The April Faith & Film screening of Wit is a collaboration with the 2024 Berkeley Palmer Lecture.*  Mike Nichols directs this mesmerizing adaptation of Margaret Edson's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about dying and death that will soften the heart of anyone who sees it. Rev. Dr. Labberton will join us for the screening and will help lead the discussion afterwards. This month the film screening will start at 7:30pm.

"Made for HBO, Wit is a drama both intelligent and heartbreaking, starring Emma Thompson as a woman dying of cancer. She is an English professor who filters her own suffering through the disciplines of the poetry she loves. She was always a proud, independent woman who stood apart from others--and now, at the end, she is alone. The movie is merciless in showing how hospital routine robs her of her dignity. And awesome in the way she struggles with every ounce of her humanity to keep her self-respect.” - Roger Ebert

*On Saturday, April 13, 2024, the Reverend Dr. Mark Labberton will speak on “The Wonder and Tyranny of Fear” for the annual Berkeley Palmer Lecture.  More information and registration is available here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/newcollegeberkeley/1095174

Free admission for Film Series.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

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

Selected and facilitated by Doug Dunderdale / Filmmaker & Co-Director of Series

“The most essential film yet made about the pandemic era is David Siev’s moving and triumphant “Bad Axe”. I have thought about this movie more than any other this year. It’s not an understatement to say that it inspired me through some tough times in 2022 because it’s a portrait of family resilience against adversity. So many non-fiction films to come about in 2020 and 2021 will suffer by trying to tell every story at once—“Bad Axe” tells only one story and yet somehow tells so many more.” Brian Tallerico, www.rogerebert.com

Free Admission.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley / 2407 Dana St. / Room G 220

Selected and facilitated by Sam Choi, MD / Co-Director of Series

“What we have here is the story of a very cool nun from a thousand years ago.” - S.F. Chronicle 

“A gorgeously filmed, surprisingly tough-minded portrait of the 12th-century Benedictine nun, scholar, mystic, and composer.” - Boston Globe

Who was Hildegard von Bingen?

Why do we know so little about this Da Vinci like polymath? A visionary, a poet, playwright, the most recorded composer of her century, philosopher, theologian, Christian mystic, scientist, preacher and a doctor or medicine.  

Come and see why so many interest groups claim this unique person and why. 

Free admission

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley / 2407 Dana St. / Room G 220

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

Instructor: Chris Corwin, PhD

Psalm 31 is masterful work of poetic art, weaving together a complex of concerns, beliefs, and misgivings, of the psalmist. The 31st Psalm is replete with quick shifts, competing thoughts and emotions, conflicts, along with tensions between an interior sense of failure and outside hostilities. Paying attention to such rich texture elevates its potency as a psalm of spirituality and guidance, and makes it particularly relevant to our present situation as a nation and world.  Dr. Christopher Corwin will lead us through Psalm 31 through an interactive lecture and discussion.

Location:  First Presbyterian Church Bekeley

Cost: $35, $15 or free (for students)

Selected and facilitated by Doug Dunderdale, Filmmaker

A documentary film about our Bay Area community: “Sprawling, immediate, and complex, Peter Nicks’ vérité documentary moves like a pulsing, timely thriller. In 2014, after over a decade of federal monitoring for misconduct and civil rights abuses, the Oakland Police Department hires Chief Sean Whent—a young, clear-eyed idealist—in hopes of bridging an historically tense divide between its officers and the community they serve. With fly-on-the-wall intimacy, we see a department trapped in transition, desperate to shed its corrupt image but also challenged by an increasingly organized and urgent Black Lives Matter movement erupting right outside its doorstep.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

Free admission

With Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Sometimes a prompt provides just the little nudge we need to get started, or to pick up and keep going. Some prompts are better than others. In this session we'll experiment with prompts--try them out, make them up, consider ways they can help trick us into writing just when we think we've reached a dead end.

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

Selected and facilitated by Mitali Perkins, Bay Area Author

What would you do to save your family?

Daring and determined, teenaged girl Naima longs to earn money for her poor Bangladeshi family, but her unrivaled artistic talent is of little use. When her father grows gravely ill, Naima feels she has no choice but to leave her small village for the bright lights of Dhaka. In the big city, Naima finds the same economic, societal, and gender pressures faced by most young girls in Bangladesh. She cleverly disguises herself as a boy and takes the difficult job of a rickshaw puller. When her gender is revealed and her livelihood vanishes, Naima finds an unconventional solution to her problems.

Free Admission.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

This workshop (the last of a six-part series) will be an opportunity to reinvigorate our own language habits and to equip each other with words that will help us navigate the confusions and challenges of this historical moment.

“Our times are in God’s hands.” And also in ours—the rich, wild internet, the water crisis, widespread warfare, climate change, a polarized economy—these are the conditions in which we are to work out our salvation together. We need to learn new ways to speak peace. We need to find words that comfort and sustain courage in the face of large and looming threats.

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

Location: Online/zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

This workshop (the fifth of a six-part series) will be an opportunity to reinvigorate our own language habits and to equip each other with words that will help us navigate the confusions and challenges of this historical moment.

“Our times are in God’s hands.” And also in ours—the rich, wild internet, the water crisis, widespread warfare, climate change, a polarized economy—these are the conditions in which we are to work out our salvation together. We need to learn new ways to speak peace. We need to find words that comfort and sustain courage in the face of large and looming threats.

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

Location: Online/zoom

Selected and facilitated by Doug Dunderdale

"Based on an actual lie," THE FAREWELL follows Billi (Awkwafina), a young Chinese American woman who learns that her beloved grandmother, Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), has cancer -- and only a few weeks left to live. Billi is further shocked to find out that her extended family has vowed to keep Nai Nai in the dark about her diagnosis, creating the ruse of a wedding as an excuse for them to gather to see her one last time. As the family comes together in Changchun, Billi struggles with Eastern vs. Western philosophies of how to live life.

