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Refugee Resettlement Update (Feb. 2022)

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As we reported in Generations in early January, Nassau is serving as the community resettlement sponsor for one of the thousands of families from Afghanistan who fled after its fall to the Taliban. These families have been housed in tents and barracks at Fort Dix and other military bases across the country awaiting the opportunity to start a new life in a welcoming community.

We were very excited in late December to learn of our opportunity to welcome a family with six children into our community. The resettlement team warmly welcomed the family on behalf of Nassau Church when they arrived just days later.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. – Matthew 25:35

Since then, the team has been working with the family as they create a new home and acclimate themselves to their new surroundings. This has included accompanying them on shopping trips, as well as visits to the bank, the library, and doctor appointments. We have also helped them complete the process of enrolling the three youngest children into the local schools. A team of English Language tutors will soon start working with some family members each weekday. The family has been heartened to be able to visit with extended family members who live in the region. We are beginning to work with the family on the immigration process that will allow for the arrival of their father into the United States.

The resettlement team is deeply grateful for the enthusiastic response to our requests for assistance to welcome the family and assist in their resettlement. We have one specific request: we hope members of the congregation will be able to help us find appropriate employment opportunities for the adult children. One of them recently finished medical school and was beginning to work in health care in Afghanistan, while the other has business skills. Please contact the church office if you can help with this.

We ask for your continuing prayers for the family as they establish a new life away from their homeland.

The Refugee Resettlement Team

#MissionMonday – Valentines for Food (2022)

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Help the Hungry in Mercer County Feed Their Families

SUPPORT ARM IN ARM’S 18TH ANNUAL VALENTINES FOR FOOD DRIVE


Arm in Arm needs your generous now more than ever!

In 2021 they have DOUBLED the number of food pantry visits, mobile deliveries and community grab ‘n go events”

  • Pre-pandemic = 20,000
  • 2021 = 40, 140

Now you can DOUBLEyour support of Arm in Arm! Financial contributions received by February 24 will be MATCHED by a faithful group of Nassau Church donors.

Arm In Arm has NEVER seen its shelves go empty, thanks to the generosity of its supporters – YOU!

How can you help? Follow the links for more detailed information below.

  • DONATE: Drop off food to the pantry at Nassau (download the shopping list below).
  • PARTICIPATE: in the online virtual food drive.
  • CONTRIBUTE: Monetary donations can be sent to Nassau or directly to Arm In Arm.
  • VOLUNTEER: your time at one of our pantries in Trenton or Princeton. There is a specific immediate need for volunteers at the Princeton pantry on Mondays & Tuesdays.

Watch a Moment for Mission from Arm in Arm’s Executive Director, David Fox:

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ACTION STEPS

  • DONATE: healthy, non-perishable food to our pantry, 12-16 oz. cans, no glass containers, please! Remember to check expiration dates.
    • Corn Flour (Maseca)
    • Canned Vegetables (low-fructose)
    • Rice
    • Canned Proteins (tuna, salmon, chicken, chili)
    • Canned Beans (low-sodium)
    • Peanut Butter
    • Cereal
    • Canned Fruits
    • Seasonings
    • Shelf-Stable Milk (Parmalat)
    • Honey
    • Vegetable/Canola Oil
  • PARTICIPATE: in our Valentines for Food virtual food drive. Visit https://amplify.ampyourgood.com/user/campaigns/3983 to purchase food that will be delivered directly to Arm In Arm.
  • CONTRIBUTE: On-line or by mail and remember that your gift will be DOUBLEDthanks to the generosity of several Nassau Presbyterian Church members.
    • Arm In Arm: arminarm.org/valentines or by using the Valentines for Food envelopes in Nassau’s pew rackS (make checks payable to “Arm In Arm” and note in the Memo: “Nassau”)
    • Nassau: https://nassauchurch.org/giving/give-now/or mail to 61 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542 (make checks payable to “Nassau Presbyterian” and note in the Memo: “Valentines for Food”)
    • Contact the church office by phone 609-924-0103 or by email if you have any questions.
  • VOLUNTEER: at one of our food pantries during the week. Email for more details.
    • to volunteer in Princeton, immediate need for help on Mondays (11am-2pm or 1:30pm-4pm) and Tuesdays (10am-2pm)
    • to volunteer in Trenton

