Presbytery of Coastal Carolina Pastors Retreat 2024

“Confessing Jesus Christ Today”

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Rachel S. Baard is Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics and is Director of the Master of Arts in Public Theology Program at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Before joining the faculty at UPS, she taught at Villanova University. She earned her M.Th., B.Th., and B.A. from the University of Stellenbosch,

South Africa, and her Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. As a South African whose theology was shaped by the theologies of resistance to apartheid, she has a particular interest in public theology. She authored Sexism and Sin-Talk: Feminist Conversations on the Human Condition, and is working on an edited volume, The Political Theology of Paul Tillich. Her current research focuses on the responses of the German theologians Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich to Nazism, particularly their perspectives on Judaism. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Monday evening will feature a special music program by the very talented Karla Casteen and Vera Simpson. Karla is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, an educator and musician/vocalist, has conducted a variety of music groups, and is Music Director at Wallace PC. Vera has played for the retreat for several years, is a graduate of East Carolina University with a Batchelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy, is a frequently called upon accompanist, and is organist/pianist at Wallace PC. They have both sung at Carnegie Hall and Karla has rung bells on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Trinity Center is a beautiful facility of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina situated on Bogue Banks between the ocean and the sound. It has motel-style rooms with one single and one double bed in each room, heat and AC, and a private bath. There are also adjacent living rooms.