Back to the Future: Justices, The U.S. Supreme Court, and the Constitution
Larry Stratton
July 10, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
This course will review the major cases of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015–16 term, the jurisprudential trends on the Court in the wake of the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia and President Obama’s nomination of Federal Appellate Judge Merrick Garland to replace him, and the future of the Court and American Constitutional Law.
Larry Stratton is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Constitutional Law and Director of the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership at Waynesburg University. He has taught courses relating to ethics and law at the University of Pennsylvania, Pepperdine, Villanova, and Drew Universities and Georgetown University Law Center. While pursuing his M.Div. and Ph.D. he was a teaching fellow at Nassau Presbyterian Church and served as a member of the Adult Education Committee.
Unconventional Conventions; Thank You, William Wirt
Mark Herr
July 17, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
Other countries have conventions, party conferences and caucuses, but only the US has caucuses, primaries and conventions. Is this any way to run a railroad?
Mark Herr is a Managing Director, Head of Corporate Communications of Point72 Asset Management, L.P. He is responsible for creating and overseeing the firm’s enterprisewide
internal and external communications strategy and operations. Previously, Mr. Herr was a member of the administration of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, serving as he
Director and Assistant Attorney General in charge of New Jersey’s Division of Consumer affairs and Bureau of Securities. Mark is a member of Nassau Presbyterian Church.
Talking Heads: “And you may ask yourself / Well… How did I get here?”
Mark Herr
July 24, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
The only thing less stable than this year’s electorate is a Donald Trump–Elizabeth Warren Twitter war. Never in the history of modern politics have the two party’s major candidates been so reviled by so many. To paraphrase the political sage, Pogo, have we met the enemy and he is us?
Doing Theology in Central America Today
Karla Koll
July 31, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
Churches in Central America face escalating violence, increasing economic inequality, and environmental degradation. The Latin American Biblical University trains leaders to confront these challenges. Learn how liberation theology continues to evolve and inform ongoing struggles for more just societies.
A mission co-worker of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Karla Koll has worked in theological
education in Central America for more than two decades. She holds a Ph.D. in Mission, ecumenics, and the History of Religions from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Great story on Nate Stucky, Farminary, @ptseminary in @ediblejersey. Hear more from Nate when he comes to Nassau – Aug 28, 9:15AM
At Labyrinth Bookstore, right down here on Nassau Street, there are these little books, only a few inches tall and wide, that hover by the cash register, promising enlightenment or amusement. Last winter, just a day or two before Christmas, when I was casting about a bit desperately for stocking stuffers, I fell prey to one such little book: “Math in Minutes.” “Math in Minutes: 200 Key Concepts Explained in an Instant.” “In an Instant” people! Math revealed, in an instant. It seemed in that moment, standing at the Labyrinth counter, that it would be a mistake to NOT purchase Math in Minutes. This would be a stocking-stuffer that would open the veil on the profound mysteries of math, mysteries that govern our world, but which remain largely veiled to me.
“Math in Minutes” is arranged by topic, but also increases in complexity as you go along. So the first entry is on numbers. It begins: “Numbers at their most elementary are just adjectives describing quantity.” Excellent. I am fully on board. The entry on the number “1” is fine, and the next entry on “zero” is also okay, although, I began to feel a little uneasy when Math in Minutes explained that for a long time philosophers refused to acknowledge the existence of zero. Did zero deserve the rudeness of not being acknowledged?
Things quickly ran off the rails from there: the entries on trigonometric identities, tesselations, penrose tilings, were perplexing, to say nothing of differential calculus, linear combinations and transformations, and the ominous, “Monster Group.” The first sentence of the entry on “Null Spaces” goes like this: “Also known as the kernel of the matrix, the null space is the set of all vectors that are mapped to the zero vector by the action of the linear transformation.” Null spaces. The entry on “Null Spaces” was hitting a little … a little too close to home.