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Did you know that in a single year Arm In Arm provides enough food for its clients to prepare approximately one million meals for themselves and their families? When you support Valentines for Food, you support Arm In Arm’s effective response to food insecurity in our area.

Our Princeton Food Pantry at Nassau Presbyterian Church

  • Arm In Arm’s Princeton Pantry serves approximately 300-400 families on a regular basis. These are local families and seniors, many of whom are served bi-monthly through home deliveries made by volunteers to communities on: Clary Street, Witherspoon Street, Redding Circle, and Spruce Circle.
  • Visits to and deliveries from this pantry alone in 2021 were more than double from those in 2020, and increased four times from the pre-pandemic number.
  • Families receive fresher, healthier food and Arm In Arm has made a commitment to providing families with fresh produce on a regular basis. Our food budget has tripled since before the onset of the pandemic.
  • Nutrition education is provided to community members including by virtual zoom classes in both English and Spanish.

Our Agency

  • Arm In Arm operates 3 food pantries in Mercer County:
    • Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton
    • 123 East Hanover Street in Trenton
    • 48 Hudson Street in Trenton
  • The pandemic has exacerbated the need and in 2021, over the course of 45,140 visits to Arm In Arm’s three food pantries, and through mobile deliveries and grab ‘n go events in the community, people had access to healthy, high quality food for themselves and their families. This is DOUBLE the pre-pandemic level.
  • People are coming more often; it is expensive to live in our area and the food provided helps to ease the burden, freeing up resources to cover rent, medical bills, car repairs, or even shoes for their children.
  • Donations of In-Kind Food from Food Drives are critical: Every grocery order includes approximately $15-20 of food that Arm In Arm purchases. This food is supplemented with $30-$40 of food that is donated by the local food bank and by communities like Nassau Presbyterian Church and Princeton Public Schools who conduct food drives and donate much-needed non-perishables. This means that the value of a grocery order for a family is approximately $35-$50 and provides 3 days worth of food.
  • Approximately one third of the people who receive food through Arm In Arm are under age 18.
  • About one fifth of Arm in Arm’s food clients are aged 60 and above.
  • Arm in Arm provides fresh, local produce for its customers, much of it donated by farmers and farmers’ markets, and also from supporters of Yes We CAN! Food Drives; community, school, and church gardens; Whole Foods Market; Farmers Against Hunger; and our own community vegetable garden right in downtown Trenton!
    • Arm in Arm’s volunteer-tended vegetable garden produced nearly 900 pounds of fresh produce this past summer.
  • Arm in Arm hosts free health screenings at its downtown Trenton location. Clients can pick up groceries, while receiving COVID 19 vaccinations and blood pressure screenings, learning about and receiving screenings for hypertension, diabetes, glucose levels, and heart health.
  • Arm In Arm supports the Robbins Elementary School in Trenton through the Princeton Area Community Foundation’s All Kids Thrive Program, which seeks to improve educational performance by reducing chronic absenteeism. The food and case management support we provide results in improved family stability and thus far, has led to increased attendance.

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WSPC/NPC Joint Partnership Update

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On Tuesday, January 11th at 5:30 pm, members of the Bending the Moral Arc Courageous Conversations groups met with the Princeton Civil Rights Commission at their invitation. At question is the Civil Rights Commission’s proposal to create a civilian review board to increase police accountability in the face of disparate Princeton Police excessive force. 

 At this link you will find data that the Civil Rights Commission believes  supports their proposal. 

