In this session, “Hope and Joy,” Matt Charlton introduces guest, Mary Cady Bolin, who has a M.Div. from Vanderbilt.  She is Director of Children’s Ministry at Church of the Redeemer in Oak Hill.  She says that joy is a choice for a reaction to events, including adversity in one’s life and that one can react to an event with any number of emotions, one of which is joy.  The conversation goes into discussion of whether joy is simply an emotional reaction or a choice and how that outlook can determine how we live and interact with others.  Joy and community and joy and relationships seem to be at the center.  Matthew W. Charlton is an ordained elder in the Tennessee Conference, teaching at Belmont University and Vanderbilt Divinity School, but currently at Garrett Evangelical Seminary.  He holds Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Religion degrees from Vanderbilt and a PhD in contemporary theology from Garrett Evangelical Seminary.