Read more online: Friends for Health in Haiti
Contact: Lauren McFeaters (email)
In lieu of tickets, we ask that each attendee please bring one of the food items listed below in support of Arm In Arm’s Valentines for Food Drive. We hope to fill the pews and pack the pantry!
About this Concert:
Grammy Award-winner Dan Zanes, and Haitian American jazz vocalist Claudia Zanes, perform a mix of old and new songs from near and far in a style that’s been called “All-Ages Social Music.” In other words, when they perform, it’s a party! The music is homespun, joyful, sophisticated and artful. Claudia is a board-certified Music Therapist. Her background has given the pair additional ways to make meaningful community connections and reach a diverse audience.
No glass containers, please. Be sure to check expiration dates. Monetary donations to Arm in Arm will also be accepted.
The Mission & Outreach Committee of Nassau Presbyterian Church invites you to give a special gift this year by making a donation on a friend’s behalf to organizations who are working to address pressing needs in our community, region, and world. Make any donation and you will receive a virtual card suitable for emailing. The cards include the descriptions below of how each group is putting faith into action. You may also download a printable PDF of this list:
Alternative Gifts will remain available through the end of the Christmas Season—Epiphany, January 6. To receive a card before Christmas Day, make donations by end of business on December 20. Gift cards for donations made between December 21 and January 6 will be emailed on Tuesday, January 9.
This year we will also return to receiving donations during Fellowship between services in the Assembly Room on Sundays, November 29 through December 17 and after the 10 AM service on December 24. At that time, you can pick up physical cards that can be put in the mail.
Donations can be made online using the links below. The name of the Fund is either the name of the organization (Arm in Arm) or a shortened version listed inside the parentheses next to it (LALDEF). Donations to multiple funds can be made during one transaction. An online donation via e-check incurs nominal surcharges. Donating with a credit or debit card results in a charge to the church of approximately 2.5% of the gift — please consider increasing your gift to help defray this cost.
Please contact Lauren Yeh if you have any questions about using the online donation system.
Arm In Arm partners with the community to achieve stability for our neighbors in need through the three focus areas of food, financial assistance, and advocacy.
Capital Harmony Works gives children the chance to make music together and provides an artistic venue by which children from different backgrounds get to know each other.
Cetana serves the youth of Myanmar by providing instruction in English and critical thinking, training for teachers, and supplemental scholarship for higher education.
Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of 29 national church denominations and organizations, advocate for US policies that promote comprehensive resolutions to conflicts in the Middle East with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
HomeWorks is a non-profit organization providing a free, community-based, after-school, residential living program for underrepresented high school young women in Trenton empowering its scholars with academic enrichment, social skills and identity-driven leadership programs and developing them to be social justice advocates who will give back to their community.
LALDEF provides advocacy and services for the immigrant communities in Mercer County, including ESL education, the Mercer County Identification Card, citizenship instruction, college preparation mentoring, and legal support for immigration issues.
The Paul Robeson House of Princeton will provide a center focused broadly on social justice issues and, locally, for the minority population of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood of Princeton. It will also provide temporary housing for people in transition.
Princeton Community Housing has supported affordable housing to the Princeton Community for 50 years. They currently provide and manage 466 safe, high quality rental apartments to low and moderate-income residents of diverse backgrounds and ages.
Trenton Area Soup Kitchen provides meals to all who are hungry as well as services to encourage self-sufficiency and to improve quality of life. The group informs the wider community of the needs of the hungry and advocates for resources to meet these needs.
Villages in Partnership addresses extreme poverty in Malawi by addressing the critical needs of water, food security, education, health care, infrastructure, and economic development. They work with rural villages to fight poverty together.
WSPC is the historically African-American Presbyterian congregation in Princeton and is an important beacon of welcome and justice in the community. Give toward WSPC’s endowment to support their legacy of faithfulness and racial reconciliation.
Woman, Cradle of Abundance works with women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo to fight poverty by providing education and community that supports economic independence.
