New York pastor to speak

The Rev. Taylor Holbrook will speak in Northwestern College’s chapel service on Monday, Nov. 1, at 10:05 a.m. and Tuesday, Nov. 2, at 11:05 a.m. 

The lead pastor at Hopewell Reformed Church in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., Holbrook is a graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary. He served for 12 years as the pastor of Middlebush Reformed Church in Somerset, N.J., before accepting his current pastorate.

Holbrook will speak as part of the Ronald R. Nelson Scholars and Artists in Residence Program, which seeks to inspire students with scholarship that reflects a vision of peace and justice. The program is named in honor of Ron Nelson, a history professor who served at Northwestern College from 1974 until his death in 1985.

Holbrook, who will commemorate Nelson in his addresses, knew the professor through his son, Roger, a Northwestern graduate who is currently a pastor in the Chicago area.

“Ron Nelson should be remembered because he lived out a vision of peace and justice made possible by the work and words of Jesus in the kingdom of God,” says the Rev. Harlan Van Oort, Northwestern’s chaplain. “He was a great professor, and our students will have the opportunity to learn about him from one of the Reformed Church in America’s finest preachers.”