In the story I just read, Elijah’s fellow Israelites seem to be having a similar problem to the one I have with math. Mathematics discloses profound truths about the invisible workings of the universe. Likewise, ancient Israel’s traditions disclose profound truths about God’s desire for humanity to flourish in a complex world. Yet Elijah’s fellow Israelites seem to have forgotten, or perhaps never understood those traditions. How God desires a just and flourishing community, and how to work for it. God desires a convenantal relationship with humanity and with creation. The covenantal laws were designed to foster life—to make it possible for everyone to flourish in community, together.
But the people have abandoned that life-giving covenantal relationship and only Elijah is left to speak truth to power. In the chapters leading up to this one, Elijah has been combating the corruption of Queen Jezebel and King Ahab’s unjust regime in Israel. Elijah has just had an encounter with King Ahab where Ahab essentially says to him, “Hey Elijah, why are you messing with the status quo? Things are okay here—we don’t need your talk of God and justice.” But worse than Ahab are Elijah’s fellow Israelites. They have become apathetic and fearful, and they too bow to the status quo. Elijah’s faithfulness—to God, to the covenant—has brought him nothing but isolation and exhaustion. Jezebel is pursuing him to kill him, and indeed, he wants to die.
God has sent Elijah on this mission, so it has to annoy Elijah that God now asks him what he is doing there, out in the desert, simultaneously fleeing for his life and wanting to die at the same time. What is he DOING there? It is no wonder that Elijah vents: “I have been working my heart out for you, God. But your people are the worst—they’re afraid and unfaithful, and my life is in danger.”
In response, God does a “drive by” – offers Elijah a glimpse of the divine presence – just as God had offered to Moses long before in the same place. It was widely believed in the ancient Near East that God appears in storms, in the wind, in earthquakes, in fire—these were the places to perceive the power and presence of God. In fact, in the previous chapter when Elijah called upon God to take down those charlatans, the prophets of Baal, God WAS in the fire. There God was in the fire and the prophets of Baal conjured only an empty silence.
But here, Elijah, famously, doesn’t get fire. He doesn’t get an earthquake, or wind, or storms. The glimpse of the divine he gets is “a sound of sheer silence,” as the New Revised Standard Version has it. The King James Version has “a still, small voice.” This is one of those translation conundrum: A thin silence? A small silence? A soft silence? The sound of silence? Thank you, Simon & Garfunkel. The phrase slips away from us… How to convey the paradox of it? One scholar (Duhm) calls it a “vibrant silence.” “A vibrant silence.” It is not silence as the absence of sound. It is the vibrant silence saturated with the full presence of God. “Elijah heard the vibrant silence.”
Last week I was at the car dealer waiting for my car to be repaired. I found myself in a nice waiting room—free WiFi, decent coffee, okay bagels. But the first thing I noticed were the two televisions, from which a stream of nonsense—vacuous words and hollow laughter—emitted from the mouths of conventionally attractive people. I thought at that moment of the whales, and other sea life. We have taken our own noise-filled world, and replicated it, so that the whales are also forced to live in a home as insufferably loud as our own.
The noise we encounter in daily life is auditory, but it is also visual noise, and even olfactory noise. Bus riders in S. Korea now have advertising literally squirted up their noses—the synthetic smell of Dunkin Donuts coffee is released into the ventilation system of the bus just before it arrives at, you guessed it, Dunkin Donuts.
In his latest book, The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew Crawford points out that the world has become so noisy that we pay extra for the commodity of silence. When you pay for a “Business class” lounge in an airport you get snacks and Wifi, sure, but the main thing you get is quiet. A respite from the endless blaring of CNN, or worse, Fox News, and the endless advertising. Silence of all kinds has become a luxury good—it is available to those who can afford it. How can we hear God in the silence when there is so little of it?
Elijah runs away from all the noise of his own culture. He runs from the noise of his epic battle with the 450 prophets of Baal. Now you know THAT was loud. The text says those prophets “cried aloud” and “raved” ALL … DAY … LONG. And that was just their twitter feed. The ravings of the prophets of Baal are still with us.
Isn’t this why Elijah sticks his face in his jacket? He is tired of dealing with the anxiety, the fear, the noise of not only his enemies, but of his own people? He wants to block out the 24-hour news cycle of terrorism, sexual and racial violence, degradation of creation, and on and on. What is the silence of God, even a vibrant silence, in the face of so much noise?
