​Each year we put together an annual report thanking all of you for journeying with us. Know that even your seemingly insignificant support is a big encouragement. The report highlights our work from this last year (the highs and lows) while looking forward to the next. Read it, skim it (ignore it), but save it as proof that 2021 happened and we're all still here celebrating hope, peace, joy, and love together. 

​During the Winter of 2021, we're taking some time to reconnect and reevaluate our Anabaptist heritage. We want to honour this heritage by mining it for its moments of light and uncovering the times it has fallen short. In this way, we can dig deep into the fertile soil of our past while learning from mistakes. By exploring Anabaptism, we hope to better appreciate the diversity of the congregation at Westview. 

2020 has been an unprecedented year requiring much innovation and imagination. At our Centre, this work began in March when the first shutdown forced us to start handing out bagged lunches and groceries. At our church, 2020 called us to transition to an online service and then to a hybrid service that now includes the occasional outdoor service. 

As leadership, this year has seen us make significant progress on governance as we work with the Niagara Community Foundation to improve policy. Grazia Shepard, first-time board chair, led with grace and courage. She kept us going through the tremulous year. Although our board is not yet at the point we’d like to be in terms of governance and policy, COVID has only slowed us down; we’re on the right path. 

Finally, despite all these challenges, we’ve been blessed with financial success. With the payment of our mortgage in full by a generous donor and the increase in tithes, we are now closer to financial sustainability than ever before. 

Thank you to those who continue to give of their money and time, and who share love, despite the struggle, pain, and isolation. We see you on zoom, we hear you at church, we welcome you at the Centre, we love you. 

Recorded at Westview Christian Fellowship on May 17, 2020 - Caleb Ratzlaff discusses Acts 15 - the moment the church affirms uncircumcised Gentiles.
Inspired by the experience of LGTBQ Christians, Caleb finds parallels between Westview's journey to be an affirming church and the early church's struggle to affirm uncircumcised Gentile Christians.Spoiler: there's more biblical grounding for affirming LGBTQ Christians than there is supporting Paul's argument that circumcision wasn't always necessary.

By Caleb Ratzlaff

We're experimenting recording messages as Westview. Below is a recording from Feb. 16, 2020 when Caleb Ratzlaff discussed Matthew 5:21-37.

TLDL: Using two commandments -- do not murder and do not commit adultery -- Jesus elaborates on what he means when he says that his life and works fulfill the law and the prophets. 
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The end discussion has been edited for sound quality and length. Enjoy.

Post 1: Intro by Rosilee Sherwood
Post 2: Evil In David's Heart
Post 3: David and the Anti-Christ
Post 4: Noah's Ark

Children’s stories about David and Goliath often portray the king as a man after God’s own heart. David, the story goes, is an innocent young man who shows courage in the face of long odds. We want David to be good, a desire that colours readings of his reign. 

The quality of David’s heart, however, is a matter of some debate. like all of our hearts, David’s is dynamic and often uncertain of itself. However, it would be a mistake, to model our lives off David and a disaster to organize our communities in the image of his Israel. Taken as a whole, David’s life is in direct opposition to the life of Christ. ​

By Caleb Ratzlaff

By Caleb Ratzlaff

By Rosilee Sherwood

By John Derksen

Jeremiah 1:4-10; 7:1-11, 15; 20:7-10, 14-18; 31:31-34

A bit like President Obama stood on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus stood on the shoulders of Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah. As Jesus did after him, Jeremiah lived in tough times. He criticized injustice and hypocrisy, suffered a lot for his message, and longed for God’s comforting presence. And in the end he offered hope.

Background and Call

My name is Jeremiah. I come from a little village near Jerusalem. My father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather were all priests. But I was shocked when, as a youth, God called me.
God said, “I want you to announce my message to priests and politicians and kings.” I said, “I
can’t; I’m only a boy!” God said, “Don’t worry; just speak what I command you. I will be with
you; and if you get in trouble, I’ll deliver you. Your words will be my words, and they will
concern the destruction and rebuilding of nations! (ch. 1)

Matthew 27: 57-61 


“57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.”

We recently finished a series at Westview on the women who appear in Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Through this series, I gained a better understanding of something oft-repeated in my childhood: that , “Christ died for our sins”. Below I argue that the courageous actions of outcasts reveals the sin and injustice upheld by insiders — the privileged and comfortable majority. Christ’s death reveals that salvation is a product of oppressed people’s resistance against injustice; such resistance calls the mainstream community to a better way of life.

To understand how Matthew connects Christ’s salvific work to the resistance of the women in Christ’s life, we’ll start by reviewing some general observations about women in Matthew’s Gospel; before, second, sharing a few of the lessons we learned at Westview about Christ’s grandmothers; and then, third briefly visit the episode where Christ is anointed by an unnamed woman. Finally, I will conclude by thinking about how the women waiting outside Christ’s tomb reveal what it might mean to say, “we are saved by the work of the cross”.  
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