Westminster Presbyterian closes: Pastor Reflects on Legacy of Community Service
News story by Nina Culver | FāVS News
Most of the hallways and rooms at the former Westminster Presbyterian Church in Spokane’s West Central neighborhood are dim as the Rev. Sandy Brockway works to get rid of what remains of decades of her ministry and over 100 years of church history.
Westminster Presbyterian Church, a victim of shrinking church membership, closed for good in April after 119 years of ministry. Brockway, who led the church for its final three decades, retired around the same time. You’d never know it, however, since she still comes to the church every day to find a new home for everything from the hymnals to the sound system.
“We’ve been in here trying to get things out of here,” she said.
Westminster Presbyterian had a long history of service to the low income residents of the neighborhood. It launched the first food pantry in town 51 years ago, and Brockway said she still gets calls on the church phone from people trying to see if the pantry is open. It closed at the end of 2023.
How Brockway became a pastor
The Rev. Woody Garvin, who was formerly a longtime pastor of First Presbyterian, said the community will miss Brockway.
“Her love of people and support of them through life’s issues is just heartfelt,” he said. “That church, which has always been small in number, has had an outsized impact.”
Brockway, who grew up attending Mission Avenue Presbyterian Church, never intended to become a pastor. She worked as a nurse’s aid while attending Eastern Washington University to get a degree in teaching but was unable to find a job as a teacher. When the Sunday School Superintendent at Mission Avenue died, she was asked to take over.
She went on to be a youth pastor and youth director and then completed a commissioned lay pastor program offered by the Presbytery. She took over leadership of Westminster Presbyterian after three years as a youth director.
“Never did I imagine I would be here for 34 years,” she said.
She arrived to a leaking roof that needed repair, an expensive proposition.
“It was a matter of working full time for half time pay,” she said. “I did that the whole time.”
Small but mighty congregation
Westminster Presbyterian started in a tent, then moved to a location on Dean Avenue. The church also spent time in a building at Cannon and Gardner before moving to its final location on West Boone Avenue in 1959.
Located in a low-income area with a population who moved frequently, the church was never very big. Membership peaked at just under 200 in the early 1960’s and had already shrunk to half that size when Brockway took over.
Though the congregation was small, it was mighty.
They sponsored a Boy Scout Troop and had volunteers offering homework help to neighborhood children. They were active in COPS West and Our Place. For a time they had an annual turkey drive and delivered Thanksgiving dinners to families in the neighborhood.
“We had a lot of outreach,” Brockway said. “They’ve always ministered as a group. There were never really any disagreements. We were all a team. We worked together. The people themselves had enough faith to realize God was present in what we did.”
The church also had a thriving LOGOS youth ministry program.
“We had 30, 40 kids,” she said. “We had a strong, strong program.”
Westminster’s pandemic death blow
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. The youth program had to shut down. In-person worship services ceased, and the church didn’t have the equipment for Zoom services.
“We don’t have the money here,” Brockway said. “We used the money for the people.”
It was the loss of the youth program that hurt the most.
“When COVID was over, we’d lost two years of kids,” Brockway said. “COVID really did a number on small churches.”
During the pandemic, Brockway did what she could to keep her congregation together. She prepared weekly newsletters and sermons and made sure each member got a copy, Garvin said.
“She would hand deliver them to people,” he said.
The pandemic delivered a death blow to the church that could not be recovered from, however.
“I don’t know of a church that got hit harder than Westminster Presbyterian,” Garvin said.
With the church down to 24 members, the Presbytery decided last fall to shut it down, Brockway said. The final service was held at the end of April.
Westminster’s last act of ministry
Since then, Brockway has been closing down the building and giving items away, determined to help other congregations as a last act of ministry.
She’s given away hymnals, the sound system, furniture, even four stained glass windows.
“It takes a while to match up things with people in need,” she said.
So far she’s had no takers on the church’s two organs and piano, one of which reportedly belonged to former beloved local musician Don Eagle. Anyone interested in receiving one can send an email to [email protected].
“I want somebody to use it if they could,” she said.
Though she knows she’s doing good, it’s still difficult to roam the darkened hallways of the church.
“It’s been hard,” she said. “It’s just empty, very empty. I’ve got lots of memories.”
There have been no decisions yet on what will happen to the church building, Brockway said.
“They’ll come up with something,” she said. “I’m just hoping they find somebody who cares about the neighborhood like this church did.”
However, Brockway is not one to put her feet up and relax. She’s keeping tabs on her former church members and even takes some of them to church on Sunday. Several of them landed at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, where she has preached twice in recent months.
Garvin, who launched the West Central Development Project a few years ago, presented Brockway with an award recently in recognition of her decades of service to the neighborhood.
He said her work was underappreciated and Brockway was able to do a lot with almost nothing. He calls Brockway “one of the really remarkable faith leaders in Spokane.”
“I don’t think the larger community appreciates her stunning contributions,” he said. “She’s pretty awesome.”
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