The Princeton Clergy Association warmly welcomes all to the annual Community Thanksgiving Day Service at Princeton University Chapel from 11:00 a.m. to noon on Thursday, November 24, 2015.
A Thanksgiving tradition for over 65 years, the service is open to the Princeton area community. Many faiths and traditions are included in leading the service.
Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert will read the President’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Music will be offered by the Princeton University organist, Eric Plutz, by Music Minister William D. Carter III, and a community choir led by Beverly Owens, Director of Music at The Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Plutz will play a prelude and postlude, the community choir will sing two anthems, and the congregration will sing traditional Thanksgiving hymns.
Participants are asked to bring donations of nonperishable food items for Arm and Arm, formerly the Crisis Ministry of Mercer County (no glass containers, please).
Singers who would like to join the community choir can contact Julia Coale (). Please know that all are welcome to join the choir. Choir rehearsal will be at the University Chapel at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 24.
A message from Mayor Liz Lempert and Community Leaders
In the aftermath of one of the most divisive elections in our country’s history, it is important for us to come together as a town and recommit ourselves to the values of inclusion, diversity, and opportunity. Much can happen at the local level, and we all have a role to play in shaping our community as a place of welcome and support for neighbors in need.
If you have concerns, questions, or are looking for resources to help you, your family, or someone you know, you can contact our local Human Services Department at 609-688-2055. The office is located at 1 Monument Drive Princeton, NJ. We are learning from residents that there is a need for support services such as counseling and we would like to help you get connected to any assistance possible.
We will be holding a gathering on Thursday, November 10, at the Princeton Public Library at 6:30 pm in the Community Room. We invite all local leaders, non-profits, and community groups to join us in a discussion of how we can all continue to contribute to these efforts. It is important for us to work together to reassure our community of our commitment to maintaining and building a unified Princeton.
Liz Lempert
Mayor of Princeton
Elisa Neira
Executive Director
Princeton Human Services
Steve Cochrane
Superintendent
Princeton Public Schools
Brett Bonfield
Executive Director
Princeton Public Library
The Rev. David A. Davis
The Princeton Clergy Association
Rabbi Adam Feldman
The Princeton Clergy Association
Jeff Nathanson
Executive Director
Princeton Arts Council
Kristin Appelget
Director of Community and Regional Affairs
Princeton University
Kate Bech
Chief Executive Officer
Princeton Family YMCA
Nassau has a fantastic mission opportunity for young adults between the ages of 19 and 30!
Explore the possibility of serving with other young adults for a year (August 2017 – July 2018) at an approved site in the US. This opportunity intentionally offers travel and vocational discernment in community, serving God and others by putting your faith into action. Placements range from Boston to Hollywood, Glasgow to the Amazon, Miami to Montana, and many choices in between.
Check out the YAV website, but if you want to talk to someone who knows this program, call the church and ask for Joyce MacKichan Walker, Minister of Education, who can both interpret the YAV program for you and put you in touch with former YAVs who have served from this congregation.
Let’s Talk,
Len Scales
(Email Len)
609-924-0103, x103
Mission and Outreach Committee
Nassau Presbyterian Church
Apply
Apply to the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program. Then let Nassau Church pay at least half of your costs. All travel, orientation, health insurance, room and board are included!
Send a duplicate of your YAV application, including letters of reference, to:
Nassau Presbyterian Church
ATTN: Nassau Fellows Program
61 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
Deadlines
Application season begins: November 1
Round 1/Early Decision Placement: January 1
Round 2: March 1 (final deadline for International placements)
The deacons invite all to join them for a prayer vigil on Election Tuesday, November 8, in Niles Chapel, 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM. We will pray with praise and expectation for our church and nation, for a peaceful transition, and that those elected be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Drop in whenever you can for silent and communal prayers. Prayer sheets are below for those who cannot attend.
Since returning from sabbatical in early September, I find myself ever more grateful for our life together at Nassau Presbyterian Church. It is a gift for me to lead a thriving congregation that gathers with such enthusiasm each Lord’s Day expecting to hear and respond to the promise of God. The Spirit’s presence is palpable as week in and week out we seek to discern the gospel’s relevance in our lives and in the world. With worship at the center, an extensive web of mission, service, and discipleship is growing because of the grace of God and the faithfulness of your lives.
The life and witness of Nassau Church is healthy and strong. This fall I invite you to join me both in giving thanks to God for that reality and in choosing not to take it for granted. God has blessed all of us who consider Nassau Presbyterian Church home. That blessing from God has a past in the ministry that has been entrusted to us. It has a future as we commit to and continue to live out God’s mission among us and before us.
