Sermon: High Anxiety: Mixing Politics and Religion (2): Is America a Christian Nation? — Pastor Louise Westfall
Text: Mark 12:13-17, 28-34
Special Music: Summer Choir; Mallory Bernstein, piano.
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Charis has attended Central since 2019 when she joined the choir, and enjoyed getting to know its wonderful members. She was promoted to soprano section leader and subsequently became a Central member with her family in 2022. That same year she was inspired to apply for the vacant positions of Music Director and Church Administrator and a unique dual position was created that allowed her to draw on her time as a professional musician and her business executive experience.
Charis has an undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from Wheaton College and a Masters Degree, also in Vocal Performance, from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She enjoyed a decade and a half of performing worldwide with memorable solo performances at Carnegie Hall, with the Colorado Symphony and at the Vatican, among many others. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and a member of Actor's Equity Association. She is supremely grateful for the support of her husband Ryan and daughters Ahna and Liza, who humor her by singing in her choir.
Molly has been a member at Central since 2004 and joined the staff team in 2018. From 2013-2015, Molly served as the Director of Central Presbyterian Church’s Health Assistance Site which assisted Coloradans in health insurance enrollment.
Molly worked for over a decade on behalf of Federally Qualified Health Centers here in Colorado. Prior to that, she taught middle school social studies in North Carolina. Molly holds a BA in History from Davidson College (Davidson, NC). As the Director of Mission and Faith Formation, Molly believes faith is built via serving others in need in one’s community.
Molly and her husband, Adam, have 3 daughters: Caroline, Morgan, and Francee plus two canines…Murray (a goldendoodle) and Sylvester (a standard poodle).
Molly enjoys mountain and beach trips with her family, hiking, photography, water aerobics classes, dining out, and a good happy hour(s).
Louise Westfall became Central’s senior pastor in 2011, following pastorates in Cleveland, Detroit, and Iowa. She received a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She has co-authored two Bible studies– The Face Is Familiar: Remembering Unnamed Women in Scripture, and Peacemaking in Mark: Restoring God’s Community of Men and Women. Her dissertation Listening Beyond Our Differences: Conversations about Abortion was honored with a faculty prize.
Louise believes the Church is a community of transformation and the congregations she’s served have resettled refugees, built homes with Habitat for Humanity, tutored urban school children, converted a closed church into a Boys and Girls Club, and helped enroll people in affordable health insurance. Her leadership has helped make connections between suburban and urban, Black and White congregations, and among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Increasingly she considers the Communion cup a central symbol of faith representing God’s love poured out for all, and the Table a place where everyone is welcome.
Louise is the mother of a son, Paul, an attorney in Washington DC.