BMA/Courageous Conversations members added their perspectives based on its Policing the Police Conversation, lived experience, and review of developing “reimagining” police news reports and research. Karen S. Brown, Tracy Eskridge, Denyse Leslie, Claire Mulry and Cameron Stout participated in the discussion with Commission members Caroline Clark, Lew Maltby, and Patricia Soll. 

Planned next steps include sharing the civilian review board proposal and other information with Witherspoon and Nassau congregations, our Sessions, relevant Committees such as the Mass Incarceration Task Force and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow. BMA members were generally supportive of a Princeton Police Civilian Review Board, yet pressed for the Commission to embrace bigger and bolder reimagining Police solutions. A civilian review board with teeth should be the goal.

On Sunday, January 16th at 3:00 pm, Witherspoon and Nassau Churches will join 2 other “paired” Matthew 25 churches — Harlem Presbyterian Church (Harlem NY) and Northminster Presbyterian Church (Indianapolis, IN) to begin a 4-church conversation on race and social justice through the vehicle of discussing Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. If you’ve started Caste or read it many times, this is a great opportunity for Witherspoon members to join in what should prove to be a lively monthly discussion and a rich collaboration with 2 Matthew 25 Presbyterian congregations that have been paired for several years under the umbrella of Undoing Racism.The Synod of the Northeast has invited this collaboration to write an Innovation Grant to fund Next Steps / Mission(s) the 4-church effort proposes. We have 5 volunteers from the BMA/Courageous Conversations small groups — Ben Colbert, Denyse Leslie, Jane Holmquist, Claire Mulry, Holly Hardaway. We would like to have a total of 10 — 5 Witherspoon; 5 Nassau. If you are interested in joining this collaboration contact Denyse Leslie (email).

All those interested in learning more about the Bending the Moral Arc Courageous Conversations initiative, please review the November 30th webinar, and other materials at the Presbyterian Mission Agency Scattered Church website. Audi Peal, Ben Colbert, Barbara Flythe, Grace Kimbrough, Elsie McKee, Denyse Leslie, Michelle Peal, Tracy Eskridge, and Cameron Stout are Witherspoon members of the 2 small groups. 

The Bending the Moral Arc webinar recording and resource can now be found online:

Watch the Webinar (YouTube) | Download the Resource (pdf) | Read the news story (link)

Refugee Resettlement Update (Jan. 2022)

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In the words of Howard Thurman:

 When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

More than fifty years ago, members of Nassau Church led a grassroots movement of our congregation to welcome our first refugee family. Since then, countless Nassau members – recently including Tom Charles, Sue Jennings and Ann Youmans – have worked together to welcome twelve refugee families from eleven different countries into our midst. This opportunity to witness to our faith and act on our convictions has been a deeply meaningful experience.

Today, Nassau members are continuing this important ministry by preparing to welcome a family from Afghanistan. The New York Times recently reported that 11,000 people who fled from Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban are being temporarily housed in tents at Fort Dix. All of them are awaiting resettlement to towns across our country as their health and security screenings are completed and they become fully vaccinated.

Church World Service is one of the organizations that is working to assist in this Afghan Placement and Assistance process, and we are once again partnering with them as a community resettlement sponsor. We have just been informed by them that they have identified a family that is a good match for us, and we have agreed to sponsor them. We expect to welcome them into our community on or about January 5th.  The family is larger than those we have hosted in the past, with six children — ages 11, 17, 19, 21, 22 and 23 — so our tasks in welcoming and supporting their resettlement will be somewhat different than before, including helping the older children to find appropriate educational and work opportunities. We are very excited to begin this work.

If you have been involved in one of Nassau’s previous resettlements, you know that it takes many, many volunteers and lots of generous support for the effort to be successful. A network of volunteers from across our congregation has begun making these preparations. This group has already found appropriate housing and furnished it with donated furniture. We are grateful to Princeton Theological Seminary for its support for this housing, and we thank everyone who has already volunteered in this effort and to hose of you who have already generously provided housewares, furniture, and other items.