“Elijah heard the vibrant silence.” What does he hear in that God-filled silence? Perhaps it is what all his fellow citizens have forgotten. Perhaps it is the message of the Scriptures, the life-giving divine Word that God gave to the people that they might flourish in the land. Perhaps what he heard in that vibrant silence was a deep reminder that God’s relationship with Elijah, with the people, with the world, is the ground of all life, of all flourishing life. Perhaps Elijah can hear in that vibrant silence the sound of all of us connecting with God, connecting with one another, and with the world around us. That vibrant silence gets inside of him.
He steps to the edge of the cave. Again God asks: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It must annoy Elijah to be asked the same question as before. And then something surprising happens. Elijah says the exact same thing he did before: “I have been working my heart out for you, God. But your people are the worst—they’re afraid and unfaithful, and my life is in danger.” Wait, what? He heard the vibrant silence, and he says exactly the same thing?
It seems that nothing has really changed in his situation; Elijah still faces the same problems. But he has the sound of vibrant silence within him. The sound of a God-given vision of the common good. The sound and vision of a world in which all flourish. And with that, he goes on his way to face the same situation he fled in the first place.
God tells Elijah what’s next on the to-do list. He is to assemble a team of folks to help him in taking on Ahab and Jezebel and the powers that threaten the community. So despite the fact that he is still tired, still undone by the noise of his anxious people and his frightening enemies, Elijah gets on with his work. He gets on with the work of calling his community to a covenantal life of justice, of telling them what the Scriptures reveal about God and the world. The “vibrant silence” feeds him as surely as food; it gives him the strength to move on from the cave, to continue his task of calling his people to form and sustain a just society, to make a world in which all can flourish and thrive.
God meets Elijah in the desert not to offer simple solutions to the problems in front of him. The same god-awful mess awaits him, but the vibrancy of that silence strengthens him for the journey.
Monthly Co-Hosts at Bethany House of Hospitality Vespers: April 14, 2016
In preparation for the 5th Annual Bethany Garden party, members of Nassau and Westminster along with Bethany House of Hospitality residents dedicated their time and energy to begin cultivating the Bethany Garden, and preparing for its expansion. In 2015, Westminster received a $10,000 from the Trenton Health Team for yoga classes and to expand two gardens. The Bethany Garden expansion will more than double the harvest for residents and The Crisis Ministry of Mercer County’s Food Pantry clients. After working hard, we broke bread, prayed and fellowshipped together.
Communiversity: April 2016
!Muchisimas Gracias to Nassau! Once again Westminster Presbyterian Church and Westminster Community Life Center had the best location at the 2016 Communiversity; right in front of Palmer Square! This year members of Nassau helped us host our information table, and also sold beautiful soap to raise money for our Get SET After School Program. Westminster also helped Nassau coordinate with the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow Trenton/Princeton Chapter an interactive experience within a solitary confinement cell replica. Westminster’s pastor and members enjoyed taking photos with our partners: i.e. Nassau members, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, and Mercer County Freeholder Samuel Frisby, and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow Trenton/Princeton Chapter members.
3rd Annual Trenton Unity Walk: Sunday, May 1, 2016
Despite the rain, Nassau and Westminster leaders and members helped lead over 100 people of all faith traditions to walk in remembrance of the lives of men, women, and youth killed by violence in the City of Trenton during the past year. Pictures and short bios of the victims of violence, and resources to support the grieving families were distributed. Prayers in song and word were shared at the sites of violence. After simultaneously departing from Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Islamic Center of Ewing all the participants gathered at the Ghandi Garden. Kim Ford, who lost her son to violence in March 2015, and Councilman Duncan Harrison Jr. who lost his mother and a best friend to violence, challenged everyone to keep working to end the violence in Trenton. Men of Hope prayed for all the youth present.
Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) Retreat: May 7, 2016
Over 50 pastors, leaders, and members representing Shiloh Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, Nassau Presbyterian Church, and Westminster Presbyterian Church participated in an Intergroup Dialogue Retreat on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Westminster called, A Conversation Among Four Churches. The IGD Retreat was led by the New Jersey Intergroup Dialogue Coalition founded by Rev. Dr. D A Graham, and facilitated by members of Nassau and Westminster that he had trained over three months in 2015. The retreat was an 8-hour workshop that explored the intersection of identities including race, ethnicity, gender, religion, social class, and sexual orientation. The workshop allowed participants to learn about various social identities as well as build knowledge to engage in dialogue with others regarding identity. The feedback was so positive that we are looking forward to planning another Intergroup Dialogue Retreat in the near future at Nassau.
Joint Worship & Ecumenical Advocacy Days: June 5, 2016
Westminster enjoyed welcoming and worshipping with 25 members from Nassau on Sunday, June 5. In order to expose Nassau members to some of our multiple Trenton partners, we acknowledged the presence of representatives from A Better Way, Inc., the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow Trenton/Princeton Chapter, East Trenton Community Center, Yielded Vessels Fellowship Ministries (YVFM), and Men of Hope. Nassau’s Minister of Christian Education, Joyce MacKichan Walker, the Rev. Nadira Keaton and Elder Thomas Keaton of YVFM, and Pastor Karen Hernandez-Granzen officiated the Lord’s Supper in English and Spanish. Trenton Council Woman Marge Caldwell-Wilson, a Scottish Presbyterian, also worshiped with us. Rev. Patti Daley, led us in a prayer for Shalom in the City of Trenton.
Following worship, Nassau’s youth and Westminster’s Elder Jacque Howard did an outstanding job sharing what they had learned at the annual 2016 Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C.
UPDATE from Cetana Educational Foundation:
Chenault Spence, the president of the Cetana board, just returned recently from a visit to Myanmar. While there he visited the Cetana learning center in Kyaing Tong, located in the “Golden Triangle” near the border with Thailand, Laos, and China. Cynthia Paul, who received her degree in English language teaching thanks to a Cetana scholarship, returned to Kyaing Tong a few years ago to found the learning center, which already has over 300 students studying English. Cynthia, always full of energy and new ideas, has now launched a new initiative at the learning center called the “Rice Village Project.” Her goal is to provide an opportunity for young girls in remote villages to continue their education. The Myanmar government provides schooling through grade 5. However, after that, many students, particularly those in poor, remote areas, drop out because there are no opportunities for them to advance. Most go to work in the rice fields of their villages, but some girls become the victims of traffickers as they seek to earn more money for their families. For this reason, Cynthia’s initial focus is on female students.
Currently she has three young girls in residence in Kyaing Tong. They come at the recommendation of their teachers from distant villages and live at the learning center, while their parents provide modest “compensation” in the form of rice. During the day they attend regular school in Kyaing Tong, 6th grade through high school, and in the afternoons, they attend English language classes at the learning center.
Eventually, Cynthia would like to expand this program to include as many as 30 girls. Cetana’s board is submitting proposals for funding of this expanded program to local and international NGOs as well as seeking funding from private individuals. If financing is successful, Chenault Spence says, “It will be possible to acquire proper dormitory space and hire a staff to oversee the girls and provide academic support. These young girls will then have a chance not only to graduate from high school, but also to master English and access possibilities unimaginable in their home villages.”
UPDATE from Villages in Partnership
Thank you for supporting our small team for this year’s water walk we were able to raise $1,500 for our Nassau Presbyterian walking team. We walked for Triza who lives with her elderly grandmother and so desperately wants to go to school, hopefully Stephanie Patterson will get to meet her this year while on a Friendship trip to Malawi, Africa with Villages in Partnership July 22-30.
To help Stephanie while on her friendship trip with Villages In Partnership she will need to bring a suitcase filled with all sorts of items, the suitcase will be located in the main office, suggestions are listed below:
Ibuprofen
Adult/children’s vitamins
Nebulizers/inhalers
Anti-fungals
Triple antibiotics
Yarn
Knitting needles
Fabric
Flip flops
Tooth brushes
Tooth paste
Soap
Children’s percussion instruments
Cash for needed items on the ground
Lightweight blanket
Thank you for helping us fill Stephanie’s suitcase
We look forward to hearing about Stephanie’s trip upon her return.
