STAFF -WHO WE ARE - HISTORY
Staff
Douglas Huneke,
Pastor
Douglas Huneke has served Westminster Church since 1981 as head pastor, primary preacher and inspirational leader. Deeply involved in the congregation and the larger community, Doug researches, writes and speaks about Christian rescuers during the Holocaust and is the author of The Moses of Rovno, the biography of a rescuer. Doug served the larger community as a founding trustee of the Marin Community Foundation and a leader in the development of the Marin Interfaith Council. He is a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, Bachelor of Divinity 1969 and Doctor of Divinity, Lewis and Clarke University.
Barbara Rowe,
Pastor
Barbara Rowe has been a pastor at Westminster since 1992 with general responsiblities in the areas of preaching, teaching, small group development as well as mission and community involvement. After an earlier career in business and computer systems, Barbara enjoys the organizational aspects of church ministry but is especially grateful for the opportunity to be present with adults and families at the important times of baptisms, weddings, life celebrations and transitions. Barbara is a gradutate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity 1992, Doctor of Ministry 2004.
Bethany Nelson,
Dir. Youth Ministry
Bethany Nelson is the Director of Youth Ministry serving primarily middle school and high school youth and their families. On staff since January 2003, Bethany leads volunteer adults providing classes, programs, music, mission trips, and activities for church youth and their friends. She also spends time with youth one-on-one at their school and community activities, over a meal, and just having fun. Bethany graduated with a BA from Northwestern University in 1996, and is attending Pacific School of Religion completing courses for her Masters Degree in Divinity.
Marilyn Brown
,
Christian Educator
Marilyn Brown is the Christian Educator providing the Sunday School program with classes at every age level with a team of volunteer teachers. Marilyn has an extensive background in church leadership and is credentialed as a second grade school teacher with degrees in history and psychology. Marilyn is a graduate of Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington.
RuthE. Wells
Music Director
RuthE. Wells is the Music Director, leading the adult choir at the 10:00 service and coordinating the church's overall music program. She is a fourth-generation church choir director and fledgling composer as well as a singer. RuthE. (no that's not a typo) returned to the Bay Area this past summer after living for nine years in Friday Harbor, Washington, where she was music director at St. David's Episcopal Church and director of a 40-voice community chorus. As a singer, RuthE. is a member of the Sonoma County Bach Choir, the Chora Nova chorus in Berkeley, the Sanford Dole Ensemble in San Francisco and Consort Chorale in San Anselmo.
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Who We Are 
Westminster is a welcoming congregation growing together in faith and serving God locally, nationally and internationally. The community includes 500 members committed to developing a spiritual understanding that is expressed in generous, justice-seeking ways. Teen youth and school-age children numbering nearly 300 challenge us to be young at heart and daring, faithful and compassionate, open and welcoming. Work teams and mission projects to Guatemala, New Orleans, Gulfport, and Mexico are expressions of the desire to be a constructive and healing presence in the world. The congregation seeks to express the love for all humanity that is known in the ministry and hope of Jesus Christ.
We are committed to spiritual growth and personal wholeness, to comfort and challenge. Our worship is celebratory, speaking to the life, heart, and mind. We enact our values in practical compassion and service. Experience with the Spirit and union with Christ are emphasized over doctrine and dogma. Children and youth develop with the healthy and joyous certainty that God and their faith family hold them in unconditional love, a certainty that guides them for a lifetime. All persons, wherever on the faith journey, are welcome into membership and full participation in the church regardless of race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or level of education, income, or other human condition.
History
Sunday School being held in North-
west Pacific railroad cars in 1957.
In 1957, ninety-five faithful dreamers planted the seed and leaned into God's calling to be a Presbyterian presence here. Over the fifty years, six installed pastors, two dozen interns, five parish associates and hundreds of elders and deacons have guided this church. Today we are harvesting the crop that members and pastors tended, and we are continuing to see and nurture the spiritual soil entrusted to us by Christ.
Westminster Presbyterian Church (WPC) was chartered on June 2, 1957 with 95 members and Rev. Forrest Youngquist as pastor. Sunday services were held in burlap-lined quarters over Herbert's Sherbet Shop on Tiburon Boardwalk. Children attended Sunday School in two Northwest Pacific railroad cars.
