Friday, May 30 (Princeton) and/or Saturday, May 31 (Trenton)
Loaves and Fishes at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Trenton, needs our help! Join us in Princeton on Friday to prepare parts of the meal, or serve in Trenton on Saturday, or prepare complete bag lunches or donate individually wrapped brownies. Volunteering for Loaves and Fishes, whether it’s donating food, or your time, is an opportunity to lend a hand to some folks that can use some assistance. Join our community of faith in action. Read more and sign up online.
Each year during Lent, Nassau Presbyterian Church joins with thousands of Presbyterian congregations across the country in receiving the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. This offering is the single, largest way that Presbyterians come together to share God’s love with our neighbors in need around the world.
Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing support three vital ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance — Responding quickly to natural and human-caused disasters, both in the U.S. and internationally, to help communities rebuild and recover.
Presbyterian Hunger Program — Working to alleviate hunger and eliminate its root causes through sustainable development and advocacy.
Self-Development of People — Partnering with communities experiencing oppression, poverty, and injustice to support their efforts to create lasting change.
Together, these ministries address the most pressing needs in our world—providing relief, hope, and dignity in the face of hardship.
We invite you to participate in this year’s offering by giving generously during worship on Sunday, April 13. Special envelopes will be available in the pews, and you may also give online through the church website by selecting “One Great Hour of Sharing” from the donation options.
Let us join hands in love and service, embodying the spirit of Matthew 25 and living out the hope we proclaim in the resurrection.
The Mass Incarceration Task Force is motivated by the deep conviction that every human being is a beloved child of God. Join us on Monday, April 7 at 7:00 pm to learn about volunteering and advocacy opportunities. In addition to hearing updates from our Action Groups, we will be discussing how the current cuts to the federal government are impacting non-profit organizations working to support wrongly convicted and incarcerated persons and their families. All are welcome, including people without a religious affiliation.
Contact Anne Kuhn (email)to receive the Zoom link.
The images above are from Humanize the Numbers, a collaborative photography project bringing together men incarcerated within the Michigan Department of Corrections and students from the University of Michigan. See more at humanizethenumbers.com
Nassau is a proud Mission Partner of Johnsonburg Camp & Retreat Center which has offered outdoors-based programming in New Jersey since 1960. This Summer Jburg is offering 5-day overnight camps with date options ranging from the last week of June to the first week of August for students from 1st to 12th grade.
Still feeling the inspiration of our younger congregation after Youth Sunday? We invite you to support their upcoming Appalachia Service Project trip this summer, where they will help repair and clean up a community affected by natural disaster and neighbors in need. You can donate to the trip by selecting the “Appalachian Service Trip (ASP)” Fund on MyNassau: nassauchurch.org/giving/give-now.
Mon-Fri, August 10-15, 12:00-4:30 pm, Sunday, August 17, 9:00-11:00 am
For rising grades 3-12, learn and stage a faith-based musical in one week! Perform in worship on Sunday, August 17. Everyone is cast. Friends are welcome!
Last Sunday we heard about Housing Initiatives of Princeton (HIP)’s great work and were invited to their Spring Gathering in May. Nassau is proud to partner with HIP to prevent the eviction of our neighbors and provide transitional housing to stabilize families and individuals as they experience housing disruption.
The call of the Gospel has always been to the impossible: resurrection. Resurrection presupposes death. It also dares to believe that death does not get the last word. A central question of this series, then, is this: In our moment, what might need to pass away so that the abundant life of Christ’s resurrection might be known?
Be linked in for Lent: each week small groups will study the same texts from a more personal and contemplative point of view, and Pastor Davis will preach them in Worship. Join us each Sunday morning as Nate Stucky leads the discussion in the Assembly Room.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
Nate Stucky serves as Director of the Farminary Project at Princeton Theological Seminary. He grew up on a farm in Kansas where his love for Christian faith and agriculture first took root. After earning a BA in Music from Bethel College (KS), Stucky spent six years doing ecumenical youth ministry on the eastern shore of Maryland, and two years farming back in Kansas. After farming, Stucky earned an MDiv and a PhD (Practical Theology, Christian Education and Formation) from Princeton Theological Seminary. His scholarship explores questions of land, ecology, theology, agriculture, justice, joy, and Sabbath as they relate to theological education. He is the author of Wrestling with Rest: Inviting Youth to Discover the Gift of Sabbath. Ordained in the Mennonite Church (USA), Stucky engages Farminary work as integral to his calling to teaching ministry. Nate and Janel along with their children Joshua, Jenna, and Isaac, have been worshiping at Nassau Church since 2016.