Dear congregation, and especially the families of our children and youth choristers,
I would like to share with you the plans for our choral programming for children and youth in the coming program year. Ingrid Ladendorf, Early Childhood Advisor at the Diller-Quaile School of Music and adjunct faculty at TCNJ, will continue as the director of the Joyful Noise Choir, masterfully introducing the joy of singing to our youngest voices and continuing to bless our church with her cheerful and caring spirit. Our own Patty Thelwill serve as the interim director of the Carol Choir, Choir 3-4-5, the Middle School Choir, and Cantorei for the 2016-2017 season. Patty brings many gifts to our choral programming, including a wealth of experience as a music educator, church choir director, and Sunday school teacher. Past director of the Trenton Children’s Choir, Patty is also the founder and director of the Westminster Conservatory Choir, and she is the director of the Middle School Vocal Institute at Westminster. Our children and youth will be in good hands with Patty and Ingrid.
We will maintain the same structure for choir rehearsals that we had this past year, and we intend on upholding traditions such as the Christmas Pageant and the Christmas Alumni Choir. At the same time, there will be reflection on our choral programming in conversation with the congregation, and a search will be launched in late fall to find permanent leadership for our children and youth choirs. While the position will no longer be full-time, I am confident that we can attract the right person to be a part of our next chapter in our church’s vibrant and integral choral program for children and youth.
Thank you all for your support of the ministry of music at Nassau, and thank you for upholding our church in prayer as we grow in faith through song.
The Session of Nassau Presbyterian Church has called a meeting of the congregation on Sunday, June 26, in the Sanctuary following the 10:00AM service of worship for the purpose of electing church officers, the Audit Committee, and the Nominating Committee and approving the terms of call for the pastors. See the list of nominees below.
Ruling Elders
James McCloskey
William Stoltzfus III
Olivia Moorhead
Rozlyn Anderson Flood
Patricia Orendorf
Cecelia Baumann
Holly Hardaway
Anne Thomsen Lord
Trent Kettelkamp
Deacons
Virginia August
Sam Bezilla
Martha Blom
Beth Coogan
Marna Elliott
Catherine Hendry
Shuang Huang
Taesoon Kang
Richard Karpowicz
Catherine Karpowicz
Shana Lindsey-Morgan
Christian Martin
Marshall McKnight
Stefan Moorhead
Robert Pisano
Nancy Prince
William (Tom) Rohrbach
Cara Ruddy
Margaret (Betsy) Ruddy
Pamela Wakefield
William Wakefield
Nominating Committee
Will Allen
Elizabeth Gift
Dave Kerschner
Allen Olsen
Tom Patterson
Jess Risch
This Sunday, May 29, we begin our summer worship schedule. There will be one service of worship at 10:00AM through September 4.
Summer Church School
The Church School schedule changes as follows in the summer.
Children age two and under may go in childcare in Room 09.
For children ages three to four, Elizabeth Dicker, along with congregational volunteers, will lead a class in Room 07/08.
For children rising to kindergarten to grade two, congregational volunteers will lead a story and activity time in Room 04.
Children age three to grade two attend the first part of the service with their parents and are dismissed following Time with Children. Parents pick up their children in the classrooms after worship.
Senior Bus Service
Our bus service to the front entrances of the Windrows and Stonebridge will change as follows.
The Windrows – pick-up at 9:00AM and return at 11:25AM
Stonebridge – pick-up at 9:20AM and return at 11:45AM
Glory to God—Hymns and Songs for Children and Families (a.k.a. Singing Faith All Day Long) (2016) is a recording created to help families share songs of the Christian faith. Based on our new hymnal, Glory to God, this project is a collaboration between Nassau’s Worship and Arts Committee and Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
$20.00
Published 5/27/2016
ISBN 978-06645-0350-5
Format: CD
Available for purchase in the Church Office. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Frances Clark Fund for Music.
