This past Thursday, students at the Princeton Theological Seminary joined us in discussing an issue all of us struggle with: forgiveness. The conversation touched upon several components of forgiveness; god’s, ours’ towards others, ours’ towards ourselves and others’ towards ourselves, and through this conversation, many questions arose. How does one strike the balance between forgiving and ensuring that lessons are learned from our mistakes? What is the relationship between forgiveness and justice? What does the promise of the washing away of sin compel you to do?
Monthly Archives: February 2012
December 8, 2011 – Vespers Service #1
Tonight the four of us and Pastor Karen were joined by Dr. Jane. We enjoyed a delicious mandarin orange salad (with Dr. Jane’s special dressing), hearty chili from Linda (who unfortunately was sick and could not join us), and a scrumptious tres leches cake. During dinner we learned about Dr. Jane’s important work to improve the health of our neighbors in downtown Trenton. Then we read out loud a short essay by bell hooks on building a community of love and her conversation with a Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh. We ended by praying while passing a candle around and singing “Amen.”
November 4, 2011 – Orientation Dinner
On Friday, November 4, 2011, we had our orientation dinner with Pastors Karen and Nina. We had delicious beef stew (made by Jim, who was “voluntold”) for dinner and pie a la mode for dessert. Then we went over our Enneagrams (personality types) from the on-line tests that we had taken before the dinner.
In case you’re interested, here are our types:
Amy – Type 5 (investigator)
Elizabeth – Type 2 (helper), Type 4 (individualist), Type 9 (peacemaker)
Erin – Type 2 (helper), Type 6 (loyalist)
Jamie – Type 1 (reformer), Type 4 (individualist), Type 6 (loyalist)
Discussing our Enneagrams was a good way for us to learn more about each other; some of us thought that our types were accurate, but others did not. It was helpful to have a baseline for understanding and appreciating our different perspectives.
Then we went over guidelines from the Cousins Foundation for constructing our community covenant. We talked about aspects of community life such as security, food and drink, and daily chores. After the pastors left, the four of us started putting our covenant together (more to come).
Out and about in January
January 2012 was a busy month for us at Bethany House. On Tuesday, January 3, we were interviewed by Pastor Karen for her show on WIMG 1300 AM and WZBN TV-25. It was a little difficult to get to the station (we circled around South Broad Street several times trying to get to the other side), but we finally made it! The interviews covered topics like our intentional young adult community and the work that we are doing in the greater Trenton area.
On Monday, January 9, we volunteered with registration for The English School at the Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church. We met Pastor Nina’s daughter Jessica, who is very organized, and graded placement exams for the applicants, who generally were very enthusiastic.
On Tuesday, January 10, we attended a pre-presbytery event about Bethany House at the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square, where we met lots of people whom we would like to see again, and then the presbytery meeting, where we were commissioned as residents of Bethany House. Pastor Nina wrote a beautiful litany of commissioning based on Micah 6:8, and we all signed the Community Covenant (except for Jamie, who was on a service project in New Orleans).
On Monday, January 16 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), Erin led a Day of Service with hundreds of volunteers at Trenton Central High School. The volunteers cleaned and painted murals to make the high school more beautiful; they also made personal care packages to donate to local shelters.
On Thursday, January 26, we attended the installation of Rev. Wendy S. Bailey as the Regional Presbyter of the Monmouth and New Brunswick Presbyteries in Miller Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary. It was a rainy evening, but inside the chapel it was bright and joyful. Amy really appreciated the time of praying out loud for each other. After the installation we met up with old friends and made new ones at the reception.
Bethany House of Hospitality 