WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville's (20 Feet from Stardom) documentary about the life and work of children's programming/public TV pioneer Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Through extensive footage and interviews with Rogers' widow, Joanne; their two adult sons; and a host of colleagues and friends -- including Yo-Yo Ma (whose son is one of the documentary's producers) -- Neville digs into the legendary man who remains a symbol of friendship, kindness, and make-believe for generations of adults. The film documents how Rogers, who hailed from Pittsburgh's upper crust and was trained and ordained as a Presbyterian minister, dedicated his life to service, faith, and young children.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke actually portray the birth of Jesus in quite divergent ways, emphasizing different themes that will resonate throughout their accounts of the messiah’s life, death, and resurrection. What the two infancy narratives have in common is an understanding that Jesus was born and lived his life entirely within the context of the world-conquering military and political power of the Roman Empire. Grasping that historical context really matters for those of us today who seek to understand the Gospels as we ourselves read from within a contemporary environment characterized by empire. Join biblical scholar Michael Barram and local pastors for a fascinating exploration of the Gospel birth narratives within their imperial contexts, and an engaging discussion about how those accounts can help shape and form our communities of faith for our own contextualized participation in God’s mission in the world today.

Online/zoom

Christians are called people of the Way (Acts 9:2): We follow the Way, live the Way, and prepare the Way. Advent is an opportunity to reflect on this adventure into which God invites us.

Carve out time in the press toward Christmas to prepare your hearts for walking the Way in the year ahead. Join us for a morning of prayer, reflection, and readying ourselves to continue our great pilgrimage with Christ.

Division, fear and egregious behaviors abound in this political moment. Is there something in Christianity that points a way toward unity and harmony? In this workshop, Dr. “Joey” Alan Le will examine the relationship between human dignity and the Imago Dei. The image of God can be understood as a collective appreciation of otherness rather than an individualistic capacity. When Christians learn to see beauty for what it is — as being and as difference — then they can finally see all things and all people, even political adversaries, as God’s beautiful, valuable, worthy, and dignified creations. This aesthetic attitude holds the potential to shift and elevate the Christian ethic, making the task of political engagement more charitable, hospitable and, in a word, Christ-honoring. Come and join for some informed discussion and relationship-building around this important topic.

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD. Online, zoom.

Stepping outside our imbedded frames of reference, widening or narrowing the frames that delimit and define our interpretations of experience, can be an exhilarating experience. We'll do some exercises designed to help us notice frames, reframe and see what happens.

These 90-minute workshops will address a different topic each month. Each session will include a brief presentation, prompts, a bit of writing and workshopping time, and suggestions for developing a particular writing practice. Handouts offer guides for cultivating new dimensions of your writing. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails. All levels of writing experience are welcomed!

Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst, a theologian, author, educator, and leader at Casa Adobe in Costa Rica, a Christ-centered community committed to embodying concrete expressions of love of neighbor, will speak on the whole gospel's call to ecological justice, the well-being of creation and its peoples. There will be opportunities for Q&A and conversation with others.

Location: Oakland City Church

“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”––Teologia en Conjunto: The Practice of Theological Communal Discernment.

A workshop on the practice of theological communal discernment in times of cultural change.
Co-sponsored with the Latino-led Ministries for the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church.  For pastors, parachurch ministers, lay leaders, and all who are interested in the task of biblical and theological learning.

Location: Berkeley Covenant Church, 1632 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, CA 94707

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD. Online, zoom.

Open letters addressed to individuals or groups but published for the general public can be surprisingly effective and persuasive, being both intimate and public, local and global. We'll practice these, and think together about to whom and why we might address an open letter at this time.

These 90-minute workshops will address a different topic each month. Each session will include a brief presentation, prompts, a bit of writing and workshopping time, and suggestions for developing a particular writing practice. Handouts offer guides for cultivating new dimensions of your writing. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails. All levels of writing experience are welcomed!

Note: this is a one-time change to our usual rhythm of “First Saturdays” and it is taking place on the second Saturday in October.

Hosted by Doug Dunderdale, co-director of the film series. Join us!

An Associated Press team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city as Russian forces close in, they capture what become some of the most defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more. The film draws on AP reporter Mstyslav Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe. 

Academy Award® Winner: 2024, Documentary Feature Film; 
BAFTA Award Winner: 2024, Best Documentary

Has this election season been a little overwhelming?  Finding yourself either news-obsessed or fleeing from it altogether?  Rev. Dr. Steve Wong, Rev. Tammy Long, and Karen Seth will offer a space for processing the current moment, offering perspective, and practicing contemplative prayer to help center us beyond "fight or flight."  The goal is for a spiritual groundedness that frees us to give our attention to what it means follow Jesus and for the Church to bear faithful witness to the hope of the gospel in these uncertain times.  In this mini-retreat, there will be time for sharing, practical considerations, and prayerful contemplation in small groups. 

Instructor:  Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Description:  Whether or not you plan to publish, writing can become a valuable dimension of your daily life. Crafting sentences, paragraphs, poems, prayers or simple lists can become a way to process what's happening in public life, in family life, or in your own memory or imagination. Writing in response to passages or sentences or phrases that give you pause can be surprising: sometimes thoughts or feelings don't surface until words come. Especially now, as the church and the world face truly unprecedented challenges, writing is a quiet calling that can help us hold steady in the storm. In this two-hour workshop we'll explore and experiment with approaches to journal keeping that are varied, prayerful, life-giving, and manageable, even for busy people.

For almost a half-century, Radix Magazine has explored the intersection of culture and Christian faith. Radix (meaning "root" or "base") has enjoyed an historic relationship with New College Berkeley (NCB), but is now officially joining forces for a new era of inspired and insightful writing. Come hear about this new NCB-Radix partnership and help us imagine how Radix can speak cogently into the spiritual, cultural, political, technological, and environmental crises and opportunities of our present moment. 

Matthew Steem, Radix editor, Marilyn McEntyre, NCB faculty, and Craig Wong, NCB executive director, will dialogue with one another and will want to hear from you! Please join us.

Presenters: Dr. Russell Yee & Dr. Rebecca Hernandez

Description: This workshop launches NCB 3.0’s mission to discern gospel faithfulness together in the San Francisco Bay Area. What does it mean to be a Christ-follower here now, given the natural and social history of this land, including its Native American heritage and hopes? How do history and memory shape the gifts and challenges of Christian discipleship here, especially in the face of rapid change and uncertainty? What does the Good News look and sound like here and now? Through presentations and guided discussion, we’ll work together to explore these questions and seek gospel wisdom together.

Discussion following the film viewing will be led by Sam Choi, co-director of the film series.

What is Christian Nationalism, and why should the Church care?  "God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism" is a hotly debated 2024 American documentary film directed by Dan Partland and produced by Rob Reiner. The film discusses the emergence of Christian nationalism and its close relationship with far-right politics in the United States, exploring its perceived threat to democracy and the politicization of Christianity. The documentary is based on Katherine Stewart's book "The Power Worshippers" (2020).  Come and engage this critical topic to discern the implications of religious nationalism's rise in the US, and what gospel faithfulness requires of us in the face of it. 

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

In September, "Reading Like a Writer" examines how every good writer teaches us something about how to read and how to write. Reading slowly, reading for "how" and "why" rather than simply "what" changes the way you walk through a text.

These 90-minute workshops will address a different topic each month. Each session will include a brief presentation, prompts, a bit of writing and workshopping time, and suggestions for developing a particular writing practice. Handouts offer guides for cultivating new dimensions of your writing. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails. All levels of writing experience are welcomed!

with Sharon Henthorn-Iwane

The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius program is available one-on-one with Sharon Henthorn-Iwane. This individually-directed retreat (via Zoom or in-person) is for those who wish to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ. The retreatant commits to at least 40-50 minutes of prayer every day using materials from the Spiritual Exercises and to meeting one-on-one for an hour a week with an experienced spiritual director. This retreat usually spans a 9 month period.

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Description: In this workshop we’ll consider how to write, and for whom, as we weather a challenging election year and witness ongoing global conflicts. Finding words for a deeper, sturdier hope; sentences that suffice to articulate new needs and very real fears; comfort and even joy as we live into these times that “are in God’s hands” will be the focus of short reflective writing exercises in our hours together. Exercises will be designed to get you started on some new poems or personal essays and perhaps to let you hear your own voice in a new key.

Registration Fee: General $75 / Student $25

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

We have a tendency to shackle Scripture within a range of interpretive assumptions and perspectives that can undermine and hinder its liberative power. As a result, the Bible often needs to be liberated from us even as it offers liberation for us. In their new book, Liberating Scripture, Michael Barram and John R. Franke invite their readers to join them in an exciting, emerging posture for biblical interpretation that fosters both forms of liberation. Join us for a lively afternoon with these engaging scholar-teachers as we explore what God is doing in the world—and how we may participate within that divine mission. Come learn about this important book, dialogue with the authors, and, if you like, purchase a copy and get it signed! Copies of Liberating Scripture will be available for purchase at the event, or you may bring your own copy to get it signed. We hope you will join us!

Admission: Free.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR PASTORS, SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS, THERAPISTS AND OTHER CARE GIVERS

How do I keep emotionally and spiritually healthy amidst the social tumult around me? Can I be fully human when dehumanizing forces prevail? Under duress, we often live and act as a traumatized species, prone to hurt each other until we can find better ways of engaging our pain and transforming it as both individuals and communities. As a therapist and spiritual director, my approach is to create spaces where people can cultivate connections across divides (whether perceived or real) to nurture our capacity for 'full humanity' as Christ models and makes possible for those who walk closely with Him. This workshop offers an invitation and an opportunity for pastors, spiritual directors, therapists and all who care forthe anxious, to share our gifts and vulnerabilities, lament our losses, and disarm dehumanizing forces, to promote post-traumatic healing, wholeness and healthy community - for ourselves and those we love and serve.