Free Admission.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

This workshop (the third of a six-part series) will be an opportunity to reinvigorate our own language habits and to equip each other with words that will help us navigate the confusions and challenges of this historical moment.

“Our times are in God’s hands.” And also in ours—the rich, wild internet, the water crisis, widespread warfare, climate change, a polarized economy—these are the conditions in which we are to work out our salvation together. We need to learn new ways to speak peace. We need to find words that comfort and sustain courage in the face of large and looming threats.

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

Location: Online/zoom

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Description: This workshop (the first of a six-part series) will be an opportunity to reinvigorate our own language habits and to equip each other with words that will help us navigate the confusions and challenges of this historical moment.

“Our times are in God’s hands.” And also in ours—the rich, wild internet, the water crisis, widespread warfare, climate change, a polarized economy—these are the conditions in which we are to work out our salvation together. We need to learn new ways to speak peace. We need to find words that comfort and sustain courage in the face of large and looming threats.

General Tuition $25 / “Living Lightly” Tuition $10 / Student Tuition $0

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Description: This workshop (the first of a six-part series) will be an opportunity to reinvigorate our own language habits and to equip each other with words that will help us navigate the confusions and challenges of this historical moment.

General tuition $25 / “Living Lightly Tuition” $10 / Student Tuition $0

Location: Online/zoom

This Evening's Film - THE DAY AFTER TRINITY: J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER AND THE ATOMIC BOMB

Selected and facilitated by Sam Choi, MD
Columbian film director and writer Ciro Guerra has created a cross-cultural masterpiece that embraces important spiritual and philosophical themes such as shamanism, science, religion, colonialism, "the other," and the magical world of the Amazon. It is based on the travel journals of German Theodor Koch-Grünberg and the American explorer Richard Evans Schultes. This engaging and thought-provoking drama swings between the parallel stories of two Western scientists who are on a quest to locate a potent sacred flower — the Yakruna — which contains healing powers.

Guerra spent five years making Embrace of the Serpent which won the Directors' Fortnight prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. 

Free Admission.

Location: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 94704

With Marilyn McEntyre, PhD

Whether you're writing fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, your narrator is not your self. You find an angle of vision, a persona, a mood, perhaps a dimension of your own character, and develop that presence as you write. Sometimes your narrator will surprise you. She may be a little edgier, quirkier, blunter, more authoritative, or more ambiguous that you are. In this session we'll talk about discovering our narrator, learning to let him/her/them speak in ways that might stretch us, and experimenting with the distance between yourself and your speaker.

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/ Students Free

Location: Online/Zoom

“Where a Sentence Can Take You: The Art of Letting Paragraphs Happen”

With Marilyn McEntyre, PhD / Online, Zoom

Working with a variety of prompts of a sentence or less, we’ll experiment with approaches to development that can keep writing playful, surprising, rich, and provocative. Come join us!

Free Admission. Suggested Donation..

with Marilyn McEntyre, PhD / Online, Zoom

Each online workshop 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.

$25/workshop. Student rate also available

“The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewis

Selected and facilitated by Margaret Horwitz, PhD, scholar, teacher

An elder C.S. Lewis looks back on his remarkable journey from hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Christian writer of the past century.

The Most Reluctant Convert features award-winning actor Max McLean as the older Lewis and Nicholas Ralph – as young Lewis. Beautifully filmed in and around Oxford, this engaging biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother when he was just nine years old, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenge his unbelief.

Come enjoy a night out! The film is a perfect precursor for Rev. Earl Palmer's May 20th seminar, Power that Harms, Power that Heals: Theological Themes in C.S. Lewis. 

No fee

Location: First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley

with Marilyn McEntyre, PhD / Online, Zoom

Each online workshop 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.

$25 per workshop. Student rate also available.

with Marilyn McEntyre, PhD / Online, Zoom

Good reading is never passive. These days, in the midst of political disarray and ecclesial divisions we need good readers more than ever who bring skill, discernment and prayerful reflection to reading both the Bible and works of literature, history, science, and the daily news. In this session we’ll talk about reading practices that help keep us responsible and responsive as well as identifying some of the pitfalls and consequences of careless reading. We’ll also reflect on what it still means to be “people of the book."

General fee $25 / Student fee $10

"The film has a worthy goal: to change the perspectives of people who might be hurting right now. For those willing to go with its flow, it has a real power." - L.A. Times -- "100%" Critics Poll - Tomatometer.

No fee. Donations appreciated.

With Marilyn McEntyre, PhD / Online, Zoom
Each online workshop 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.

$25 per workshop. Student rate also available.

Instructor: Marilyn McEntyre, PhD * / Online, Zoom

We’ll be reflecting on what poetry has to do with maintaining a commitment to truth telling and how the practice of poetry—reading it and writing it—can attune us to language in important and invigorating ways. There will be time to try out some exercises in making poetry and in “creative reading” in this interactive evening.

General fee $25 / Student fee $10

Selected and facilitated by Doug Dunderdale, filmmaker

A highly compelling and beautiful film exploring gentle revelations of the return home.

No fee. Donations appreciated.

Instructor: Dr Marilyn McEntyre

Each online workshop 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.

$25 per workshop. Student rate also available.

The importance of the language we use with ourselves and others. At this gathering we’ll be reflecting together on the importance of the language we use with ourselves and others to articulate faith, spirituality, values, and moral commitments. We’ll talk about “loaded language,” “trigger words,” and what lively conversation, both within circles of trust and across lines of division, might look like. Time will be reserved for conversation about the conversation!