Update from the Forward in Faith Together working group.
Paul Robeson House Fundraiser – Sunday, October 4
Register for the event: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/robesonhouseprinceton/register
#MissionMonday – LALDEF
Mission Partner Update
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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Nassau is grateful for all the ways members of the congregation and our partners from Westminster Presbyterian Church have been instrumental in the work of The Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF)! Since 2004, LALDEF has worked to defend the civil rights of Latin Americans, offer educational assistance, and advance cross-cultural understanding in Mercer County. Nassau’s Mission & Outreach Committee is proud to have moved from offering one-time grants to LALDEF over the years to including LALDEF as a recurring partner beginning in the 2020-2021 budget.[/ezcol_2third_end]
Follow #MissionMonday on our social media platforms to hear about how, with your help, Nassau Presbyterian Church is supporting others in our town, our state, and across the world.
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Mass Incarceration Task Force – August 2020 update
A Note to the Congregation from NPC’s Mass Incarceration Task Force:
The nationwide protests in the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers affords our country the unprecedented opportunity to reassess our priorities and values. As Christians, we believe that God’s breath flows through all beings and that Jesus calls us to demonstrate our faith through acts of love, justice and mercy. Many of us are prayerfully considering how to respond within this urgent and vital Kairos moment – this time of God’s appointment.
Our nation’s racial justice crisis reaches far beyond occurrences of police brutality. For generations, people of color in the United States have struggled to earn the same rights and privileges automatically granted to white people. Biases in our institutions and systems have created barriers to the pursuit of health, well-being and prosperity.
People are asking: what can I do? How can I be a part of the solution?
The focus of Nassau’s Mass Incarceration Task Force – formed over 3 years ago – has been to raise awareness about the inhumanity of racially-oppressive over-incarceration and to facilitate opportunities to make a difference. Because we are largely a congregation with little firsthand experience of poverty, violence, or incarceration, we find inspiration in the words of Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson: “You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance. You have to get close.” We have undertaken a series of baby steps toward getting closer — including deepening our understanding through reading, video, and seminars, and most especially, through hands-on involvement.
The Mass Incarceration Task Force’s web page can be found on the NPC website here.
Below are some opportunities our task force has engaged in and recommends:
- Increase your understanding through materials offered in our bibliography on race and incarceration here.
- Educate yourself on legislation and reform efforts at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice website here.
- Sign up here for a zoom conference from 7-9 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24: Transforming Criminal Justice in Our Lifetime: Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, 10 Years Later
- Get involved in one of the opportunities listed here, we would especially recommend:
- Virtual tutoring of at-risk teens through Life Ties
- Becoming the pen pal of a prisoner (contact Marcia Van Dyck)
- Serving as a mentor for someone returning from prison through NeighborCorps Re-Entry Services
- Virtual tutoring of adults through Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (Contact Calmia Hart).
We invite you to join us at our next MITF meeting to be held virtually at 7 p.m., Monday, September 21. For more information or to get on the MITF mailing list, please contact Anne or Jonathan.
We are grateful for Nassau Church’s history of faithful witness to God’s renewing work in the world, and we pray that we might courageously rise to the challenge of the present moment, trusting in God’s strength and wisdom.
Grace & courage,
Anne Kuhn & Jonathan C. Shenk
MITF co-chairs
#MissionMonday – Assistance for Beirut
Relief efforts are underway following the August 4 explosion in Beirut.
We join in prayer and action with members of our congregation and the wider Princeton community who have strong ties to Lebanon, the Near East School of Theology, and American University in Beirut. Matt Hackworth of Lutheran World Relief, former member of Nassau, is working with partners on the ground in Lebanon, and you can join the effort here.
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Read more:
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Replacing Lifesaving Supplies Lost
More blog posts from Lutheran World Relief [/ezcol_2third_end]
Follow #MissionMonday on our social media platforms to hear about how, with your help, Nassau Presbyterian Church is supporting others in our town, our state, and across the world.
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#MissionMonday – Trenton Children’s Chorus
Empowering the academic, social and spiritual lives of children through in music.
Listen to Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., Artistic Director, describe how Trenton Children’s Chorus is responding to the pandemic and celebrate Nassau’s 30+ year support of this vital organization in our neighborhood. #MissionMonday #NeighborsHelpingNeighbors
Follow #MissionMonday on our social media platforms to hear about how, with your help, Nassau Presbyterian Church is supporting others in our town, our state, and across the world.