9:30 a.m. | Assembly Room
This fall we turn to the Old Testament for our Linked-In Learning. Presenters were given a list of prayers in the Old Testament and asked to select one as the focus for their presentation, using this prayer to consider their own prayer life. Hearing from others will, we hope, broaden your prayer life along with your knowledge of how God’s people in the Old Testament communicated with God.
Prophets, kings, and faithful followers of God with little power or presence all speak to God and wait for a word from God. Their prayers remind us of the importance of acknowledging God’s presence in our lives and the time necessary to build this relationship with our Creator.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
Len Scales serves as the Associate Pastor for Faith Formation, Mission, and Outreach. She also serves part-time as the Executive Co-Director of the Westminster Foundation and Presbyterian Chaplain at Princeton University. She deeply appreciates the diversity of God’s people and is excited to work alongside members of Nassau, students in Princeton, and Nassau’s mission partners.
Amir Samir is an associate pastor at the Heliopolis Evangelical Church (HEC), the second biggest Presbyterian Church in Cairo, Egypt. His ministry is mainly focused on pastoral care ministry. This year he is on a sabbatical leave from his home church as he joins his wife, Dina Bishay who is pursuing a doctoral degree in Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Kathie Sakenfeld retired from the Princeton Seminary Old Testament faculty in 2013. Her special interests are the Pentateuch and stories of women throughout the OT. An ordained PCUSA clergywoman, she has participated in the life of Nassau Church since 1970 and has served the denomination at Presbytery, national, and international levels. She currently serves on Nassau’s Adult Education Committee and on the Nassau-Witherspoon Street partnership team.
Frances Katrishen has had an increasing interest in the Holy Spirit, prayer and spirituality leading her to a degree from General Seminary in New York. At Nassau Frances has led a deacon prayer ministry and she currently serves as a ruling elder, sings in the choir, and is a member of the “Adventures in Barth” small group.
Unfortunately the audio recording is not available.
Tom Coogan and his wife Beth have been Nassau Church members since the early years of this century. He has served as deacon, elder and softball coach. Hear about Tom’s spiritual exercises and explore your own.
This Fall brings a wonderful diversity of topics, leaders, and platforms, all designed to deepen your knowledge, faith, and community. Whether you opt for in-person or virtual groups, the promise that the Holy Spirit is present when two or more are gathered in God’s name remains a constant.
| Start Time |
SUN |
MON |
TUE |
WED |
THU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. | Ways to Pray: Davis | ||||
| 12 p.m. | Ways to Pray: Scales | ||||
| 1:30 p.m. | |||||
| 4 p.m. | |||||
| 7 p.m. |
Prayer in Films | ||||
| 7:30 p.m. | Ways to Pray: Vanderkam | ||||
| 8:00 p.m. |
Linked In Learning Series
Perhaps when you think of prayer and the Bible, you head straight for the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, but a wealth of examples of prayer can be found in those pages, especially in the Old Testament. The linked-in learning for this fall will focus on prayers and those who prayed them in the Old Testament. As usual, the preachers will preach on the same text that is featured in adult education that morning led by members and friends of this congregation.
Join us as you can: in worship (live or live-streaming), in education (in person or listening to the recording later in the week) and in fellowship by joining a small group. Whether joining a small group following the linkedin series this fall or an additional group, participation will enrich your faith and build friendships in the congregation.
This group is full
Carol Wehrheim is Clerk of Session. She finds small groups a necessary part of her life with Nassau Church and enjoys playing cornhole.
After retiring, Mary and Jim Vanderkam moved to the Princeton area to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Mary was an educator who taught in several contexts, in the classroom, private tutoring, and adult education. Jim was most recently a professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of Notre Dame, with interests in Jewish literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mary and Jim have much appreciated being members of small groups at Nassau.
