Sights and sounds: Montreat College Conference Day 2
Through keynotes, conversations, workshops and recreation, young adults explore joy as elemental to faith
MONTREAT, North Carolina — The first full day of the 2026 Montreat College Conference, which ran from Jan. 2-5, offered opportunities for young adults to listen to speeches, participate in critical conversation groups and explore workshops to discover how joy is not a fleeting feeling but a state of being "with teeth."
Through a keynote on joy in the midst of grief or trauma, invitations to share their own experiences and opportunities to make prayer beads, design junk journals, talk about faith in public witness or plant new trees on trails devastated by Hurricane Helene, the 600 attendees learned how joy is elemental to faith in God and connection to others.
The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail delivered Saturday morning’s keynote speech and offered an afternoon workshop discussing the ways joy and faith can co-exist with family trauma and grief. "Rev. Lizzie" grew up Catholic but now serves as founder and vicar of Jubilee Episcopal Church in Austin, TX. McManus-Dail described herself as “passionate about evangelism for a God who makes each of us for joy, which she conveys through her Instagram, TikTok and podcast as well as her book, God Didn't Make Us to Hate Us, a devotional for the disillusioned, the deconstructing, and the disenchanted.
The Rev. Collin Pettigrew of the Presbyterian Student Association at Clemson University, introduces critical conversation leaders, Amy Kim Kyremes-Parks, Lorenzo A. Watson and the Rev. Laura Cunningham.
In addition to preaching for all the conference worship services, Rev. Natarsha Sanders offered a workshop titled, "What's Up with Grandpa?" based on her doctoral research of the impact of white supremacy on white males over 70 who grew up in Christian households. Young adults were given a space to process dynamics between them and their grandparents during family celebrations especially when discussing faith and politics.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins presided over communion in evening worship after facilitating his popular "Jesus and Justice: Faithful Advocacy and Confronting Christian Nationalism" workshop with his PCUSA's Office of Public Witness colleague, Ivy Lopedito. Hawkins and Lopedito engaged students in a discussion of the capture and extradition of Venezualan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces that happened on Saturday.
The "Prayer in Motion: Making Protestant Prayer Beads" workshop was so popular it required pre-registration and filled up for both sessions. Lisa Kaufer, artist and storyteller with The Muddy Fork based in Cincinnati, OH, helped young adults design their own rosary-style prayer beads using various beads and trinkets and assigning a word or phrase that inspires their faith.
Young adults led Saturday evening worship through their participation as liturgists, in a volunteer choir and by serving the elements of communion by intinction.
After worship, conference attendees were invited to evening recreation activities of board games, silent disco and making art out of clay. Then, students returned to their lodgings for more small group conversations with friends from their colleges and home churches.
Highlights from the Montreat College Conference will post the rest of the week on pcusa.org.
Throughout the spring of 2026, reels featuring video testimonials from college students on where they find spiritual joy and their favorite things about being Presbyterian in college will be posting through PCUSA's TikTok.
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