Registration: General $35/ Reduced $15/ Students Free

Location: First Presbyterian Church Berkeley, 94704

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

The slightly paradoxical task of maintaining real humility while also finding ways to write with authority can raise deep questions about how we invite the Spirit to speak through us, work with us, and give us confidence, and how we understand and use our gifts. In this session we'll look at how writing in an environment of pervasive commodification and not a little pretension poses a vigorous challenge to the values we hope to maintain as human beings who are hoping to make our writing humane.

Each online workshop in this series will address a particular topic in writing, especially for those interested in personal essays and/or responses to public life. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails.

Registration Fee: General $25/ Reduced $10/ Student Free

Location: online zoom

SAVE THE DATE!

The Reverend Dr. Labberton will present “The Wonder and Tyranny of Fear”.

Fear can lead us into life. It can also strip us of life and drive us towards death. And, it can both liberate and imprison us in-between.

Our lives and cultures are besieged by fears of many kinds—sometimes by an array of circumstances or threats, sometimes by the curated intentions of influencers, sometimes by inner voices creating and escalating anxiety.

We will explore some of the biblical, psychological, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of how we experience fear, why, and the hopeful impact of wonder and worship in our fear-shaped lives.

Admission: General $25 / "Living Lightly" $15 / Students Free

Location: First Presbyterian Church Bekeley

with Michael Barram, PhD

Given the individualistic, divisive, revenge-oriented environment in which we find ourselves, Jesus’s blessing upon “the peacemakers” at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:9) may sound unrealistic and out of touch. Are Jesus’s disciples to be tangibly involved in peacemaking, or is Jesus articulating a theoretical and aspirational ideal? In short, is peacemaking central to the missional calling of Jesus’s followers? Join us as we explore the Sermon afresh during these fraught and challenging times.

LOCATION: First Presbyterian Church Berkeley

Fee: $35 general admission, or a "living lightly" rate of $15. Students are free.

with Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Even if you don't address your "Dear Reader" directly, you forge a social contract with your reader as soon as you embark on a story. In this session we'll consider the relational dimension of writing--how we "keep it real," stay close to the reality that we are inviting other human beings, one by one, into the intimate spaces of mind and heart we create for them, seeking to be hospitable as well as challenging, opening a conversation that may continue after they finish the last page.

Each online workshop in this series will address a particular topic in writing, especially for those interested in personal essays and/or responses to public life. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails.

Location: Online zoom

Fee: General $25/ Reduced $10/ Student Free

oin this roundtable discussion, among Asian American academics and church leaders, about the history and present-day impact of religious nationalism in the United States. Event will begin with a presentation by Brad Onishi, author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism - and What Comes Next.  A response will then be given by Ray Chang, President, Asian American Christian Collaborative, followed by conversation with a panel of Bay Area Asian American leaders (see below).  Craig Wong, executive director of NCB, and Grace Kaori Suzuki, Christ United Presbyterian Church, will serve as co-moderators. There will be time for audience Q&A, and roundtable conversation among the attendees. All are welcome.

Location: Grace Community Covenant Church, Los Altos, CA / free parking

NOTE: This program will also be livestreamed via Zoom for those who cannot attend in person.

Fee: General $40 / “Living Lightly” $15 / Student free / Livestream $20

Led by Susan Phillips, PhD

The word “Lent” is related to Latin cognates meaning long and slow (“lente,” “lento”). Like Advent, Lent is a speed bump in the year, inviting us into reflection, confession, and prayer as we approach Holy Week and Easter, remembering God’s costly love for us. We enter the retreat seeking God’s Light in the darkness of war in the Holy Land and elsewhere, mounting political tensions, social turmoil around the globe, and the private movements of our own hearts. Together (via Zoom) we will contemplate God's great love for us and our aching world.

Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley

Registration Fee: General $25/ Reduced $10/ Students free

Location: Online/zoom

What Non-western Cultural Orientations and Wisdom Traditions Teach Us About a Holistic Collective Spirituality.

with Cindy S. Lee

Christian spiritual formation resources and teachings have primarily come from Western spiritual traditions. Our current approach to formation comes out of that way of thinking and being, communicating that the white experience of God is the norm and authority. This workshop facilitates a communal listening and imagination for what non-western cultural orientations and wisdom traditions teach us about a holistic collective spirituality.  It will combine instruction, conversation and guided spiritual exercises in a contemplative-friendly space. 

LOCATION: A Bay Area location TBD

FEE: $40 general admission.  There is a "living lightly" option of $15, and all students are free.

With Marilyn McEntyre, PhD
Archetypes are powerful. They are patterns--familiar character types, situations, structures--we work with as we find ways to tell unique stories. In this session we'll explore a number of archetypes to see how they shape the expectations and values we bring to our stories, and how they inform and enliven our inventions.

Each online workshop in this series will address a particular topic in writing, especially for those interested in personal essays and/or responses to public life. We will talk about language, faith, form, and what a lively, committed writing life entails.

Registration: General $25/ Reduced $10/ Student Free

Location: Online/Zoom