Glory to God: Hymns for Children and Families
Singing Faith All Day Long
Glory to God—Hymns and Songs for Children and Families was created to help people share songs of the Christian faith with children. The variety of music, lyrics, prayers, and poems form a soundtrack for children to know themselves as God’s children. These 19 songs and four prayers were taken from the Glory to God hymnal and adapted for children by professional musicians, creating a high-quality complement to the hymnal.
This recording was created for families to share songs of the Christian faith in a natural, everyday kind of way. The variety of music, lyrics, prayers, and poems weave a soundtrack to live by — all day long! Parents and grandparents, enjoy these songs with your child as you honor your role as faith mentor.
Made for Children and Adults
Children appreciate the beautiful, simple, common, and sacred.
Songs of faith and hymns children learn in childhood lead them to lives of service and discipleship.
Children remember particularly what they learn through music and poetry.
The songs can be enjoyed by all generations together.
Young children love to listen to and sing with their special adults.
More than a CD
Sing along or listen to them at home, in the car, with family and friends.
Play the recordings at the four parts of the day: morning, mid-day, evening/suppertime, and night/bedtime.
As you and your child get to know the pieces, sing or say them as they occur to you during the day.
Create your own prayers and songs with your child.
Include the calm pieces in your child’s (or your) bedtime routine.
Encourage the use of these recordings at events in your congregation like church school classes, children’s choirs, all-church events.
Tracks
Track
Title
Glory to God
Morning
1
Come into God’s Presence
413
2
Spoken Good Morning Prayer
3
God Is Here Today
411
4
Lord of All Hopefulness (verse 1)
683
5
Spoken Verse: For the Beauty of the Earth
14
6
God of Great and God of Small
19
7
Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow
608, 607, 605, 609
8
Spoken Mid-Day Prayer
9
I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me
700
Mid-Day
10
Lord of All Eagerness (verse 2)
683
11
Holy Manna (tune only)
24, 396, 509
12
Jesus Loves Me!
188
13
Listen to the Word/Yisrael V’oraita
455, 453
14
God Is So Good/Know That God Is Good
658, 659
15
May the God of Hope Go with Us
765
Evening/Supper
16
Lord of All Kindliness (verse 3)
683
17
Spoken Table Blessing
18
Taste and See
520
19
Spoken Verse: All God’s Children/Be Still and Know that I am God
This resource is best used to support your classroom experiences as a meaningful supplement to your lesson planning. Use these pieces as familiar friends in your classroom. As the children come to know them, you will learn to make them your own.
Expect a plot and a murder and a clever detective. Discover a community, a theology of darkness and light, a fallen and redeemed humanity, and a brilliant, best-selling Canadian mystery writer with a deeply spiritual, biblically-grounded heart and mind. Louise Penny — the series begins.
Joyce MacKichan Walker had the great privilege of interviewing best-selling mystery author Louise Penny in the eastern townships of Quebec during her fall of 2015 sabbatical. An aficionado of mystery, Joyce has read this series of ten books twice, and can’t wait for number 11 on August 30! The other thing she loves is being an educator and pastor at Nassau — her 27th year.
The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power
Thomas J. Christensen
June 19, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
Many see China as a rival superpower to the United States and imagine its rise is a threat to U.S. leadership in Asia and beyond. Tom Christensen argues against this zero-sum vision. He describes a new paradigm in which the real challenge lies in dissuading China from regional aggression while
encouraging the country to contribute to the global order.
Tom Christensen, William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War and Director of the China and the World Program at Princeton University, will discuss his most recent book on China (published in 2015) and the challenge navigating U.S.–China relations.
The Pastor’s Diary: How a Conventional Conservative Became a Theological Liberal
William R. Phillippe
June 26, 11:15AM
Assembly Room
“Over my life, I have learned that early myths are very formidable, but I have also learned that other people have different myths that are just as formidable. I have learned that we all do and must have myths to live by. But my early myths were no longer serving their function of helping me make sense of my existence. I had to find others. And that is what this book is about — my constant search for myths that mattered as I let my mind truly explore and analyze my experiences.”
