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The Wyoming Association of Churches (WAC), formerly known as the Wyoming Church Coalition was founded in 1976 by 13 denominations which recognized a need to develop ecumenical community and to promote a more just society in Wyoming. We embrace the principle that, while doctrine, worship styles, and customs often separate us, the call to do God’s work in the world brings us together.
We seek common ground before any action is taken. We have addressed many concerns over the years in many areas, including
Wyoming Association of Churches exists to:
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Become a Member of the Wyoming Association of Churches Our funding is primarily given through the member denominations 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. Show your support for connecting congregations and denominations in witness to our unity in faith! Annual memberships help support the work of WAC as a whole and the committees and events it includes. Contributions are tax-deductible.
We hope by June 1, 2010 that you will be able to join or contribute online, however at this time we ask COMING ACTIVITIES - SAVE THE DATES
Other dates of note: Children’s Justice Conference Laramie, June 2-4 http://gal.state.wy.us |
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Two standing committee, Spiritual Life and Social Justice, currently direct those work areas, connecting the work of denominations in Wyoming and in the U.S. with one another and addressing arising needs and opportunities. The Finance Committee and Personnel Committee handle their respective areas for WAC. The Annual Meeting held in the fall of each year includes three voting members from each participating denomination (executive leader, a clergy and a lay person). Observer status groups are represented in the WAC with voice but no vote. See below for links to the Wyoming area websites for participating denominations and observer groups. |
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Event Calendar
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. Contact Chelsea Kesselheim 307-332-6518 or Sally Bub 307-856-2773 for more information.
WAC Resolutions and Statements on Issues
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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.