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#MissionMonday – Nassau Card-igans
School Supply Drive to Support Students in Trenton
During this time of Covid-19, the Deacon Card-makers have transformed into the ministry of the Nassau Cardigans (Card-igans). This team of dedicated crafters, led by Agnes Olah, has prepared in the last 3 months, over 1000 Craft Kits for the children of Trenton.
Partnering with Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Trenton YMCA, the Cardigans utilize materials from our Church School supply closets and monies dedicated for mission and outreach to create individual art projects that are taken home and enjoyed by dozens and dozens of children.
Out of these supplies and funds come creative kits filled with colorful and vibrant hands-on projects. Everything that’s needed is organized into individual packets. The Cardigans meet in Nassau’s parking lot on Wednesday mornings to pick up their homework for the week, then drop off the finished kits back at the church to Lolly O’Brien who delivers 100 kits a week to Westminster and the YMCA.
With huge thanks to Julia Hill, Hanka Spelda, Pamela Long, Anne Steel, Pam Kelsey, Mary Brown, and leaders Agnes Olah and Lolly O’Brien.
Follow #MissionMonday on our social media platforms to hear about how, with your help, Nassau Presbyterian Church is supporting others in our town, our state, and across the world.
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Opportunities for Outdoor Worship & Fellowship
Would you enjoy a safe, distanced summer picnic with folks from the church? How about a chance to worship together out in a park? A bring-your-own dessert evening in a nice big backyard?
The Forward in Faith Together working group is ready to launch our Nassau Large Groups. The goal is for the groups to meet a few times this summer. Just like small groups, people will have to opt in by signing up online using the form below.
The working group will establish the groups of 25 to 30 expecting that the turnout to a particular gathering would be something less. Staff will help to identify lay leadership. There will also be virtual large groups for any who would love to opt in but prefer not to or just should not.
All who participate will be asked to commit to our Gathering Covenant:
While some in our church family may already be experiencing outdoor gatherings with friends in the congregation, these large groups will intentionally reflect the breadth of our community and those who sign up. The response to these pilot summer groups and the feedback received will be used in our planning for outdoor large groups in the fall.
These pilot in-person, outdoor gatherings are part of the fuller, in-depth phased plan that the working group is presenting to the Session at a meeting on July 16. A summary of the phased plan will be shared with the congregation the week after that in the regularly scheduled Friday email. Please be assured that summer small groups and all official church gatherings have been part of the deliberative process with the working group, the Session, and the staff.
Please complete the form below by Monday, July 27. You will be contacted with details of your group by Saturday, August 1.
Sign ups are now closed. Contact Corrie Berg (email)
#MissionMonday: LALDEF
The Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization LALDEF is a community-based, grassroots, nonprofit that grew out of a Princeton community-based coalition known as the Latin American Task Force which had been helping the Princeton Latino community in various ways for well over a decade.
In 2004, after seeing the growing marginalization and stresses on the local Latino community, a group of concerned Mercer County area residents joined together to take a proactive approach to address these concerns and formed the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (LALDEF). Initially an all-volunteer Princeton-based, largely advocacy effort working out of borrowed space in a church basement, LALDEF has grown into a dynamic, staffed organization, providing services and case management while staying true to its advocacy mission, with the Welcome House in Trenton as its center of operations. Members of LALDEF’s Board are a diverse cross-section of our community, representing a variety of socioeconomic, professional, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
To learn more: LALDEF
Follow #MissionMonday on our social media platforms to hear about how, with your help, Nassau Presbyterian Church is supporting others in our town, our state, and across the world.
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July 2020 – Adult Education
July 2020
July 12 | Mark Herr
2020 is always hindsight, except when it’s not.
The fifth presidential election of the 21st Century: what a long, strange, trip it’s been.
The 2020 presidential election was launched in late 2017 when the first Democratic candidate declared and featured the greatest numbers of Democratic challengers in 100 years. The primary campaign has had more lead changes than an Indianapolis 500 and a surprise guest in the coronavirus pandemic. Add it all together, and you get the most intriguing race since . . . 2016. As the Talking Heads once asked, “How did we get here?”
July 5 | Larry Stratton
Least Dangerous Branch? US Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 Term
Alexander Hamilton famously wrote that the judiciary “will always be the least dangerous” branch to the “political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them” Federalist Papers, #78. This session explores highlights and themes from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 term involving cases dealing with the electoral college, congressional oversight of the executive, the free exercise of religion and contraceptive mandates, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act and sexual orientation and transgender status discrimination. The survey will consider the arguments, personalities, and political dynamics of the Court as the Justices wrestle with these critical constitutional issues.