Read more online: Friends for Health in Haiti
Contact: Lauren McFeaters (email)
The list for 2022 is complete.
Gathering at 7:00 p.m. in Niles Chapel on the following Thursday evenings: December 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd.
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. ~Howard Thurman
Join us this Advent for a series of explorations on contemplative prayer. As a season of anticipation and hope, Advent is an ideal time to delve into the longings of our hearts through the inward journey of contemplation.
Over the course of four weeks, we will explore a simple method of contemplative prayer or meditation practiced among early Christians and preserved in various Christian communities around the world. Along the way, we will discover that contemplation draws us into deeper relationship with God, others, and ourselves − and that the discipline of contemplative prayer empowers us to respond to Jesus’ call to follow him and serve the world.
Each short exploration will be followed by a time for contemplative prayer. New and experienced meditators alike are welcome. No registration necessary.
For more information, contact Lauren McFeaters or Chris Renshaw.
The Mass Incarceration Task Force is collecting 2023 calendars to send to East Jersey State Prison in Rahway. This gift from NPC is greatly appreciated as expressed in the thank you card for last year’s calendars. The calendars must not have wire, but staples are fine.
Nassau returns to France to join the church universal for a week of community, prayer, song, and framping (French camping).
A cool bus full of kids, day trips to the best swim and splash spots, and a ton of sun ’n fun. It’ll be a summer week done right.
Home repair in central Appalachia has repeatedly opened our eyes, expanded our skills, helped others and done some work on us too. Come along as God does a little fixing on us all.
Second Sunday of the Month (mostly) at 12:15 p.m. in the Conference Room. Bring a sack lunch. Coffee and tea are provided. All are welcome.
Contact Ginger August (email)
Meeting after the 10:00 am Confirmation Service, join the discussion of Innocence Abroad by Mark Twain. From a contemporary review of the book by William Dean Howells, “The idea of a steamer-load of Americans going on a prolonged picnic to Europe and the Holy Land is itself almost sufficiently delightful, and it is perhaps praise enough for the author to add that it suffers nothing from his handling.” (The Atlantic, December 1869). Bring a sack lunch and something to share, coffee & tea provided.
Meeting on the 3rd Sunday of the month due to Easter, join the discussion of Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. This novel is divided by about 120 years, involving two different multigenerational families, who move to Vineland, NJ. Both families need to deal with living in a house that is falling apart. Bring a sack lunch and something to share, coffee & tea provided.
Join the discussion of Horse by Geraldine Brooks (available at Labyrinth Bookstore). A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history. Bring a sack lunch and something to share, coffee & tea provided.
Join the discussion of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), by Anne Fadiman (available at Labyrinth Bookstore). This is a story based on events in Merced, California between a Hmong family and the doctors at the local hospital’s ER. Bring a sack lunch and something to share, coffee & tea provided. All who have read the book are welcome to the discussion.
The Nassau Book Group will next meet on January 8 in the Conference Room at 12:15 pm. We will be discussing Ross King’s book, Leonardo and the Last Supper (available at Labyrinth Bookstore). This story weaves together history, biography and art criticism. Leonardo da Vinci’s completed fresco–The Last Supper, was completed in 1494–the masterpiece that would forever define him.
This month the group will discuss American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, a New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club pick (available at Labyrinth Bookstore). This 2020 story tells the ordeal of a Mexican woman who was forced to leave behind her life and escape as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her young son. Themes include survival, grit, freedom of the press, trust, current events, and grief.
Join those interested in re-starting a book group at Nassau! Come with a list of books you have enjoyed and would like to discuss. We will meet and greet newcomers to this fun activity.
There are many ways to help hungry families set the table this Thanksgiving and throughout the year. Learn about new developments with Arm in Arm and how you can get involved below.
In order to distribute Thanksgiving food in time for the day, please make sure these donations are here at the church by Wednesday, November 16. Use the wooden box outside the door near the playground.
Donate Food – Thanksgiving (pdf)
Donate Money (link) |
Donate Food (pdf) |
Donate Time (link) |
Greetings,
I am excited to share with you that we are embarking on a transformative chapter in Arm In Arm’s history: we are moving our headquarters to Mill One at One Johnston Ave. in Hamilton as of October 1st. Arm In Arm is on the move!
We will continue to serve and even deepen our service to people in Trenton, continuing and enhancing our presence at 48 Hudson Street, and at our Sustainable Garden on E. Hanover St. In fact, through pioneering mobile delivery, using our new state of the art food distribution center at Mill One and new refrigerated truck, we intend to deepen our presence in Trenton, executing more off-site Grab ‘n Go grocery events and reaching community members in their own neighborhoods, at times that are convenient for them. Using data collected by the Trenton Health Team, we have already begun forging partnerships with institutions such as Capital Health, to deliver food where the need is the greatest in a more equitable way.
As you well know, we continue to see an unprecedented increase in our level of service. We are serving more people than ever before, and our current home simply cannot accommodate the storage and efficiency needs we now have. Mill One will essentially operate as a “distribution hub” and offer us more and better space for food storage, including a loading bay so our truck can load and unload easily, as well as space for volunteers to prepare bags for mobile delivery. While families will not come to Mill One for food, as is the case at our other pantries in Trenton and in Princeton, families will come by appointment to meet with our Housing Stability Team to receive help with rental and/or utilities assistance and longer-term case management and/or for financial fitness, nutrition and parenting classes. Our Housing Stability Team will combine in person and virtual meetings to provide the most professional, compassionate and convenient ways to help families in need.
