December 1-22, 2024
9:30 a.m. | Assembly Room
In this season we anticipate the birth of Jesus and God setting all things right in the world. As we wait, let us look together for glimmers of hope. Our speakers will engage their expertise in art, stories, and community and invite us to join them in paying attention to where God is showing up. You are invited to bring in a poem, image, or story that speaks to hope on Sunday, December 22nd.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
December 1 | Heath Carter
The Sense of Our Small Effort: Faithful Witness in Dangerous Times
The word “unprecedented” is often overused these days. The reality is that U.S. democracy has often been imperiled and that constellations of power in this country have often been deeply unjust. In this session we’ll delve into some examples of how those who have gone before us have engaged faithfully in dangerous times. Far from suggesting that things never change, their example underscores the stakes of even the smallest efforts for a better church and world.
Dr. Heath W. Carter is the Associate Professor of American Christianity and Director of PhD Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. Carter is the author and/or co-editor of four books and is finishing another entitled On Earth as it is in Heaven: Social Christians and the Fight to End American Inequality. He is also an Editor at Large for Eerdmans Publishing Company and the senior co-editor of the Journal of Presbyterian History.
December 8 | KimyiBo
Mothering & Art
For the past decade, KimyiBo has been exhibiting artworks that have emerged from her experience of motherhood, expanding the concept of mothering to encompass a commitment to creating, nurturing, and supporting the interconnectedness of life. During this talk, she will discuss how mothering has shaped her path as an artist and continues to inform her spiritual growth.
KimyiBo is currently an artist-in-residence at Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary. KimyiBo’s art engages with concepts arising from life as an immigrant and caregiver in the form of ink drawings, prints, artist’s books, and collaborative practices. Like a mycorrhizal network, the themes of transition, growth, ambivalence, resilience, and hope form its subterranean network of roots, from which seedlings sprout for new work.
December 15 | Maria LoBiondo
Tolstoy’s Two Old Men: Where are you on life’s pilgrimage?
Leo Tolstoy’s short story, “Two Old Men,” follows two friends who set out to fulfill their lifetime dream of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Through these characters, the celebrated author challenges us to consider our own life’s journey and how we respond to the twists and turns presented to us along the way. Storyteller Maria LoBiondo will share her oral version of Tolstoy’s classic tale.
Maria LoBiondo believes that a story is a heart-to-heart gift shared between teller and listener. She began practicing the oral tradition of storytelling when expecting her second child; her daughter is now 30 years old. She has shared folk and literary tales several times for Nassau Presbyterian’s Advent programs, as well as locally in schools, other religious settings, and festivals.
December 22| Karen Rohrer
Attention as a Pathway to Hope
The attention economy we find ourselves in grabs us with the shiny fixes, with tasks, chores, and logistics. Perhaps no more so than in the commercial Christmas season. Yet, Advent reminds us that so much of our life is waiting for God, if we can bear to sit still for it. This session is about cultivating hope in our waiting by attending to the slow and human-sized flow of community and connection, mutual care and genuine generosity.
Karen Rohrer is the Associate Academic Dean at Princeton Seminary. She pushes paper with conviction, believing that without trustworthy institutions individualism costs the church and ultimately the world the good gift God intends for us in community. She believes in dogs and the Holy Spirit and writing your way through. She is married to Andy Greenhow, Presbyterian Minister and life-sized cartoon, and lives in Lawrenceville, NJ.