March 9 | Genesis 1:1-2:3
Seven-Day Creation
Seven-Day Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3) During Lent our church community will journey together through Linked-In Learning, where adult education, small groups, and our preaching life intertwine. This week, we are reflecting on the very first story of the Bible, the story that started everything. What does it mean to reflect on creation during Lent, a traditional period of grief? Further, what does it mean to reflect on the creation story in the midst of ecological devastation, as wildfires and floods cause displacement and chaos? Perhaps the story may bring us to lament, to cry out for the abundant goodness we have commodified and extracted from the earth. Perhaps it will lead us to act, to make new resolutions to protect the holy greenness of this world we share. Whatever this deeply generative text brings us this week, we will remember that there is no creation without rest. As the land rests this winter, and as the soil lies fallow before producing new growth, let us treat our bodies gently as we learn from the creative God of rest.
During Lent our church community will journey together through Linked-In Learning, where adult education, small groups, and our preaching life intertwine. Our text this week gives us a different account of creation, and a new perspective on our God who plants, tends, and nurtures. The second creation account is a rich text we can use to explore our identity as humans— formed of dust, vitalized by the breath of God. But it is also a profoundly ecological text, filled with nonhuman characters such as rivers and trees. What if we read the text with newfound attention to these characters? What might be the significance of a garden full of “every kind of tree?” The garden in Eden is not just a pretty pastoral scene, but an ecologically diverse old growth forest. God plants a garden that is resilient, harmonious, and delightful in its diversity. And God puts humans there to tend and to keep the garden. This Lent, how can we live out our vocation of nurture, reflecting the example of our Creator? How can we protect mature forests and diverse ecosystems? The second creation narrative draws us into these questions, and into our calling as tenders of the garden.
This week’s reading is a tough one. From our previous stories of creation and harmony we now see Eve and Adam, and later their children Cain and Abel, as they leave the garden and navigate being human in a complicated world. For the first time, feelings of scarcity, jealousy, and resentment are a part of our story. And these fears impact not just the human characters, but the nonhuman as well. The mature forest of Eden is replaced with thorns and thistles, sure signs of annual agriculture and thin topsoil. Soil itself shows its ability to cry out to God when it is soaked with Abel’s blood. These difficult passages invite us to sit with feelings of grief about the darker sides of our human experience. They may bring us closer to the ground, to listen to the cries of injustice that permeate our world. And yet, as we honestly face our grief, we can also find God in our midst, sewing us garments to keep us warm, and listening attentively to the voice of the soil. How might we meet the God who is both tender and just as we reflect on these stories?
“Gather as much as you need.” It’s an old, old lesson, and it seems as hard for us as it was for the Israelites in the wilderness. In our story this week, God provides an abundance of food for the Israrelites as they travel through the wilderness in their exodus out of Egypt. As we reflect on manna from heaven, we might slow down and look for the gifts God has given us in our own lives, especially as plants begin poking up from the ground. Our land will once again bloom with more than enough food for all— will we store, or will we share? Will we learn the lesson of our God, and the lesson passed down by those indigenous to this land, to practice an honorable harvest? This week may our reflections lead us to gratitude, and may our gratitude lead us to generosity.
In this week’s reading, Jesus sends the twelve out into the villages, to proclaim and to heal. By asking the twelve to take nothing with them, Jesus calls his followers to courageously trust the communities they enter. Through this Lenten series, as we have reflected on stories from the garden of Eden to the Israelites in the wilderness, we have repeatedly encountered humans who refused to trust in the abundance of God. We know how hard it can be to trust our neighbors, to trust strangers, to trust that there is enough. But by answering Jesus’ call to go out with nothing, the disciples take on a posture of dependence, both with their fellow humans and with the more than human world. This week, how can we lean into our dependence on others? How can we let ourselves be nourished by the God of soil and rich harvest, the God who asks for nothing in return?
Remember me. We’re nearly at the end of our Lenten journey, in our sixth week of reflecting on the relationship between resurrection hope and God’s beautiful creation. As Jesus holds up the bread and the wine at the last supper, we might remember all we’ve witnessed along the way— the abundant fruit of the garden, bread in the wilderness, God’s call again and again to move into interdependence. We might remember all the ways we’ve failed to heed this call, from Abel’s blood crying out from the soil all the way to Judas, poised to betray. The Last Supper invites us into grief, and our grief lives close to hope. When we remember Jesus, we remember a long history of land and food, a history soaked in blood and blooming in possibility. Where will this remembrance take us? What is possible when we let ourselves be moved?
Sundays, 9:30 am, in the Assembly Room, unless otherwise noted
Explore how faith inspires meaningful action, deepens cultural understanding, and fosters justice and hope. Through hymn singing, historical reflections, theological insights, and community empowerment, these sessions invite participants to engage the world with compassion, courage, and purpose.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
February 2 | Noel Werner
Lord, Make Me an Instrument: A Hymn Sing
Our bodies are instruments tuned for praise, singing with the Spirit and understanding, proclaiming the redeeming work of God, and carrying the Gospel into our homes, community, and world. Come for a hymn sing that celebrates songs of welcome in the midst of exclusion, courage in the midst of fear, hope in the midst of despair, love in the midst of hate, and light in the midst of darkness. Lord, make us instruments of thy peace!
Due to the interactive nature of this class, no recording was attempted.
Noel Werner has been the Director of Music at Nassau Presbyterian Church since 2006. Prior to this position, he was the Minister of Music at Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, New Jersey. Noel holds degrees from Westminster Choir College, Indiana University (Bloomington), and Christian Theological Seminary (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis. His wife, the Rev. Wendi Werner, is the solo pastor of First Presbyterian Church at Dayton, New Jersey. They have two daughters, Sophie and Emily.
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 4 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.
Despite centuries of Christianity in Ghana (Gold Coast in 1471), Ghanaian Christians continue to struggle with what it means to be Christian while maintaining their respective family relations and cultural identities. With ethnographic interview data from an ongoing Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) research project on “The interplay between Christianity and indigenous religions in Ghanaian Christian funeral rites,” I wish to share with you some of my findings on how contemporary Ghanaian Christians negotiate their dual/multiple identities whether in the homeland or diaspora.
Rose Mary Amenga-Etego (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana. She obtained her PhD from the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, after her BA and MPhil degrees in Religions from the University of Ghana. She is a Research Associate of the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa, Ghana’s Representative of the African Association for the Study of Religions and a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. She is also an Extraordinary Minister of the Holy Eucharistic and a catechist, teaching and learning the faith together with adult English-speaking catechumens of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Chaplaincy in the University of Ghana campus. She is currently one of the OMSC Resident Scholars at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Introducing Liberation Christianity though a Latin American Lens
Learn about liberation theology in Latin America. Barreto will introduce concepts from his forthcoming book Base Ecumenism: Latin American Contributions to Ecumenical Praxis and Theology (Augsburg Fortress, Feb 2025).
This class was not recorded.
Raimundo C. Barreto is an associate professor of World Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he has been teaching since 2014. He holds a bachelor’s degree in theology from Seminário Teológico Batista do Norte do Brasil, an MDiv degree from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and a PhD in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary. Before coming to Princeton, he taught at various institutions in Brazil and was the director of the Division on Freedom and Justice at the Baptist World Alliance. Barreto is the author of Protesting Poverty: Protestants, Social Ethics, and the Poor in Brazil (Baylor University Press, 2023). He is the co-editor of the Journal of World Christianity and a co-covener of the Princeton World Christianity Conference.
WorkWell Partnership: From Prison Pipeline to Stable Community
Founded by the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, the WorkWell Partnership provides life skills and job training to people in Mercer County who have been released from prison, or whose lives have otherwise been affected by the justice system. WorkWell Executive Director Jeannette Rizk will give a short presentation, along with a board member and a WorkWell graduate, followed by a Q&A. Equipping people from underserved communities with skills, enabling them to take charge of their own destiny, removing walls—all this lies at the heart of WorkWell’s mission. Some of our most dedicated volunteers come from Nassau Presbyterian Church, which has also generously provided financial support.
Jeannette Rizk, the executive director of WorkWell, grew up in Egypt and earned an MA in anthropology from the American University in Cairo. After a series of adventures in the field of international development: helping launch a media-production NGO, assisting in the creation of a docu-drama series on HIV awareness in the Middle East, and teaching a directing course in Sudan and Morocco, she took a job with the European Union to set up an ecotourism company for the Bedouin Jabaleya tribe in the south Sinai. This was followed by jobs in which Jeannette developed strategies to turn Egyptian women’s handicraft skills into genuine business ventures.