Dave Davis has been pastor and head-of-staff at Nassau since the fall of 2000. His PhD in Homiletics from Princeton Theological Seminary focused on preaching as a corporate act and the active role of the listener in the preaching event. He has published two sermon collections A Kingdom You Can Taste and Lord, Teach Us to Pray.
Register Here
Len Scales, serves as the Associate Pastor for Faith Formation, Mission, and Outreach. She also serves part-time as the Executive Co-Director of the Westminster Foundation and Presbyterian Chaplain at Princeton University.
Register Here
Prayer takes many forms from a simple call for help or thanks to conversation, song, debate and through the filming of a popular TV children’s show. We will look at films spanning the last fifty years in honor of Nassau Church celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Movies: Heaven Can Wait, Hoosiers, Oh Brother Where art thou?, Women Talking, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Marshall McKnight, a lifelong movie buff, has been a Nassau Church member since 2011. He is a deacon and is active on the Mass Incarceration Task Force. He also serves on the Adult Education and Membership Committees. He was a journalist for seven years and for the last 18 has worked for the State of New Jersey.
This group is full
Get “Barth Smart” as we continue to dive into Barth’s dramatic treatment of justification and our total acquittal in Christ. First-timers and experts are welcome as we gather around this rigorous challenge to church and world. Reading is ~30 pages/week.
Mark Edwards joined Nassau as Director of Youth Ministries in 2013. He is a lifelong Presbyterian and holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also teaches at Princeton University, The College of New Jersey, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Mark is married to Janine and they have two great kids, lots of animals, and a bunch of backpacks. His new book is Christ Is Time: The Gospel according to Karl Barth (and the Red Hot Chili Peppers).
This group is full
Join us for a discussion series exploring the ways in which racial relations in America have been addressed in recent documentary and feature films. No one series could cover this topic in its entirety, but issues considered will include the impact of racial prejudice and institutional racism on artists, prisoners, immigrants, and interracial couples.
Please watch the films in advance of our meetings (streaming options listed below) and come prepared to share your thoughts.
Liz Beasley, a retired Rutgers administrator, serves on Nassau Church’s Mission and Outreach Committee, volunteers with Villages in Partnership, and chairs the activities committee for the Present Day Club.
Aruna Bhargava is a former college professor who taught Race Relations. She is the author of eight books: three on entrepreneurship for adults and five books on fantasy and adventure for children. For the last 25 years, Aruna and her husband have run a not-for-profit organization called I Create, that trains unemployed youth and disadvantaged women in India to become entrepreneurs.
Lina Genovesi, a member of Nassau Church since April 2019, is a pharmaceutical litigation attorney with a national law firm. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction program at Goucher College and is working on her memoir of growing up in Beirut, Lebanon.
Debbie Tegarden is a longtime Princeton resident and worked for many years at Princeton University Press. Raised a fourth-generation Unitarian from Marblehead, she joined Nassau Presbyterian Church in 1988.
This group is full
Sacred Art of Photography returns to Nassau this Fall with a small group devoted to photography and prayer. Members will share, during each of the six sessions, two photographs and a prayer of less than 200 words. Members are expected to compose their own prayers and create their own photographs during the week prior to the session.
Ned Walthall is a photographer based in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He received his MFA from the Institute of Art and Design at New England College (formerly the New Hampshire Institute of Art). His work has been shown throughout the United States and abroad.
Tim Brown has led and participated in numerous small groups. He has been an amateur photographer going back to when cameras used film and lenses had to be focused by hand. For over fifty years he has been on a photographer’s journey of discovery, reveling in the light of the world.
Join us for a musical afternoon celebrating the Paul Robeson Songbook and raising critical funds for the Paul Robeson House of Princeton. The Westminster Jubilee Singers, Kevin Maynor, Bass Baritone, the Verse Speaking Choir of Witherspoon Presbyterian, and remarks from Paul Robeson’s granddaughter, Susan Robeson, will round out the event. A reception to meet the artists will follow the performances. Let’s unite to make Paul Robeson a household name!