The Nassau Generations newsletter on Friday, December 31, contained a link (also found below) to a “SignUp Genius” list for additional donations to meet the needs of this large family. As we find out more about their specific needs, we will continue to add items to that list. We thank everyone who has already responded to help us welcome this family. Monetary donations can be made using the “Give Online” link below by choosing the “Refugee resettlement” fund.

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One important note about this resettlement – it is vital that we respect the privacy of the family and the confidentiality of their arrangements, given the circumstances of the Afghan resettlement. Unfortunately, there is a very real risk that politics and fear could threaten the security of the family as they seek to begin a new life in our community. We all need to commit to do everything we can to keep them safe by protecting their privacy. This includes information about their individual names, as well as their address and living arrangements.

We are very likely to need your help and support over the coming weeks and months in several areas, such as clothing, transportation and food. These needs will be communicated through Nassau Generations and listed on the SignUp Genius.

Please join us in prayerfully considering how you can join in this important resettlement ministry.

Thank you.

The Refugee Resettlement Team

Learn More about Affordable Housing – January 9, 5:30pm

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Affordable Housing in a Just World: Basics and Beyond

Sunday, January 9 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm on Zoom

Our speakers will include Diane Ciccone, attorney and former West Windsor councilperson, who had to deal with the challenge of complying with affordable housing requirements in a suburban town; Mitchell Newman, senior vice president at Lennar, a Fortune 500 national affordable housing builder;  and Alice Small, president, Princeton Community Housing Development Corp., which builds 100% affordable developments.

The social justice committees of Beth Chaim in Princeton Junction, Har Sinai in Pennington, and the Jewish Center in Princeton are offering the panel discussion in accordance with the value of welcoming the stranger, including people who are unable to afford market rate housing in our communities.

This free program is open to all. To register for the Zoom link or more information, email Linda Oppenheim. Hope you can make it and encourage others to attend.

UPDATE: Bending the Moral Arc webinar recording & resources

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Synod of the Northeast 2022 Innovation Grant awarded to the Bending the Moral Arc Courageous Conversations project.

Good news! A Joint Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church and Nassau Presbyterian
Church Bending the Moral Arc Courageous Conversations grant writing team of Karen
Brown, Monica Burch, Barbara Flythe, Michelle Peal, Len Scales, and Pam Wakefield
submitted a winning proposal to the Synod of the Northeast for one of its coveted 2022
Innovation Grants. The $15,000 award will be used to extend the Bending the Moral Arc
Courageous Conversations model to more congregations and organizations. God is good,
All the Time!

The Bending the Moral Arc webinar recording and resources are now available online:

Read the Article

During a webinar this week, lay leaders from two congregations — one predominately Black, the other primarily white — shared how their conversations about race and justice in the past year have strengthened their resolve to learn more about systemic racism. They also discovered what they can do together and as individuals to bend the moral arc toward justice.
Read more online (link)

Bending the Moral Arc Manual

The Bending the Moral Arc manual, written to encourage and assist others in creating race and justice ministries in their own communities, includes sample conversations and other resources and tools.
Download the Manual (pdf)

Courageous Conversations Resources

In our charge to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly,” Nassau is grateful to partner with our siblings at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church. Ongoing Bending the Moral Arc small groups engage in courageous conversations on race and justice facilitated by members of the Nassau & Witherspoon Partnership Team working in partnership. Those leaders pull from a running resource list to ground discussion, and we wanted to share those resources with you here. (updated January 2022)

Courageous Conversations Resources (PDF)

Watch the Webinar

Two congregations came together in partnership around the invitation of Matthew 25 to have courageous conversations and to take steps towards dismantling structural racism. They were transformed!

