YOU!

Events we do annually: Progressive Dinner (Winter), Church Wide picnic (Spring), Mt LeConte (July), Smokies Baseball Game, Fall Festival, a breakfast in the Smokies, Trunk or Treat, and hikes in the smokies. We have tons of people who gather together to hike, golf, attend plays or music venues together, and much more! Several members enjoy their ongoing involvement with Foyer Groups which gives them an opportunity to get to know their dinner group better when having dinner around each other’s tables.

Several years ago – we started interest groups that have resulted in several game groups (Bridge, Joker, board games, etc.) as well as groups who hike together on a regular basis. To discover in detail some of our fellowship opportunities at Westminster, visit Fellowship Opportunities at Westminster

Strong Youth Program

We proudly represent 12 different schools in Knoxville, Maryville, and Alcoa. Please join us!!!!

  • Our youth are enthusiastic servants who are devoted to improving our world and community. We strive to be God’s hands and feet in the world.
  • We are creative together. We laugh together. We experience new things together. We celebrate each other.
  • We look for God in everything!

Passion for Arts

Sanctuary Art Glass

Beginning in 2004 the church was honored to work with respected local glass artist Bill May of May Studios to design art glass for our sanctuary. The glass was carefully planned so as not to overwhelm or darken the space. The pattern is based on nature through interpretation, not illustration.

Images are geometric, not literal, and are intended to allow views to the clouds and trees outside. Thoughtful use of both colored and textured glasses help tie our room and organ together and fill the room with an uplifting spirit. These windows help us experience God’s gifts of light and serendipity.

Mouthblown European glass was utilized, with German new antique glass for the clear background areas in the clerestory windows. For the balcony window, the bevels are custom ground and polished. No image can duplicate the brilliance and spirit of the actual glass.

The congregation responded to the design with overwhelming support and funded all the windows in only a few years, mostly through memorial and honorary giving. Click on a window image to discover in whose honor it was created.

Special text for Balcony Window
For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

Intergenerational

Whether you are 2 or 92 – or somewhere in between – there is a place for you at Westminster! Adults, youth, and children gather together for service when we stock the FISH pantry, go on summer mission trips, and build Habitat homes. It is awesome to see our adults and youth work side by side! We also have fun!! We gather together to play games, dance, present plays & musicals, and go on retreats. Fellowship events like Breakfast in the Smokies, winter and spring hikes, LeConte, and the Smokies baseball games are just a sample of our intergenerational opportunities. We welcome all ages to gather together to pray, play, and grow! Come be a part of our beautiful Westminster tapestry. You’ll be glad you did!

Music

Westminster Presbyterian Church has decades-long tradition of community, ministry, and worship.  Music plays a major role in all of these aspects of our communal life.  The congregation is a vibrant singing body that values a variety of hymns from a wide range of styles and eras.  Westminster’s music ministry offers choirs for all age groups.  Our choirs value learning and growing together, while also having fun and creating strong intergenerational bonds.  Organ, Chamber Music, and Choir concerts bring the Knoxville community into our sacred space. Westminster’s singers and instrumentalists also take their gifts out to other local venues.  All with a love for music and a heart for worship are welcome to join in with Westminster’s music ministry!

Dr. Edie Johnson

Music Director/Organist
Westminster Presbyterian Church

Environmental

Westminster has an active and accomplished mission dedicated to raising awareness and making progress in care for God’s great creation of the earth and its peoples. This history of environmental concerns at Westminster was reflected in the establishment of the ministry team in 2007 with the following mission statement:

To accept our responsibility as earth-keepers who care for creation and to increase our commitment to the care of God’s creation. We acknowledge our duty to live justly in relationship to our fellow humans and seek ways in which we as Christians can heal and restore creation for future generations.

We will address this Mission through Worship; Education; Maintenance of Church Property; Discipleship at Home and at Work; and Public Ministry.

Through the years, this team has worked with the congregation for many substantial achievements in furthering this mission. Some are:

  • Installation of a 5 kW, 21 panel, solar panel system on our educational wing in 2012, with a church “solarbration” ceremony
  • Church energy efficiency improvements using an energy audit resulting in window replacement and upgrades, energy management system installation, replacement of HVAC system with a high-efficiency Variable Refrigerant Flow heat pump system, and installation of LED lighting
  • Award of “Cool Congregation” in 2014 by the Interfaith Power and Light in recognition of the church’s 30% reduction in carbon release
  • Maintaining a church organic vegetable garden with the produce going to our Bounty Table; donations from this Table are given to the Family Promise charity
  • Switching our kitchen dinnerware from disposables to chinaware
  • Providing for recycling bins in church rooms and funding their recycling
  • Maintaining a special recycling for Styrofoam
  • Providing an Educational Table in a prominent location with changing displays and information on environmental stewardship
  • Encouraging divestment of fossil fuel investments
  • Participation and support of the Presbytery’s Climate and Energy Stewardship Team
  • Creation of a second church garden for the purpose of growing plants to attract pollinating bees and butterflies
  • Showcasing our earth care initiatives in a church Wednesday evening program

 

We are proud of Westminster’s efforts in stewardship of God’s creation and look forward to furthering this mission.

The Schilling Gallery

For nearly twenty years Fritz Schilling illuminated the life, work and theology of Westminster. The gallery is dedicated to the Reverend Friedrich Schilling to honor his ministry of compassion, inclusiveness and Christian servanthood. The Schilling Art Guild works to provide new and interesting art in the gallery, rotating six times a year.

Labyrinth

The labyrinth is an ancient tool for prayer and meditation. It became a real matter of interest to Westminster when the Schmid family, knowing Elizabeth’s deep love of nature, wanted to use the memorial contributions for Elizabeth Schmid to build a labyrinth at Westminster. Elizabeth (or Flip as she was affectionately known to Westminster and the Knoxville community) was an accomplished artist and would often manifest her love of nature in her paintings, one of which adorns a wall in the church’s office. As a result, the church waited for the right time and place to create a labyrinth in a natural setting that would be easily accessible, yet isolated from the busyness of the world around it. In 2004, the church decided to build a labyrinth in the woods of Westminster and enlisted the help of Tom Grobe who needed an Eagle Scout project and the professional guidance of Rick Oakes. The labyrinth is now a part of the Westminster campus.

Westminster has had a form of a prayer path for a long time. In 2000, Chris Carrasco experienced Montreat’s prayer path. With the idea of re-creating this at Westminster, she shared her interest with various people. In 2003, Jonathan Wiesehuegel was looking for an Eagle Scout project and chose to create the prayer path. With the help of Rick Oakes and Bart Carey, the prayer path existed once again at Westminster.