ADDRESS: 321 Gardenia Drive, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009  PHONE: (307) 631-8914
EMAIL ADDRESS: jpeacock@wyomingassociationofchurches.org
Following the example that Jesus set for us, the Wyoming Association of Churches (WAC), a state-wide ecumenical organization, works to achieve equal justice and dignity for all. These ideals are attained through education, interaction, cooperation and understanding.

As the WAC comes together during an Annual Meeting in the fall, judicatory leaders, and/or their representatives, meet with board representatives to approve administrative changes, adopt resolutions, prioritize issues and review long range planning. New officers are elected every two years. Guest speakers highlight the two-day event to which the public is invited. The following program committees conduct business throughout the year, reporting regularly to the board:

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Event Calendar

WAC EVENTS

COMING ACTIVITIES - SAVE THE DATES

February 8, 2010 Legislative Prayer Service—under the Capitol Rotunda following the Opening Session
March 19, 2010 WAC Board Meeting - Casper, Wyoming
August 23-24-25, 2010 Annual Pastors’ Conference - Ring Lake Ranch, Dubois, Wyoming Call the WAC for reservations 307-631-8914

The Wyoming Association of Churches, John Peacock, Director, publishes this newsletter. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you know of someone who would like to receive our publication, please email us at jpeacock@wyomingassociationofchurches.org. If you do not wish to receive the ChurchLetter, simply email jpeacock@wyomingassociationofchurches.org and type “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

Register via email: jpeacock@wyomingassociationofchurches.org

Members:
Observers:
Unitarian-Universalist
Mountain Desert District
 
Partners:

Staff
The Executive Committee and the Board of Directors are Volunteers who coordinate the work of the WAC.

The Director of Mission and Ministry is John Peacock.

Structure
Each participating Judicatory is represented at the Annual Meeting of the WAC by three voting members: an executive, a clergy, and a lay person. Each Judicatory also has a representative on the WAC Board. The Board also consists of four officers, elected at the Annual Meeting, and the chair of each standing committee. Observer status groups are represented in the WAC with voice but no vote.

The Alternatives to Violence Project

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a private non-profit educational corporation, funded entirely by private sources and staffed entirely by volunteers. In its origins and philosophy, it has ties to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), but it is not a sectarian organization.

The program began in 1975 in the New York State prison system, and still continues to work there. The first workshop was held in Greenhaven Prison, after an inmate group felt the need for non-violence training. They had agreed to serve as counselors in an experimental program in a Division for Youth institution for under-age offenders. These prisoners asked a local Quaker group to provide such training, and this was done. From Greenhaven the program spread to other prisons. For some years the focus was upon prisons, and the major effort was to help people to reduce the level of violence in the prison environment, to survive it, and at the same time to deal with the violence in their own lives.

As time passed, it became clear that the violence of prisons is merely a distilled version of the violence pervading our whole society. The high level of violence among our citizens is in part a response to the violence embedded in our institutions and our values. Some people more than others are entrapped by this violence, and find that it fills their lives with trouble. But there is no one among us that does not share the capacity for violence, and no one who is not hurt by it, in one way or another. Individuals not connected with prisons began to seek the AVP training. Soon it became clear that the program was needed as much in the outside community as in the prisons. Now (in 2002) there is a network of AVP facilitators who lead workshops in about 40 states and perhaps 20 countries overseas.

The AVP workshop is based upon an experiential process of seeking and sharing, and not of teaching. Facilitators do not bring answers to the persons they work with, because they do not possess answers to the problems of other persons. Rather, they believe that the answers -- for all of us -- lie buried in the same place as are to be found our questions and problems: that is, within ourselves. The facilitator's role is to provide a stimulus and to fashion a "seeker-friendly" environment, that will encourage workshop participants to search within themselves for solutions to the violence that we all carry.

In Wyoming, AVP workshops have been offered, mostly within our correctional institutions, for over a decade.

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The Spiritual Life Committee

The primary function of this committee is to develop a close personal relationship with member judicatories and ecumenical partners as they carry out their ministries throughout Wyoming. The WAC will work to provide improved inter-judicatory communication and develop resources that will help carry out that ministry. The committee’s responsibilities include the following:

  • Providing an updated WAC website that will include information on religious and spiritual events. The website will be used to publicize all public events where issues can be discussed by participants from Wyoming and beyond.
  • Sponsorship of an annual New Pastor’s Conference
  • Sponsorship of an additional educational event to accompany each year’s annual meeting
  • Publication of a more extensive WAC newsletter
  • The Earth charter and follow up to On Sacred Ground are continuous topics of study for the Spiritual Life Committee
  • Partnering with other organizations that are addressing positive social, environmental and economic issues of the state
  • Reaching out to other Faith Groups for purposes of better knowledge of these groups, as well as sharing in common understandings.

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Promoting Social Justice Committee

The old WCC had a long tradition of promoting justice issues in the state and beyond. This committee will continue that tradition with the intention of helping member judicatories make a difference in people’s lives. The WAC will research, publicize and promote agreed upon issues that affect the state’s residents. When appropriate, the WAC will make its opinion known regarding legislation before the Legislature and the U.S. Congress. The committee’s responsibilities include the following:

  • Promotion of human rights issues
  • Support of the state’s domestic violence programs
  • Continued opposition to capital punishment
  • Promotion of “restorative justice”
  • Addressing issues of poverty
  • Working in alliance with Faith Initiatives of Wyoming
  • Working to combat alcohol and drug abuse
  • Continued opposition to any expansion of legalized gambling in Wyoming
  • Peace making
  • Support of good government initiatives
  • Support of Native American justice concerns

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Financial Support
Funding is primarily given through the judicatories of the member and observer churches. The WAC is also supported by gifts from local congregations and individuals. It is our prayer that the many fine people and churches supporting the WAC will continue to see a growing ecumenical ministry and presence for Christ in Wyoming.

Dues
• Individual/Family ( $25)
Ecumenical /Church Related Groups ($40)
Congregational         
         ($40) for < 50 members
         ($75) for 51-100 members
         ($125) for 101-100 members
         ($200) for > 200 members



The Wyoming Association of Churches is a statewide ecumenical organization of nine Christian faith communions in Wyoming -Protestant and Roman Catholic.

An administrative office in Cheyenne assists churches and individuals in working together across the state.

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