Tickets: The Paul Robeson House of Princeton (link)
Download flyer: Paul Robeson 125th Anniversary Concert (PDF)
Throughout September, Adult Education focused on Good Neighbors: Disability, Justice & the Church. Join for reflection and conversation on this series and other ways Nassau can be good neighbors during adult education and beyond.
Len Scales serves as the Associate Pastor for Faith Formation, Mission, and Outreach (non-installed). She also serves part-time as the Executive Co-Director of the Westminster Foundation and Presbyterian Chaplain at Princeton University. She deeply appreciates the diversity of God’s people and is excited to work alongside members of Nassau, students in Princeton, and Nassau’s mission partners.
“So, then, whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 14:8
To be prepared for the necessary arrangements made at the time of death, this class will help you consider the decisions and details included in the act of faith that is funeral planning. Pre-funeral planning allows you to let your wishes be known to family and pastors as well as enabling you to give expression to your faith through choosing and ordering what is to take place. We will focus on the details of the worship service, writing an obituary, and decisions about the care of the deceased body.
Lauren J. McFeaters finds a great deal of joy in accompanying others through the life of faith. She has served as Nassau’s Associate Pastor since 2001, and delights in worship and preaching, congregational nurture and pastoral care, membership and the ministry of the deacons. Long ago, before her life in ministry, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, was an actress in New York City, and a cast member at Moonstone Rep Company. She has a love of mysteries, film, poetry, and the books of Dorothy L. Sayers and John le Carré. She is also a staunch cheerleader for the Oxford comma.
In January 2019, the Session approved a mission statement to guide the work and ministry of Nassau Presbyterian Church. In the following months, strategic themes for action were developed. In February 2020, two conversations were held to present this work to the congregation. Then Covid hit the world in March and our focus turned to how to keep our community and ministry together during the pandemic. No longer in pandemic mode, it’s time to consider these documents again. This session will reacquaint participants with the mission statement and how we do and might live it out as a congregation and individually.
Nassau members Kim Kleasen and Carol Wehrheim have served as deacons and ruling elders. They were on the writing team for the mission statement and the strategic themes for action.
Learn more about the shared history of Witherspoon Street and Nassau Presbyterian Churches. The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton, President of Princeton Theological Seminary, will speak and we will view a brief documentary by Bob Meola.
By telling the stories of our shared history over the last 186 years, this project offers a look at the evolution and practice of the Presbyterian faith, in one of the oldest towns in America, through the multicolored lenses of our congregations.
Please join me in offering congratulations to Dr. Mark Edwards! This fall Mark began a full-time teaching position at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) where he has served as an adjunct for many years. Mark will be teaching ethics in the School of Engineering, working with the Honors program, and introducing freshmen to the study of philosophy and religion.
We are also grateful that Mark is continuing at Nassau in his role of Director of Youth Ministry. Though he will be reducing his time with us during the week, Mark will continue to lead the strong team of interns, teachers, and advisors that has been built through the years by God’s grace and God’s Spirit. We look forward to a robust season of Sunday morning church school, Sunday evening fellowship and choir, and confirmation class. And yes, a line-up of summer trips for 2024 is also on the ticket!!
On Thursday September 14th at 7pm, Mark and the Youth Ministry Committee will host an open meeting on Zoom to field any questions and to talk through the year. All are welcome to join us! Get the log-in details from Lauren Yeh (email, x106).
With grace and peace
David A. Davis
Pastor
Third 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)
Join a discussion of China Court by Rumer Godden. A family’s loves, pains, triumphs, and scandals are laid bare, forming an intricate tapestry of heart-wrenching humanity, in a remarkable work of fiction from one of the most acclaimed British novelists of the twentieth century.
This season’s first book to discuss is Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by historian Stephen E. Ambrose. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Capt. Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis’ partner in this adventure was Capt. William Clark: together they created the first map of the trans-Mississippi West.