We will hear from these churches, one predominately white and one historically black, that developed a small group model for conversation and action, all during the pandemic and on zoom! Leaders from Nassau Presbyterian Church and Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey will be present to share their story and best practices as you learn to translate this model to your own context.

A template for this small group ministry partnership has been created and will be available as a FREE download during this webinar. Background, tips for creating your own ministry and sample lessons and resources will be included. There will be break-out groups and a Q and A.

All church leaders are welcome to attend.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 | 7pm-8:30pm (EST)

No registration necessary. Join us on zoom using this link: https://zoom.us/j/94405040254
This webinar is hosted by Theology, Formation and Evangelism in the Presbyterian Mission Agency and is part of our Scattered Church ministries.

Adult Education – Advent 2021

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Advent in…

From the Annunciation to the Alleluias, Advent is a season of Anticipation. In music, art, movement and speech, we look forward to the birth of Christ. Come, Lord Jesus!

Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.

Current Covid Protocols for Adult Education

Our presenters are fully vaccinated and will comply with our testing protocol for worship leaders. Social distancing will apply in the Assembly Room with seating limited to 40 and masking inside the building will continue.

November 28 | Elizabeth Steel

Advent in Pictures: Joy and Gladness

Joy is a central theme to the Advent narrative. We will explore the concept of “joy” in visual art and usher in the season by reflecting on how we are called to express joy in our own lives. By encountering a variety of different works, we will discern how we can be open to receiving and sharing God’s “joy and gladness” this season.

Elizabeth Steel is a fourth year student at Princeton Theological Seminary earning her MDiv and MA in Christian Education and Formation. With BA in Art History at the University of Virginia, she is exploring the capacity that art holds for theological reflection and formation, including an internship at the Princeton University Art Museum. She grew up in McLean, Virginia and didn’t know anybody could be anything other than Presbyterian until high school.

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December 5 | Paul Rorem

Advent in Song: Pandemic Hymnody

“Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” may be an Advent hymn, but not in the modern sense.  It has more to do with the plague than with Christmas. And “How Brightly Beams the Morning Star” (How Fair, How Bright the Morning Star) may sound like it refers to the Epiphany star the Wise Men saw, but it doesn’t! These two hymns, (“Wachet auf” and “Wie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern”) appended in tandem to a big book by Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) and later favorites of J. S. Bach and F. Mendelssohn, became known as the King and Queen of German Chorales.

Paul Rorem is Princeton Theological Seminary’s Warfield Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History, a title he now shares with his own doctor-father Karlfried Froehlich.  His courses covered St. Augustine, mysticism, women writers, and hymn texts as windows into church history in general.

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December 12 | Annalise Hume

Advent in Motion: The Word Became Flesh

During Advent, we turn our attention to the coming of our Incarnated Christ, the Word made Flesh. By also tuning in to our own bodily experiences, we can freshly experience the season this year. Together we will consider how and why embodied spiritual practices can enliven our faith. Then we will get up and play with a bit of movement for ourselves. All bodies are welcome!

Annalise Hume is a passionate, creative, down-to-earth Spiritual Director who loves listening and asking questions to help others recognize the movement of God in their life. She has a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota as well as an MDiv and MA in Christian Education from Princeton Theological Seminary.  In her spare time, you will find her playing with her toddler, watching Princeton tennis matches, and dreaming up her next trip.

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December 19 | Michael Morgan

Advent in Speech: Good Tidings of Great Joy

Join us as we explore and hear Luke 2:8-10 as if for the first time. What tools do orators use to highlight meaning and story in scripture? Through these tools we will discover the patterns, contradictions, and hidden gems in a passage we know (almost) too well.

Michael Dean Morgan and family (Shana, Dean, and Avery) joined Nassau Church in 2013. Michael is a professional actor, head of Voice and Speech at Rowan University, and a longtime adjunct professor of Speech Communication at Princeton Theological Seminary.