Finally, we will be downsizing our administrative space to provide more in service to our families. We have learned a lot during the pandemic and are incorporating more efficient, best practice use of space in which our staff will have safer, more professional space that they will share as they flex time between being in person and working remotely. Our board, leadership, and staff are all in agreement that this move will enhance our work and increase our impact by providing better space for our services and administrative functions, and by providing a safe and welcoming environment for clients, staff and volunteers, which better embodies our values of dignity and hospitality.
We want to assure you that our mission will remain unchanged as we continue to focus on securing basic needs of food, housing, and work to promote longer-term stability. Our plans are being clearly communicated with our clients, so they know where and when they can find us, ensuring we are meeting their needs.
Thank you for your support and your partnership. Once we are settled in, I will invite you to visit us in our new home.
Let’s continue working better together, helping our community thrive.
Sincerely,
David Fox, Ph.D., M.Div.
In a September Adult Education class, Elsie McKee shared how Nassau’s gift of a roof has helped sustain and grow the work of Woman, Cradle of Abundance (WoCA) as they house people in need and empower women with income-generating skills. Listen here:
Join us in the work of empowering women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo! Below is our current list of volunteer opportunities.
9:30 a.m. | Assembly Room
As Presbyterians, we are part of a much wider stream within American Protestant life, often called the Mainline. This tradition was long a powerhouse, which wielded vast influence across all sectors of society. But in recent years most of the headlines it has garnered have centered on its decline. In this series we will revisit the Mainline’s surprising past, paying especially close attention to how this unwieldy Protestant coalition navigated the fierce challenges of the 20th-century public square. Along the way we will also wrestle with the uncertainties of the Mainline’s present and future. In this moment of flux and crisis, where might God be leading us?
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
Heath W. Carter is associate professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he teaches and writes about the intersection of Christianity and American public life. He earned a BA in English and theology from Georgetown University in 2003, an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2005, and a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame in 2012. He came to Princeton from Valparaiso University, where he was on faculty from 2012 to 2019. He spent the 2016–2017 academic year as the William S. Vaughn Visiting Fellow at Vanderbilt University. He and his family have been actively involved at Nassau Presbyterian Church since moving to Princeton.
Reading: America’s Changing Religious Landscape Pew Research Center
We are living through a season of crisis for both American democracy and American Christianity. Together we’ll explore some of the challenging features of our contemporary cultural landscape, including hyper-polarization, widespread decline of trust in institutions, and the rise of “the nones.”
Reading: Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”
For a generation now the story has been that, around the time of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, American Protestantism split into conservative and liberal camps, never to meet again. But the reality is much more complicated. Together we’ll explore the surprisingly capacious contours of the 20th-century Mainline tent.
Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Together we’ll reflect on how Mainline Protestants’ record on Civil Rights underscores both the perils and promise of a big-tent faith.
Readings: James Forman, “The Black Manifesto” The New York Review of Books; Sarah Azaransky, “The Episcopal Saint whose journey for social justice took many forms, from sit-ins to priesthood,” Religion News Service; and “U.S. Churches Offer Sanctuary to Aliens Facing Deportation,” The New York Times (subscriber link)
Together we’ll reflect on the extent to which Mainline Protestants succeeded in holding together their unwieldy, big-tent coalition in the decades following the 1960s.
Readings: Martin E. Marty, “From Declinism to Discovery,” The Christian Century; James Roh, “First Top Female Pastor at SLC’s First Presbyterian comes as ‘a bolt out of the blue’ for Congregation,” The Salt Lake Tribune
While it’s easy to become overwhelmed by stories of decline and worries about cascading crises, we have not been given a spirit of fear. Where might God be calling us to go from here?
Dear members of Nassau Presbyterian Church,
Hunger is looming around the world: in the face of violent conflicts including the war in Ukraine, in the face of rising costs of food in the United States and around the world, and in the face of heat waves and other climate change related impacts that make agriculture hard and drought and flooding real concerns for food insecurity. Affordable housing is feeling more and more elusive to much of America’s population as the pandemic, inflation and other economic factors have influenced the market.
As we pray for these and all other grave situations, we also are called to act. The Hunger Program continues to partner with you, congregations, and partners around the country and world to “alleviate hunger and eliminate its root causes.”
Churches, communities and networks step up to counter the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and increased hunger and poverty caused by conflict, climate change, and rising costs. We deeply appreciate our grantee partners, networks, Hunger Action and Earth Care Congregations, Hunger Action Advocates in presbyteries, and donors who stand together to advocate for just policies and work to find ways to achieve food sovereignty, affordable housing and justice for communities.
Thank you for your financial support. We could not do the level of ministry we are able to do without the gracious support we receive. Gifts to the Hunger Program help us and our partners to create places of safety, peace, healing, and livelihood in the midst of difficult circumstances. God is present in all places, and we give praise for the ways God has moved in our world.
This summer we released our 2021 PHP Impact Report that shares a bit of the work we were able to accomplish in 2021. While numbers and statistics can’t get at the relationships and organizing that ultimately lead to addressing root causes, we do think some of the numbers are wonderful to see, as well as our strategy and a brief story from our partner in El Salvador. We invite you to read the report online:
We continue to work so that people have more and better food, communities standing for justice know they are not alone, and people around the world are allowed to enjoy the healthiness of creation as it was meant to be. Bless you for joining in this mission with us!
Rev. Rebecca Barnes
Coordinator, Presbyterian Hunger Program