Coco won Academy Awards for Animated Feature and Original Song. It's a beautiful film for all ages, and a rich starting point for conversation about grief, legacy, and the healing that comes when broken relationships are finally seen and named. Discussion led by Doug Dunderdale.

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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.

We are pleased and privileged to welcome Dr. Hanna Reichel from Princeton Theological Seminary for the eighth annual Berkeley Palmer Lecture.  Join us for a rich evening of fellowship and insightful biblical scholarship for modern times.

Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. The annual Berkeley Palmer Lecture, established in honor of the Reverend Earl F. Palmer, brings the lens of biblical scholarship to issues of concern to the university, the seminary, and the church. All are welcome.

As part of this year’s Berkeley Palmer Lecture, we offer this special Faith & Film screening around the theme of artiificial intelligence. Following the movie and a dinner break, Dr. Hanna Reichel will speak on the dilemma of AI omniscience through the lens of the church’s long thinking about God and omniscience. Find out more about Seeing Like a God? Faith, Tech, and Power in Such a Time as This, the 2026 Berkeley Palmer Lecture, here. Stay for a fascinating evening!

As artificial intelligence races ahead faster than most of us can process, filmmaker Daniel Roher (director of Navalny) turns his camera on the people building it — and on himself, an expectant father wrestling with what kind of world he's bringing a child into. Sitting down with the leading minds behind today's AI (including Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis), Roher confronts both the peril (extermination of all humanity) and the promise (we’ll never have to work again) of the technology reshaping our future. The result is a deeply personal, unflinching look at fear and hope in the age of AI — and an invitation to consider what wisdom, discernment, and faith have to offer as we navigate it together.

Join us for a screening of this timely documentary, followed by conversation on what it means to hold both hope and caution as we face a rapidly changing world.

PG, 2025, Musical/Action, 95 minutes, directed by Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.

There are some films that entertain us, and there are others that quietly examine the human soul. The Lives of Others is one of those rare works. 

Set in East Germany during the final years of the Cold War, it explores a society built on fear, suspicion, and the relentless pursuit of control. Yet beneath its political story lies a more enduring question: Can a human heart truly change? 

The film invites us to consider the power of beauty, music, literature, truth, and sacrificial love to awaken conscience where ideology has numbed it. Whether viewed through a philosophical lens or a religious one, it asks timeless questions about sin and redemption, justice and mercy, and what it means to become fully human. Discussion led by Sam Choi. 

Location: TBD with group members.

Instructors: Spiritual directors supervised by Susan Phillips, PhD*

An incredible opportunity for spiritual direction in small groups committed to spiritual friendship, contemplative listening, and prayer. Groups of four directees meet monthly for nine months throughout the Bay Area under the guidance of an experienced spiritual director. Other groups grow out of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius program. Meetings will be held in person and/or online (TBD with group members).

“Group spiritual direction helps individuals grow in their faith, love others more fully, and participate in the mission of the church more effectively.” Alice Fryling, 2009

NOTE: Dates and Times
September 2026-May 2027, 2-hour meetings, day & time TBD with group members

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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!

What does faithful discipleship look like when the world seems to be coming apart?

Join theologian Hanna Reichel for a timely conversation on her book For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional. Drawing on Scripture, church history, and the witness of Christians who remained faithful through periods of political upheaval—including the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany—Reichel offers practical wisdom for cultivating discernment, courage, hope, and community in anxious times. Rather than encouraging fear or political tribalism, she invites believers to rediscover the deep resources of the Christian tradition for living faithfully in extraordinary seasons.

This special Radix Live conversation will be hosted by Michael Barram and Doug Dunderdale, whose recent congregational study of Reichel's book sparked meaningful conversation about Christian witness, courage, and hope for today's church.

Writing can be a powerful tool for self-reflection, theological awakening, and the discernment needed to imagine and enact the kind of presence our society longs for. Come join Dr. Marilyn McEntyre, Dr. Craig Wong, and a team of writing facilitators, and practice crafting counter-narratives to the self-defeating stories and myths that serve to protect those in power rather than empowering the silenced and disempowered. NCB aspires to be a hope-producing “center for writing” and we invite you to join us.