Please know how thankful I am to all who give to support our ministry. Each and every gift builds our culture of generosity and helps to further our collective proclamation of God’s love in word and deed. My thanks comes on behalf of the Session, the Deacons, and the staff of the church.
As your pastor, I humbly ask for your financial support for 2017. This November I once again invite you into a season of prayer and discernment. Your gift in the coming year is important to the church and should be offered in a spirit of prayerful reflection, commitment, and response to all that God is doing among us.
More details will be coming related to our 2017 pledging and giving. For now, I offer my thanks and ask for your prayers.
Westminster Conservatory Noontime Series
Thursday, November 17, 12:15PM
Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will continue at 12:15PM Thursday, November 17 with composer-pianist Carol Comune performing Carousel Classics, a musical memoir comprising original compositions. The recital will take place in the Niles Chapel. It is open to the public free of charge.
The composer invites us to compare the continuous motion of a carousel, in which beginnings and endings merge, to the cycles of life. In Ms. Comune’s words, Carousel Classics is a journey through nature, healing, and passion. Her compositions on November 17 will include Variations on O God, Our Help in Ages Past, Mr. Cardinale, Romance, excerpts from the suite Once Upon a Time, and an arrangement of Elmer Bernstein’s theme from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird.
After a break in December Westminster Conservatory at Nassau recitals will resume on January 19, 2017 with a performance by the Volanti Flute Quartet.
New School for Music Study
Sunday, November 20, 2:30 p.m.
Celebrating 2016!
Join us in the Sanctuary on Sunday, November 20 at 2:30 p.m. for an afternoon of music by composers celebrating anniversaries in 2016. This recital will feature music by Vivaldi, Ginestera, Granados, Piazolla, and Trude, performed by faculty members Kristin Cahill, Jason Gallagher, Charl Louw, Allison Shinnick, and Denitsa VanPelt, along with special guests in violin, flute, and saxophone.
Be part of our updated, annual telling of the Christmas Story with only four rehearsals.
Speaking part rehearsals
Sunday, December 4, 12:15 – 1:15 pm
Saturday, December 10, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Sunday, December 11, 12:15 – 1:15 pm
All-cast dress rehearsal
Saturday, December 17, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Pageant Service
Sunday, December 18, 1:30 pm Call time / 3:00 pm Service
Interest forms are available in the Literature Rack outside the Main Office or via PDF below. Please complete and return the forms to the church office by Sunday, November 6. For more information contact Lauren Yeh (x106, ).
Sunday, November 6, marks the end of Daylight Saving Time, so it is time to “fall back” and set the clocks back an hour (or double-check that your phone did it for you).
The Princeton Half Marathon is also on Sunday, November 6, at 7:00 am. We will have both services as usual. Allot some extra time getting to the 9:15 am service, and check the route map PDF below to plan your trip.
Sundays, 9:15 a.m., in the Music Room
November 6-20
Who exactly is Jesus in Japan? What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ for the Dalit in India? We will examine texts — hymns, sermons, essays, books — from our sisters and brothers in Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, and the Dalit, as we attempt to understand who Jesus is within these Christian communities.
November 6: Christianity in Southeast Asia
Guest teacher, Briana Wong, is a second year Ph.D. student in the Mission, Ecumenics and History of Religions program at Princeton Theological Seminary.
November 13: Christ as Outcast: Explorations in Dalit Reflections on Jesus
November 20: The Political Implications of a Crucified King
Chikara Saito is a second year Master of Divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary. Chikara grew up in Japan and had numerous opportunities to worship and work with Christians throughout East and Southeast Asia. You can connect with Chikara via email: .
1st Corinthians In-Depth
George Hunsinger
9:15 AM, Maclean House, ongoing through May 21
George Hunsinger returns for the 20th year to lead this verse-by-verse examination of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Bibles are available for use during the class. Find them on the Deacon Desk by the church kitchen. Class meets next door in Maclean House (Garden Entrance).
Nassau’s Resettlement Partners Speak Out
November 13
Hear from several non-Nassau member volunteers about their support activities, the reasons for their involvement, and the resulting impact of their work, both on the family and themselves. As members of Nassau, we know why we do this work. Hearing from the wider community will broaden our understanding of the motivations and sense of empathy that have prompted other people to help.
The Universal Message of Poetry, Art and Spirituality
Faraz Khan
Sunday, November 13, 12:15-1:15pm, Assembly Room
The Rumi Within Us is a collection of poems written by Rumi and rendered into paintings by Princeton-based artist Faraz Khan. Come and hear this artist talk about this work, which combines poetry, calligraphy, and painting to convey Rumi’s universal message of love, ethics, inspiration, and spirituality. The exhibition, in our conference room for the month of November, includes many different examples of Arabic and Persian calligraphy.
Faraz Khan is a Princeton-based artist working exclusively in contemporary style Arabic calligraphy and design. He was an Artist-in-Residence at the Arts Council of Princeton for the year 2015 and a co-founder of Faraz Kahn Art Studio, a space dedicated to the grassroots American Islamic Art movement in Princeton. He is an advisor to the Center for middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers University. His work is available at www.farazkhanartstudio.com.
Deborah Amos, continued
November 20
Deborah Amos of NPR will reflect on her September radio reports that dealt with the family and Nassau’s sponsorship activities: Nassau’s Refugee Resettlement on NPR. She will also talk about subsequent refugee resettlement developments, including the US refugee resettlement goal for the coming fiscal year and the possible repercussions of the Presidential election.
A Proud Community in Princeton, New Jersey
Shirley Ann Satterfield
November 27
Take a journey through the life of Colored, Negro, Black, African Americans who, since the 1700’s, lived, labored, survived and prospered in the Princeton community.
Shirley Ann Satterfield is the fourth of six generations of family in Princeton. She was a student at Witherspoon School for Colored Children during the time when the schools in Princeton Borough were integrated. While a student at Bennett College, she participated in the 1961 Sit-Ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. She sat at the counters with the Greensboro Four, students from A&T University, who organized the Sit-Ins at Woolworth’s 5 & 10. In 1981, amid a career in teaching and counseling, she moved back to her hometown of Princeton and returned to her church Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, and served through the years as youth leader and a member of several church committees. She is presently a member of the Chancel, Verse Speaking and Hand Bell Choirs, a Deacon, Chairperson of the Chancel Committee, Junior Usher Ministry Advisor and church historian. Keeping the history of Princeton has been Shirley’s passion since she returned home. She has been a Board Member of the Historical Society of Princeton since 1990 where she started a walking tour of African American Life in Princeton.
Just before Cathy and I were married thirty years ago, the congregation gave us a wedding shower one Sunday after worship. I started as pastor there in Blackwood on July 1. We were married on August 2. One Sunday in July in the Fellowship Hall during coffee hour they surprised us with a wedding shower for the both of us. The men of the church gave me gifts and the women of the church gave Cathy gifts. Yes, it was an unapologetic nod to gender role stereotypes. Cathy’s gifts were all kitchen related. The men gave me tools. Lots of tools. Not all of them were new tools. That’s a big deal, for a guy to give you one of his tools. Some of the tools, I didn’t even know what they were. But we were just starting out, just starting life together, and the folks knew I was going to need some tools. I still have those tools and the toolboxes they gave me. Both of our children have started out now in new seasons of life. First apartment. Getting settled. Almost immediately, from us and the parents of roommates they have enough plates to feed a baseball team (which would never fit in their apartment). And we gave them a small toolbox. When you’re just starting out, you need a toolbox.
It has been suggested that the end of Ephesians has the rhetorical flair of a baptismal sermon. Here at the end of chapter six, the Apostle Paul is tacking on the exhortation, part of the oration, a section of the sermon given at the time of baptism. With the newly baptized drying off, the congregation gathered, when joy is in the air: “Be strong in the Lord and the strength of God’s power!” When the baptismal garment is still fresh: “Put on the whole armor of God so that you may stand against the wiles of the devil.” With those new to the faith front and center and their now fellow citizens of the household of God gathered around: “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness.” A word for those just starting out. The belt of truth. The breastplate of righteousness. Shoes that proclaim the gospel of peace. The shield of faith. The helmet of salvation. The words of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Fasten. Put on. Take up. For those just starting out. Truth. Righteousness. Peace. Faith. Salvation. Word of God. A toolbox for life in Christ.
Of course for Paul, it’s not a toolbox. It’s the armor of battle. I have shared with you before that New Testament commentators, weekly preachers, and devotional writers spend quite a bit of time with the armor metaphor. There is the one that suggested providing a labeled sketch in the worship bulletin of a Roman soldier all decked out in battle attire. Another catalogued the armor with such detail that it seemed important to note which part of the armor Paul left out (something to do with shins). Many have pointed out that all of the armor pieces are defensive except for the sword, and the sword is the Word of God. Defensive rather than aggressive or violent. Folks work really hard to make all the military gear more palatable to the gospel.
One of my own reactions when it comes to gun violence, and the horrifying statistics about teens and children and gun violence, is to be more aware of the use of language. I am trying to not use the term “bullet points” when referring to talking points on the page. When we move ahead on an idea or a program around here I am not going to say “it’s time to pull the trigger.” I’m not going describe a sporting event as a war, or a battle, or a bloodbath. Yes, maybe it’s all kind of silly. But I also never imagined having to arrange “active shooter training” for the church staff I work with. The words, language, and images we use are worth paying attention to. So, yes, speaking only for myself, I don’t find a biblical dissection of body armor to be all that meaningful when it comes to truth and righteousness and peace and faith and salvation and Word of God. When it comes to a toolbox for life in Christ.
To be clear, an aversion to arming the language of faith in no way minimizes the reality of the struggle or denies the existence of worldly powers that seek to pull us away from God. Whether one calls it the wiles of the devil or the spiritual forces of evil or the cosmic powers of this present darkness, or the magnitude of institutional sin or the impact of total depravity or the ugly underbelly of the human condition that never goes away, there is a reality to that which eats away at your attempt to lead the Christian life and works against the in-breaking of the kingdom of God pretty much every day. And it can make life, the Christian life, difficult some times. That kind of experience is less about defining it, labeling it, and more about acknowledging it, experiencing it.
John Calvin has this great quote from his Institutes of the Christian Religion as he is trying to define the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. “Now if anyone should ask me how this takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it.” That’s Calvin on the mystery of God’s grace at the Table, Christ’s presence at the Table, something holy, something godly. Well, the same logic goes for the struggle, the worldly challenge, the powers and principalities that you know try to tear you away from a life in Christ. We shall not be ashamed to confess that we can’t wrap our minds around it. We may not have the words to describe it. We experience it rather than understand it. It’s what the Paul calls “our struggle.”
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, Word of God. The toolbox is not just for those starting out. It’s there for our struggle. Paul’s final exhortation to the Ephesians begins with “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power.” Be strong. It may be better translated as “Be made strong in the Lord” or “Keep being made strong in the Lord.” The verb in Greek is imperative and passive. Strength be done to you. It’s not your own strength. It’s the strength of the Lord. Or as one translation puts it: “Be strengthened by the Lord and the Lord’s powerful strength.” It’s similar to what Paul writes to Timothy in II Timothy: “You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Imperative. Passive. Better translated, “Take strength from the grace of Christ” or “Draw your strength from the grace of Christ.”
You see the difference. It’s not just parsing words here. The words, language, and images we use are worth paying attention to. The strength Paul’s talking about here belongs to Christ. The strength is not yours, it’s his. This isn’t Paul standing before the newly baptized and proclaiming, “Be strong, hike up your britches, pull up your bootstraps, buck up, suck it up!” It is Paul telling the baptized that the strength of Christ is theirs for the journey. “I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit” (Eph 3:16). It is Paul telling the newly baptized and the citizens in the household of God and the church, and you and me… when this all gets really difficult (and it will), know that the strength of Jesus Christ is for you. God’s strength. God’s power is there for you, for the struggle. “The immeasurable greatness of God’s power for us who believe… God put this [same] power to work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph1:19-20). It’s that kind of strength. “Keep being made strong in the Lord.”
A really long time ago I was sitting with someone in my office whose heart was just broken with grief. The person’s spouse had died months before and it wasn’t getting any easier. The struggle. Through some laughter and tears, the person said to me, “If you tell me I just have to take it one day at a time, I am going to punch you in the nose.” So I didn’t say that. We talked about how really hard it was. The struggle. At this point the memory of that visit in my office morphs into a collage of all the similar conversations I have had over the years. Time and time again I have seen people draw on a strength they never knew they had. It’s his strength. Not ours.
I can’t explain it, but I sure have seen it, and I bet you have too. Yes amid grief, but in so many other ways. Caring for a spouse whose mind won’t come back. Figuring out life with a new baby and no sleep. Stepping through the muck of a lost job. There is this strength. Walking into an AA meeting for the first time. Discovering how lonely a crowded campus can be. Juggling the needs of aging parents far away and the needs of the young children at your feet. Finding a way when the marriage ends. The strength isn’t yours, it’s his. Wondering if a job after college will ever come. Wading into a season of more questions than answers, more doubts than assurances, longing to know once again a peace within that passes all understanding, realizing one day that money wasn’t the answer or maybe the promotion wasn’t worth it, figuring out a bit too late that the world can be pretty nasty, discovering one day that maybe you can’t do it all by yourself. It’s our struggle and there’s this strength. I’ve seen it… at work… in you. “Keep being made strong in the Lord.”
A word for those just starting out. A word for all of us. Truth. Righteousness. Peace. Faith. Salvation. Word of God. When this all gets really difficult (and it will), know that the strength of Jesus Christ is for you. God’s strength. God’s power is there for you.