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Thanksgiving Day Service at PU Chapel

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Princeton Community Thanksgiving Day Service

Thursday, November 25 at 11:00 a.m.

All are welcome to this treasured annual community gathering, the Interfaith Thanksgiving Worship Service, in the University Chapel. Sponsored by Princeton University’s Office of Religious Life and the Princeton Clergy Association.

This service will be live streamed on the Office of Religious Life’s YouTube page.

*All persons, including members of the broader community, are welcome to attend this event if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 if over age 12. Face coverings must be worn at all times by everyone over age 2. Registration is required for contact tracing purposes.

Please follow this link for advance in person registration.

Lenten Devotions 2023 – Call for Writers

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Ash Wednesday, 3/2/22 – Easter Sunday, 4/17/22

Would you consider writing a meditation for our 2022 Lenten daily devotional series? We are always hoping to encourage new writers to join us. These messages of faith and encouragement have become a meaningful tradition for our community, and for many beyond the Nassau congregation. We will share these messages through a daily email, and later, when the season is complete, as a PDF that can be downloaded from our website.

Participating easy — here’s how:

“God’s Hands and the Holy Spirit,” from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/basta-cosi/1547659026/ – Jean Bean.

Each writer will be provided a choice of scriptures and guidelines for writing. Choose one or two verses meaningful to you, write a short reflection on them, and include a sentence prayer to close your reflection. It can be in any literary form: Prose, poem, haiku, dialogue, etc. Examples of our recent devotionals can be found on our website here (link).

It need not be complicated; simply from your heart. We have resources and helpers to guide you through the process. Please join us.

If you have any questions about the process or if you’re ready to sign up, please email Karen Barrows.

 

 

40: The Gospels

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four evening gallery talk with artist

Joel Schoon-Tannis

7:00 p.m. Free Webinars on Zoom

Art Books, Original Art and Giclée Prints will be for sale at each venue during gallery viewings

“God’s Handiwork: Works of Art Creating Works of Art”

7:00 pm  Wednesday, November 10
Hosted by The Wilberforce School

 Join Webinar (Zoom)

Guests are also welcome to view The Gospel of John Art Gallery in person:
Thursday, November 11 | 8:30 am – 3:00 pm

Meet the Artist: Thursday, November 11 | 12:30 – 2:00 pm

Multi Purpose Room, first floor
Face coverings are required indoors.

“Thinking in Pictures: Visual Art for Discipleship”

7:00 pm  Thursday, November 11
Hosted by Princeton Theological Seminary

 Join Webiner (Zoom)

Fully vaccinated guests are also welcome to view The Gospel of Matthew Art Gallery in person:
Monday, November 8 – Thursday, November 11 | 12:00 – 4:00 pm

Meet the Artist: Tuesday, November 9 | 7:00 – 8:00 pm

Gambrell Room, 2nd floor Scheide Hall
Face coverings are required indoors.

“Made in God’s Image: Creating With and For Others”

7:00 pm  Friday, November 12
Hosted by Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church

 Join Webiner (Zoom)

Guests are also welcome to view The Gospel of Mark Art Gallery in person:
Wednesday, November 10 | 11 :30 am – 2:00 pm

Meet the Artist: Wednesday, November 10 | 11 :30 am – 12:30 pm and
Sunday, November 14 | 11 :30 am – 12:30 pm

Church Sanctuary
Face coverings are required indoors.

“The Evolution of an Artist: What’s a Jesus Following Artist Supposed to Do?”

7:00 pm | Saturday, November 13
Hosted by Nassau Presbyterian Church

 Join Webiner (Zoom)

Guests are also welcome to view The Gospel of Luke Art Gallery in person:
Sunday, November 7 and Sunday, November 14 | 10:15 – 11 :00 am and 12:00 – 1 :30 pm

Meet the Artist: Sunday, November 7 | 12:00 – 1 :00 pm

First Floor Conference Room
Face coverings are required indoors.