This workshop is for all writers, whether you consider yourself a beginner or a seasoned veteran. Our hope is that the gathering will facilitate mutual learning and co-creativity. Just come with your pen or laptop and your desire to live faithfully in the world.

Bright, funny, and unexpectedly moving, this one gives us plenty to chew on: light vs. darkness, identity vs. performance, and whether grace has room for the parts of ourselves we'd rather keep backstage. Join us for the movie and a discussion afterwards. “Protect the Honmoon!” The screening will by facilitated by Doug Dunderdale.

PG, 2025, Musical/Action, 95 minutes, directed by Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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!

Online / zoom

Whose life has inspired you to love God — and your neighbor — more deeply?

Throughout Christian history, believers have wrestled with the perennial question: What does faithful discipleship look like when it leaves the sanctuary and enters the public square? In this Radix Live conversation, we welcome Daryl Grigsby, author of a powerful collection of profiles celebrating 36 near-contemporary Catholics who have made a significant impact in the public sphere. Spanning the globe and encompassing both laypeople and clergy, these individuals, from Fr. Daniel Berrigan to Paul Farmer to jazz legend Mary Lou Williams, offer a rich tapestry of Catholic witness in action. 

Online / zoom

Have you ever wanted to know more about spiritual direction—and how it might serve your faith and life? This conversation is for you.

People long to communicate with God. We want to know about God, but mostly we deeply desire to be in relationship with God. More than 15 years ago the New College Berkeley Board of Trustees decided to try to address that need by creating more programs that help people open their hearts to God in regular, honest ways.

A most astounding film combining nonstop belly laughs, accurate-based history, and eye-opening revelations of chaotic, cynical power grabs that reveal true sausage making. Discussion led by Sam Choi.

The Death of Stalin, A Comedy of Terrors, is one of the sharpest and most darkly hilarious political satires of the modern era -- a film where terror and absurdity sit side by side at the dinner table.

Online / zoom

In this Radix Live conversation, we are delighted to welcome Jeffrey to discuss his beautifully reflective new book (May 2026). Part memoir, part film criticism, and part spiritual testimony, the book traces Overstreet’s journey from a fear-based religious upbringing into a richer and more expansive vision of faith—one shaped, surprisingly enough, by the movies. As always, there will also be time for questions from our live audience.

"Juneteenth" celebrates the day, June 19th, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston to ensure Texan compliance with the Emancipation Proclamation (signed into law two and a half years prior), bringing institutional slavery in the United States to an end. While Juneteenth represents a most critical milestone in America's history, the experience of "freedom" for the emancipated slaves, and the succeeding generations of African-Americans, has never been fully realized. While bittersweet at best, the celebration of Juneteenth has nonetheless inspired other communities to embrace their family and cultural histories to find resonance and solidarity with the complex struggles - and stories of grace - of Black America.

This event gathers an intimate group of Latino, Black and Asian Christians who will bring their narratives into dialogue with one another, shedding light on lesser-heard realities (and theological perspectives) of the American Experiment, but also testimonies of faith, resilience and hope. We will use a "fishbowl" format, meaning that guests who come have only to listen and learn throughout the evening. The hope of the gathering is for all to come away with new insight (if challenging), understanding, compassion and hunger for deepened transformation into the person and likeness of Christ in the world.  The dialogue will be moderated by Nicole Dickens.

No Other Land is a powerful, on-the-ground documentary that follows Palestinian communities in the West Bank as they struggle to remain on their land amid ongoing displacement and conflict. Co-created by Palestinian and Israeli activists, the film offers a rare, deeply human portrait of life under pressure, as well as an unexpected story of friendship and shared moral courage across dividing lines.

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.

At The Graduate Theological Ceremony

Hybrid event (Online & In Person)

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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!