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Bill Phillippe was mentally wired to go into science and was awarded the Western Pennsylvania Physics Award. But with the encouragement of a few professors he took the road into the Presbyterian ministry instead.
Someone recently asked what the biggest adjustment will be for me upon retirement. Without missing a beat, I responded, “After 34 years? No longer having a parking space on Nassau Street with my name on it!”
While this perk will be sorely missed, it is not in any way “the biggest adjustment” to my retirement. That will be a combination of routines, sights, smiles, feelings, and of course – sounds. From our corporate worship on Sunday mornings to our intimate staff devotions each Tuesday… to rehearsals with children and youth… to the way your eyes and voices greet mine when I turn to invite you — the First Choir — to join your voices and hearts with mine and those of the choristers… those sensations are forever a part of me and will sustain me in ways I can’t begin to know. I am richly blessed.
Which leads me to some words of thanks…
To my colleagues on the staff – present and past – who have so richly blessed these years: your wisdom, your spiritual gifts, especially in combination with each other, are signs of God’s hand in our work together. This has been true for decades and will be for decades to come.
To the congregation – past and present – for the myriad parts you have played in my own faith journey. You have shown that programs and participation in worship are not only anchors of faith formation, but that they build outreach, more nearly reflecting God’s claim on our lives in this time and place.
To my beloved choristers and their families for making the choice to participate in music ministry and for your efforts to do that with regularity, diligence, and joy.
To the Session, in particular the Worship and Arts Committee, for support, guidance, and willingness to dream with me about what our congregation, with its hearts and minds and resources and voices, might do both in our building and beyond our walls.
To the organizers of the retirement event last month. How did you ever pull that off? I truly hadn’t a clue! Thank you, Dave Davis, Janet Giles, Pam Kelsey, Maureen Llort, Theresa Price, Noel Werner, and Lauren Yeh.
For the gifts presented on that unforgettable evening: musical, monetary, framed, boxed, and penned. I shall never have words adequately to thank you all. I’m still floating with gratitude.
And I am grateful that, as an unordained staff member, I can continue to worship with our congregation, for it has been my family’s church home for 34 years, with marriages, an adoption ceremony, and baptisms of our children and grandchildren. I will visit around a bit, having the freedom now to do that, but my heart will always be at 61 Nassau Street on Sunday mornings… and if ever I am not there, I will hear you singing, “Going and coming, end and beginning, always beside us, firmly in your hand, Lord.”
Nassau believes that God calls young adults through their experiences in relationship and in serving others. Memorable mission trips as youth or as college students stir in us a desire to know God more and to see God’s world with eyes other than our own. The PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer program (YAV) is a wonderful opportunity to do so!
YAV sends young adults to US and international mission sites to do such things as:
Engage in environmental protection work in Peru
Work on immigration reform in Arizona
Work on sex traffic prevention in Kenya
Tutor children and youth
Support art education in underserved populations
Read on below to learn about financial and one-on-one support to serve God in a variety of national or international mission sites. You can participate if you are between the ages of 19 and 30.
Early Decision: December 1 (National and International)
Round 2: February 1 (National and International)
Round 3: April 1 (National Only)
Last Call: June 1 (National Only)
Apply for Nassau’s fellowship
YAVs commit to fundraising a minimum amount to contribute to the costs of the year. The minimums are $3,000 (National) or $4,000 (International). You can apply to Nassau for us to contribute half of your fundraising goal ($1,500 for national, $2,000 for international)! The PC(USA) covers the remaining costs of the year. The total cost for a year of service is $22,000 on average, including travel costs, orientation and debriefing retreats, health insurance, room and board, and a basic living stipend.
To apply for the Nassau fellowship, send a of copy your YAV application and letters of reference to Nassau Presbyterian Church (ATTN: YAV, Joyce MacKichan Walker), 61 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ, 08542. After reviewing your application, we will contact you to set up an interview, either in person or by phone.
We hope that through YAV you will experience God’s deep love for humanity and the mission of the church as one and the same. Through you, Nassau Church will be blessed by learning about your experience and the places and people you serve.