US missiles target civilian targets in the name of Jesus, Christ’s sermon on the mount is vilified as heretical, and a president who boasts that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” continues to earn the trust of large swaths of the American Church. What has happened? How did we get here? What am I to learn, who do I listen to, and how do I stay rooted in - and faithful to - Jesus in such a time as this?

In the heart of the vast Australian Outback, two siblings are left stranded after a sudden tragedy. Their survival seems impossible until they encounter an Aboriginal youth on his "walkabout"—a solitary, months-long rite of passage.

What follows is a haunting, wordless journey across a landscape of surreal beauty, as two vastly different worlds collide. Nicolas Roeg’s masterpiece is a shimmering visual poem that explores the thin line between civilization and the wild, the loss of innocence, and the profound mystery of the human connection. Discussion led by film curator Sam Choi - one of his favorite films!

"A masterpiece of visual storytelling." – The Guardian | "One of the most beautiful and haunting films ever made." – Roger Ebert | "A shimmering, sensory experience." – The New York Times

NR, 1971, Adventure/Drama, 1 hr 40 min, directed by Nicolas Roeg

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley.

Online / zoom

Some books diagnose the sickness of an age. Others offer practices for healing. Jonathan Pan Walton’s work does both.

For this Radix Live conversation, we are pleased to have Walton discuss two of his books: Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive: And the Truth That Sets Us Free and Beauty and Resistance: Spiritual Rhythms for Formation and Repair. One names the false stories that shape our national imagination; the other offers a way of living that resists despair, burnout, and spiritual fragmentation. Sounds timely, right?

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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!

Online / zoom

We live in a visual age. Screens catechize us daily, shaping how we see the world, ourselves, and even God. But what if the Church has always possessed a visual language of its own: one not designed to distract, but to reveal? It’s an interesting question – timely, too.

In this Radix Live conversation, Eve Tibbs reflects on her gloriously illustrated book Seeing the Gospel: An Interpretive Guide to Orthodox Icons (2025)and invites us to rediscover Orthodox icons as more than religious art. Often described as “windows into heaven,” icons are theological proclamations in color and form – visual interpretations of Holy Scripture that draw viewers into the Kingdom of God.

Hosted by Matthew Steem, this event will feature dialogue between Eve Tibbs and Christian contemplative and essayist Arthur Aghajanian. Aghajanian writes and speaks at the intersection of visual culture and theology, examining how images guide imagination and influence our perception of reality. Together they will consider how icons shape Christian imagination, how beauty forms belief, and what it means to “see the Gospel” in a culture saturated with competing images. 

Past Lives invites viewers into a tender and reflective story about love, longing, and the mysterious ways our lives unfold. The film follows Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends separated when Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea to North America. Decades later, they reconnect and begin to explore what might have been—and what truly is.

With quiet beauty and emotional honesty, Past Lives raises profound questions about destiny, choice, identity, and the meaning of “home.” It gently explores how our past shapes us, how relationships form us, and how we discern the life we are called to live. Rather than offering easy answers, the film invites reflection on grace, commitment, and the sacred complexity of human connection.

This is a contemplative, deeply human story that opens space for meaningful conversation about love, vocation, and the paths we choose—and the ones we leave behind. Join us and bring a friend for an engaging discussion and review after! Discussion led by Doug Dunderdale.

Academy Awards 2024, nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay | Independent Spirit Awards 2024, won Best Film, Best Director. PG-13, 1 hr 46 minutes, (2023), written and directed by Celine Song

Online / zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

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!

Join us for a prayerful pause as the momentum of 2026 accelerates. Lent is a time of reflection and soul-searching as we consider God's great love for us. As we receive that gift in our hearts, we also discover how grace flows through our hearts and hands to the world, the world which God loves so dearly that he gave his only begotten son that we might live. 

Together we will pray and reflect in Zoom’s contemplative space on Saturday morning, March 21. It will be a privilege and pleasure to be with you then.

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

One of the great achievements of animation by one of the most revered filmmaker/story tellers of the 20th and 21st Century! Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke was the most watched film in the history of Japan when it was released.

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley.