UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Brewing Community: How Three Ministries Teamed Up to Transform a Historic Boston Space

What happens when local ministries choose collaboration over isolation? In our featured article today, UB Cohort Member Rev. Dr. John Ames, regional director of Send Relief, shares the inspiring journey of a dream that began in 2022 between Tremont Temple Baptist Church, Send Relief, and The Well Coffee House. What started as a casual conversation about an underutilized, street-facing first-floor space in downtown Boston has officially become reality: a brand-new nonprofit café location right inside Tremont Temple!

This partnership is about much more than warm drinks and shared tables. Through innovative efforts like the BREW Program—which provides paid internship opportunities and pathways to long-term flourishing for individuals from underserved communities and local refugees—this is a space where organic Gospel conversations and care can shine every day of the week. Read more below, and stop by soon to support this incredible kingdom footprint in the heart of Boston!

By Rev. Dr. John Ames

Boston is a community of dreamers. That’s one of the things that I love most about our city. Here’s the story of when a group of us came together to do just that—envision something new.

In 2022, Jaime Owens, Senior Pastor of Tremont Temple Baptist Church and I began a set of conversations about what the future of ministry could look like in one of Boston’s most historic church buildings. As we talked, dreamed, and prayed together, our attention kept returning to one particular first-floor space. Unlike much of the building, this area opened directly onto the street and yet most of it was largely unused on a regular basis. Outside, tens of thousands of people passed by every week—college students, downtown professionals, tourists, commuters, and residents from every corner of the city.

We knew that this space was an opportunity, but what could be done there?

As one conversation turned into several, we kept dreaming and processing together. What if that space could become a place where people naturally gathered? What if it could become a place where conversations could begin, and relationships could develop? What if it could become a place where ministry could just happen organically? 

At one point, and I honestly can’t remember exactly when it happened, almost casually, Jaime said, “I’ve always liked the idea of a café.” I remember responding immediately, “I love that idea, and I think we could partner together to see it happen.” 

Since 2021, Send Relief (the organization that I have the pleasure of representing), has been housed out of the 5th floor at Tremont Temple and to that point, we had been looking for a way to help their church creatively engage the city and this idea seemed perfect. 

Micah 6:8 Banner at SEND Relief Offices on the 5th floor at Tremont Temple

That’s how it started. A couple conversations between friends about ministry. 

As we continued to dream, we envisioned an intentional café located inside Tremont Temple—a place where Gospel conversations and compassion ministry could develop over shared tables and warm drinks. We imagined students studying between classes, professionals stopping in before work, visitors coming in while they were touring downtown Boston, and neighbors finding community. We imagined the underserved getting jobs at the cafe and ministry happening every day of the week, not just on Sundays during worship services.

At some point during those conversations, I suggested that we not reinvent the wheel, but that Jaime and I connect with Matt and Jullie Love, who had already been faithfully leading The Well Coffee House, a Christian nonprofit coffee ministry with three locations serving communities across Greater Boston.

A few weeks later, in the spring of 2023, representatives from Send Relief, Tremont Temple Baptist Church, and The Well Coffee House gathered together in downtown Boston. After touring the space, talking logistics, and considering the ministry partnership between the three of us, we walked across the street and set our eyes on the building with a fresh perspective. As we gazed upon Tremont Temple and prayed, all we could see were the possibilities. As we said “amen,” there was excitement, enthusiasm, and a shared sense that God might be bringing us all together for a greater Kingdom purpose that could not have done on our own. 

From that point forward, Jaime, Matt, Jullie, and I forged a collaborative partnership and got to work. 

Over the months that followed, we worked alongside many others to establish a shared vision and take practical steps forward. Plans were developed. Partnership was formalized. Funding was secured. Permits were obtained and renovation work began. 

Like any meaningful ministry endeavor, the process was not without challenges. There were delays. There were obstacles. There were frustrations and adjustments. There were moments when progress felt slower than we hoped. Yet throughout the process, the partnership remained strong because we were united around a Kingdom friendship and a common mission. During that season, Matt and Jullie Love displayed unbelievable perseverance and faith as they trusted God through every curve ball. Their persistence and faithfulness remain an amazing testimony. 

Last week, as summer began in Boston, that vision became reality when The Well Coffee House officially opened its newest café location inside Tremont Temple Baptist Church.

The vision then is the same vision now. 

All three organizations wanted to create a space that would engage the city in a tangible way while simultaneously proclaiming and demonstrating the goodness of God.

One of the most exciting aspects of this collaboration is the notion that more ministry synergy will develop in the years to come. 

One of the areas where we are hoping to see even more collaboration happen is through the BREW Program, which provides paid internship opportunities for individuals from underserved communities.

Since Jullie Love created it, The Well Coffee House has utilized the BREW program to serve numerous participants. In the past couple of years, as Send Relief has come alongside, we have had the privilege of funding and connecting three local refugee participants to these opportunities. Two of those individuals ultimately transitioned into full-time employment with The Well Coffee House after their internships concluded and the third secured a full-time job elsewhere. 

In a conversation with Jullie recently, she reflected on that partnership, saying, “We are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with Send Relief and can’t wait to see how God uses our BREW internship program as an instrument for His glory.”

Both The Well Coffee House and Send Relief recognize that compassion ministry is most effective when it creates pathways toward dignity, opportunity, and long-term flourishing. It is not simply about meeting immediate needs; it is about helping people thrive. 

Looking ahead, we are excited about expanding these partnerships in this new location. As a ministry collective of Send Relief, The Well Coffee House, and Tremont Temple, we are already exploring additional opportunities to collaborate together. One possibility includes hosting conversational English classes onsite, which would create another welcoming environment where relationships can be built, and practical needs can be addressed while opening doors for meaningful Gospel engagement. 

In addition to compassion ministry, our collaborative partnership is deeply committed to supporting church planting and church revitalization throughout New England.

As the café grows and becomes established, we are exploring a ministry agreement that would allow this collective effort to support future church planting initiatives across the region. We envision ministry residencies being hosted through Tremont Temple Baptist Church, where emerging leaders can receive training, mentoring, and practical ministry experience. 

Together, Jaime Owens, Matt Love, and I bring a shared background in pastoral ministry, church planting, and church revitalization. We believe that combining those experiences can help equip the next generation of church leaders to faithfully serve communities throughout New England and beyond.

Jaime recently reflected on why this partnership works so well: “The Well Coffee House and Send Relief are the ideal partners for our church. So much of compassion ministry and discipleship is around a shared meal or a cup of coffee.”

Ultimately, this story is not about a building renovation project or a new coffee shop.

It is about what can happen when ministries choose collaboration over isolation.

It is about local churches, ministry organizations, and Christian leaders coming together around a shared mission.

It is about creating spaces where relationships can flourish, compassion can be demonstrated, and the Gospel can be proclaimed.

What began as a conversation in 2022 has now become a tangible expression of ministry in the heart of Boston. We are grateful for all God has done, excited for what lies ahead, and eager to see how He will continue to use this partnership to impact lives, strengthen churches, and advance His Kingdom throughout our city and region.

We invite you to come, sit, and enjoy a cup of coffee at The Well Coffee House at Tremont Temple and consider how God might be leading you towards Kingdom collaboration in your own context.  

Come out to The Well Tremont at 78 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02108 to support this meaningful kingdom collaboration! Open Mon-Fri 7am-3p or Saturdays 8am-3pm

Top Picks: The Chicken Pesto Panini, the gooey Cinnamon Roll and our Crem Bru-latte or Iced New Orleans Latte!

Learn more about The Well here, including events and coffee subscriptions!

A Common Game, A Common Ground

What happens when local churches trade their differences for a whistle and a soccer ball? Now in its 17th year, Soccer Nights has grown into a powerful movement involving over 200 children and 150 volunteers across Greater Boston, proving that churches working together can build real bridges in a divided world.

In our featured blog post today, Athens Fitzcheung from Aletheia Church shares how kids and volunteers from vastly different worlds have been transformed by a free, weeklong summer soccer clinic. Read on to see how ordinary acts of play reveal God’s love—and learn how you can sign up your kids or volunteer before the June 7th deadline!

By Athens Fitzcheung

I’ve always loved soccer.

During my years in the UK, any chance to play was a good one. So when I first heard about Soccer Nights, a free weeklong summer evening soccer clinic for kids hosted by local churches, signing up felt easy. A few evenings of soccer, some fun, maybe meeting people from other churches in Cambridge. Brilliant.

At the time, nearly ten years ago now, I had recently graduated from one of Cambridge’s big-name universities, and my impression of the city was probably the same as many outsiders: ambitious, intellectual, career-driven, full of brilliant people doing important work. But Soccer Nights introduced me to another Cambridge entirely.

Going into Soccer Nights, what began as a way to enjoy soccer evolved into something more meaningful: mentoring children, building relationships with families in the neighborhood, and discovering how something as simple as sports can connect people whose worlds rarely overlap.

One child in particular changed me. Let’s call him Aiden.

He was eight years old on Team France in the 7–8-year-old division, and honestly, he was a handful. He ignored instructions, ran off mid-drill, roughhoused with other kids, and regularly tested the patience of every coach around him. Internally, we called him a “flight risk” because the moment you turned around, he’d disappeared halfway across Donnelly Field.

At first, I saw disruption. But over time, something began to change.

We kept showing up consistently. He kept showing up consistently. We corrected him consistently. We also encouraged him consistently.  And slowly things changed.

That came later that week when Aiden started bonding with another boy on his team — let’s call him Sam. They could not have been more different. Sam was calm, polite, and came from a different culture and environment. Yet by Day Four, the two of them were laughing together, encouraging each other, celebrating goals like they’d been lifelong friends.

It was beautiful.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, I began changing too.

As I came to know Aiden more deeply, I had the privilege of discovering more of who he is — his personality, his story, his heart. God began to show me that he was never simply a disruption to deal with, but instead a precious child of His. Over time, my patience grew, and I was able to truly see him, understand him, and love him.

That, to me, is the spirit of Soccer Nights.

What began 17 years ago as a partnership between Central Square Church and Pentecostal Tabernacle was never simply about running a soccer camp. The vision was to bring together children, families, churches, and neighbors across Cambridge through a shared love of the game.  This year alone, Soccer Nights will involve more than 200 children, 150 volunteers, and partnerships with over 10 churches across Greater Boston.

In this divisive cultural moment, Soccer Nights offers a glimpse of a different way of being: churches working together for the common good of their neighborhood. Simply to serve. And to serve in one body. A gift for everyone no matter their religious or cultural background.

If you care about children, community, and building bridges across our city, there’s a place for you.. If you also love soccer, even better!

Join us for Soccer Nights to participate in this beautiful expression of collaborative community outreach, for the glory of God and the good of our city! Here is how you can get involved:

  • Pray: Lift up the children, families, and volunteers gathering this summer—that through ordinary acts of play, encouragement, and friendship, they might experience the love of God and the oneness of God’s people.
  • Register: Sign up your child to participate in the soccer clinic and connect with other families in the neighborhood.
  • Volunteer: Step onto the field or help behind the scenes to serve the community alongside Christians from across Greater Boston.

Registration is still open for both participants and volunteers, but the deadline is fast approaching on June 7th!

👉 Sign Up or Volunteer for Soccer Nights Here

About the Author

Athens is a proud Brit who has made it across the Pond, where roughly half the folks has no clue what he says. He’s proud of his dry humour and loves poking fun at fellow Commonwealth accents. He firmly believes every social occasion should end with “just one pint,” even if it’s two in the afternoon and ideally somewhere showing the Premier League. By day, he works in tech, confidently telling software engineers what to build and thinking he’s in charge – he’s not. He writes about leadership, faith, technology, and the strange business of being human at his Substack Here.

In a Time of Division, the Church Must Shine

Are Christians simply mimicking the divisions of our culture, or are we offering a counter-cultural witness?

In this week’s UB Newsletter, we are featuring an inspiring sermon from UB’s Executive Director Rev. Kelly Fassett on Ephesians 2:14-22. Originally delivered at the 2026 American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts (TABCOM) Annual Gathering, Rev. Kelly Fassett highlights how we can represent the gospel by moving past our internal divisions to become true agents of the hope and peace of Christ.

We invite you to read the full reflection below and listen to the complete sermon on Youtube, “Removing Walls of Hostility to Preach Peace.”

P.S. You can explore more photos and key talks from the 2026 TABCOM Annual Gathering here.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to mark your calendars—we would love to see you at our “Illuminate” fundraising celebration and community gathering on May 29!

In a Time of Division, the Church Must Shine: Tearing Down the Walls of Hostility

By Rev. Kelly Fassett, Executive Director of UniteBoston

We live in an age of fractures. Look around, and you can’t avoid seeing how our world is siloed by political affiliation, ideologies, and digital algorithms. The world is experts at erecting walls—walls of suspicion, walls of fear, walls of indifference—which only contribute to our growing polarization and underlying postures of hostility.

But what about the Church? For those of us who call Jesus “Lord,” the time has come to ask: Are we mimicking the divisions of our culture, or are we offering a radical, counter-cultural witness?

This is the core question that drives the mission of UniteBoston. My own journey as a bridge-builder began years ago. I arrived in Boston in 2008 as a young woman with dreams of joining an elite rowing team on the Charles River. One morning, however, I woke up with a complete lack of desire to row. I asked God, “Why am I here in Boston if I’m not here to row?” And I sensed God’s voice more clearly than anything else I had known before: “Kelly, you are here to unite My bride.”

Woah! What does that mean? This moment led me into a beautiful, messy, and challenging experiment that became UniteBoston. I became passionate about not only orthodoxy but orthopraxy – right belief and right practice – that in our divided world, us Christians need to not just “talk the talk” but “walk the walk” and put our commitment to neighbor-love into practice in the places where we live, work and play.

The urgency I feel today is captured powerfully in one of my favorite passages of scripture: Ephesians chapter 2. In our current, deeply polarized context, this letter feels as though it was written for our exact moment. In my preparation for this sermon, one verse, in particular, continued to stand out:

“Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.” (Ephesians 2:17)

This simple statement is a profound theological challenge. Are we, the modern-day “household of God,” preaching that same peace to those near and far from the Church today?

The Scandal of Our Disunity

We must take a hard, honest look in the mirror. When we analyze the witness of the Church today, the results can be sobering. The research confirms what many of us feel on a daily basis.

In the Great DeChurching, Jim Davis and Michael Graham tracked 40 million Americans who stopped attending church in the last 25 years. They found that hyper-politicization, inability to listen, and an emphasis on culture wars are among the top reasons people leave. Additionally, Barna research has shown that 87% of people view Christians as “judgmental,” and 85% see us as “hypocritical.” It is clear that there is a widening “witness gap,” where the grace of the gospel is drowned out by internal hostility, division, and fighting.

The primary criticism isn’t about our doctrine; it’s about our posture. It isn’t just about what we believe, but how we believe it. The world is watching, and what they see is often a “hostility” that looks identical to the divisions outside the Church.

I say this as a practical theologian: we cannot just talk the talk; we must walk the walk. To become the agents of peace Christ calls us to be, we must commit to three practical and difficult steps: grieving our disunity, finding our walls, and extending a hand of fellowship.

1. Grieve the Scandal of Disunity

When we think of ecclesiastical “scandals,” we usually imagine financial theft, abuses of power, or sexual misconduct. While these are truly grievous, Scripture suggests that our divisions, hatred, and hostility are just as offensive to God and are equally effective at distorting the core message of the Gospel (Eph 4:3).

The root of this sin is a posture our UniteBoston team calls “righteous hubris.” This is the insidious, often subconscious belief that “me and my people are the ones truly following Jesus, and those people (whoever they are) need to become like me to really be Christian.”

This hubris is not new. Ephesians 2 addresses this exact dynamic between two groups of people defined by a history of animosity: Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles often despised the Jewish people for their “otherness,” while the Jewish people saw themselves as the exclusive possessors of the only path to God. They considered the Gentiles “far away” spiritually, devoid of access to God, and inherently unclean.

Archeologists have actually found a physical stone barrier that used to separate Gentiles from the holy parts of the temple. The wall stood five feet tall and bore a terrifying inscription: “Let no one of any other nation come within this fence around the Holy Place. Whoever is caught doing so will himself be responsible for his death.” This was a literal wall of hospitality that promised death to those who were “far away.”

Temple Warning Inscription. Copyright CBN Israel

This makes Paul’s message in Ephesians 2 truly radical. He looks at this historic, violent divide and makes an astonishing claim: because of Jesus Christ, there is an exchange, a transfer from hostility to fellowship.

  • To the Gentiles, God says, “You who were once far away are now brought near because of Christ.” (v. 13)
  • “For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (v. 14-16)

This is ground-breaking! It means that “they” (whoever your “they” is) are actually part of our same family.

  • The hostility between Jews and Gentiles? Banished at the foot of the cross.
  • The hostility between Democrat and Republican? Eliminated by the cross.
  • The hatred between Liberal and Conservative? TORN DOWN by the cross.

When we preach peace to those who are near and far, we must remember that there is no longer a “closer to God” group and a “further from God” group defined by culture or politics. The cross is the great leveler. And why is it the leveler? Verse 12 is vital: because we were ALL enemies of God. Every single one of us was separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship, without hope, and without God. But now—only because of God’s grace—we are chosen. At the foot of the cross, we are all just God’s children in need of grace.

The Greek word Paul uses for “reconcile” in verse 16 is apokatallassō, and it implies this radical exchange—a transfer from hostility to intrinsic oneness. It’s not just a cease-fire; it is a declaration of belovedness that we must extend to all who are created in God’s image.

2. Find Your Wall of Hostility

If Jesus modeled this radical fellowship across dividing lines—purposefully choosing both Matthew the tax collector (who worked for the empire) and Simon the Zealot (who wanted to overthrow the empire) as his disciples—then we must do the same. We cannot model the kingdom of God monoculturally or monopolitically.

Yet, somehow, over the years, we always seem to lose our way. History is cluttered with the fragmentation of Christianity, from the Great Schism to the bloody slaughters of the Anabaptists. We might not be killing each other physically in Boston today, but we are too often ostracizing, publicly calling out without relationship, and acting out in destructive ways.

This issue of “righteous hubris” was made painfully clear to me last summer when I traveled to Northern Ireland to study peacebuilding. I learned about the Troubles, where hostility between Catholics and Protestants became so profound that in 30 years, 3,700 people were killed. I stood before “peace walls” that were 20 feet tall and extended for 21 miles. People told me that as they built the walls higher to “keep the peace,” others just threw larger stones and bombs over the top.

Peace Walls (Right)
Pastor Steven

But I also met a pastor named Steven, a youth worker who knew the walls had to come down. He told me, “I knew the youth had to grow up together because it’s hard to throw stones at someone you know.” He partnered with Tracy, a Protestant leader, and it took them eight years to build enough trust to start a joint youth group. But by God’s grace, transformation took place. This neighborhood that once saw 30 youths jailed annually now sees only one youth jailed every four years. Violence was replaced by community.

Pastor Steven said something that I will never forget: “We have to eliminate the word ‘themens’ from our language.” This is Irish slang for “them,” a word that conveys profound suspicion and a posture of inner hostility. He told me, “When you talk about ‘themens,’ remember you’ve got three fingers pointing back at yourself. It’s not something that happens out there, but ‘in here.’”

There Are No Walls in Heaven: What Peacemakers in Belfast Taught Me

This is our work. We must go back to the imagery of Ephesians 2 and find our own walls that are keeping some “in” and some “out.”

To “preach peace to those far away,” you must first be willing to consider the people you see as “far away.” Yet, the tricky things about walls is that they are often invisible.

You can ask yourself: Which groups do you avoid? Who feels threatened? Who makes you uncomfortable? Which particular group do you cringe at the thought of praising? Is there a people group where you feel the world would be better off if there were less of “those people” around?

I invite you to dig deeper and get curious about where this comes from. Howard Thurman once said, “Often the degree to which we oppose a thing marks the degree to which we do not understand it. Sometimes we use our opposition to an idea to cover up our own ignorance.” Some of us are carrying hurts and trauma that need the healing balm of the Holy Spirit, not the projection of our hostility onto others.

I invite you to pause and give God a moment to reveal your wall. What precious thing are you trying to protect with that wall? What “themens” are on the other side? What might be their story, their hopes and dreams?

3. Extend Your Hand of Fellowship (With Curiosity)

Once we find our wall and our “themens,” the answer is simple, ancient, and difficult: Beloved Community.

In the early Church, cities were divided into ethnic enclaves, with physical walls keeping groups separate. But in Antioch, they did something radical: they crossed those walls to worship, eat, and fellowship together. Historians believe it was this behavior—not their dogma—that made them notice they were “little Christs.”

UniteBoston is carrying out a holy experiment called the “Beloved Community Lab.” We have been in a multi-year process of listening to stories of unity and disunity in the Church, and have landed on some clear understandings and practices to help all of us live out God’s call for unity, justice, and reconciliation in the places where we live, work, and play. We currently have 16 group of incredible pastors from many backgrounds who are journeying together to do the hard, deep work of beloved community.

We are learning that this unity isn’t just about a “kumbaya” moment that papers over our differences or focuses on what we have in common. The unity we are called to runs through our divisions, not around them.

To build a strong bridge, our hearts must stay tender. We need to ‘tend to the wounds’ of our estrangement. Bridge-building can feel like finding the right tools and skillsets. Tending to wounds requires us to lean in close to someone who is hurting and ask, “What happened? What hurts? How can I help?”

By God’s grace, we are seeing the Holy Spirit shift postures of hostility into humility, hospitality, and curiosity.

  • We are seeing Black pastors challenge White siblings to stand with them in the face of the injustices they are facing in our city.
  • We are seeing Conservatives help everyone remember Scripture and stay centered on Jesus.
  • We are seeing dreams emerge of collaborations across churches that would never be possible if we stayed in our isolated silos.
  • People are saying, “I don’t get how it all works out—but I’m really starting to love and care for these kin in Christ and want their good over my own.”

This are signposts of Beloved Community. We’re not there yet, but in a season of profound polarization, our ability to gather across differences bears witness to Jesus’ prayer for oneness (Jn. 17:23), serving as a living sign of the Gospel and a powerful testimony to Christ’s reconciling work in the world.

Tending to the Wounds Through Curiosity

Our final tip for bridge-builders is this: When the going gets tough, get curious. Turn to wonder. Ask: What is going on inside of me causing this reaction? and Where is Jesus here? What is the gift I need to receive from this other person?

We are inviting all who are stirring with a desire to see this kind of unity and reconciliation to join us. We are beginning to offer training and coaching for pastors and congregations in the practices of the Beloved Community Lab.

What should Christians be known by? Scripture’s answer is simple: Love (Jn 13:35).

Love has always been the mark of the Christian church and our greatest apologetic.

May this be true of us today as we embody the radical grace of the gospel by grieving the disunity, finding our walls of ‘themens,’ and extending a hand of fellowship that turns hostility into curiosity, and preaching peace to all.

My closing blessing for you is a prayer by Fr Gerry Reynolds. Fr. Gerry led a movement called the Unity Pilgrims who traveled between Catholic and Protestant churches in Northern Ireland. He wrote this prayer for the Unity Pilgrims:

 Lord Jesus,
who on the eve of your death,
prayed that all your disciples may be one
as you in the Father and the Father in you,
make us feel intense sorrow over the infidelity of our disunity.
Give us the honesty to recognize,
and the courage to reject,
whatever indifference towards one another,
or mutual distrust,
or even enmity,
lie hidden within us. 
Enable us to meet one another in you.
And let your prayer for the unity of Christians,
be ever in our hearts and on our lips,
unity such as you desire and by the means that you will.
Make us find the way that leads to unity in you,
who are perfect charity
through being obedient to the Spirit of love and truth.
Amen. 

P.S. UniteBoston recently released a missional letter to clarify our calling as an organization, offer clarity about the values that hold our community together and what you can expect as you journey with us. Check it out below!

Awakening Boston: The Vision and Heart of Pray.Boston

At UniteBoston, we love seeing churches pray and serve together, which is why we are grateful to feature Pray.Boston, a new citywide movement of prayer to see the city of Boston awakened to life with Jesus.

In this week’s blog, Yasmin Lountchenko (Pray Ministry Lead at Grace City Church) shares her vision for building “altars of prayer” where believers from all backgrounds intercede for our city’s flourishing. Click below to read how a humble prayer room has grown into a collaborative space for people to contend for God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

By Yasmin Lountchenko

I used to walk through downtown Boston, and I would see the city seal but not think anything of it. Last summer, I was on a prayer walk in the Boston Common, and felt the need to look up the significance of the seal. Inscribed on the seal is the motto of our city, which is “SICUT PATRIBUS. SIT DEUS NOBIS”. 

This translates to “God be with us as he was with our fathers.” Our city motto comes from King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicates the temple as a place to host God’s presence. This has largely shaped how we pray at  Pray.Boston — like Solomon, we are praying that God’s presence would be known here in a tangible way. 

My name is Yasmin Loutchenko, and I am serving as the Prayer Ministry Lead of Grace City Church and Pray.Boston. I moved to Boston for undergrad in 2020, and quickly got involved at Grace City Church. It was at Grace City that I was discipled in prayer and grew in love for the city of Boston. Throughout my time at Boston University, I felt God invite me to pray for awakening in Boston, which eventually led to Pray.Boston being formed out of Grace City. 

Pray.Boston is a movement of prayer to see the city of Boston awakened to life with Jesus. We are calling our city to seek God, love him wholeheartedly, and contend for a move of His Spirit in our time. We exist as a citywide ministry for Boston, aiming to be a resource and a gift to the church in Boston. 

We see prayer as the primary means through which God advances his kingdom on Earth. All throughout Scripture and awakening history, we see God move when his people gather to pray. The Northeast has witnessed significant moves of God, and our own city has a rich spiritual history. Boston was founded to be a “city on a hill,” a vision articulated by John Winthrop, later reinforced by Harvard as a center for training ministers, and dramatically renewed during the First Great Awakening. We have heard of all that God has done in our region, and we believe that God is raising up a praying community of people who are calling on him to do it again in our time and in our city.

In 2019, the Prayer Room started at Grace City Church – it was small and humble, but characterized by a deep dependence on the Spirit and confidence that the Lord responds to those who seek him. Even before Grace City officially launched, prayer was central to the leadership of the church, and the prayer room was born out of the belief that in order for us to faithfully steward our calling as a church, it needed to first come out of a place of total dependence on God. We needed God to do in his power, what we couldn’t in our own strength, so we met consistently every week, asking God to move in Boston and across New England. 

As we continued to meet for prayer, God placed Pray.Boston on our hearts. We wanted to remain faithful with what God had entrusted us with, while seeking God’s heart for Pray.Boston. Over time, the Prayer Room grew and we started to welcome people from different churches and backgrounds. It was a space for people to encounter the presence of God and contend for God’spurposes in our city and world. 

In August 2025, we sensed a clear release from the Lord to formally establish Pray.Boston—formalizing what had already been unfolding. With this step, our vision expanded: not only to cultivate a culture of prayer within Grace City, but across Boston. Since then, we have increased capacity in the Prayer Room, launched Prayer Labs to equip churches to build cultures of prayer in their own contexts, and begun forming meaningful relationships with pastors, leaders, and congregations throughout Boston.

We know that Jesus’s heart is not for one individual congregation, but for his entire body. And while we may have different expressions of our faith, we believe that communion with Christ and one another unites us and fulfills Christ’s desire for his bride. This is why we also started to host Citywide Prayer. Citywide Prayer is hosted bimonthly on Wednesday morning as a space for ministry leaders across the city of Boston to gather in united prayer as we seek God to move in and beyond our city. 

Through Pray.Boston, we are witnessing people catch a vision of the inbreaking kingdom through prayer. One of our involved team members went from not really understanding prayer, to now regularly serving in the Pray.Boston Prayer Room, and now even starting a prayer meeting at his workplace. The Prayer Room is not built around any one personality, church, or method, but around the person and ministry of Jesus. Jesus instructs us to pray for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven, and the kingdom picture we see in Scripture is the gathering of a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language before the Lamb who is enthroned at the center (Rev. 7:9). 

Our desire is to see each heart, home, and church collectively agree that the Lord is welcome and wanted in our city, knowing that God’s awakening work is greater than any one church. God is raising up a praying community in our city that serves as a promise to our city that there is a new and better way that is centered on Christ. 

Rev. Devlin Scott & Rev. Kelly Fassett (UniteBoston) along with Pastor Brian Owen & Yasmin Lountchenko (Pray.Boston)

Join in! All are invited to join this praying community and commit to seeking revival and awakening in our city. The Prayer Room is open every Wednesday at 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM at 874 Beacon St., with an Evening Prayer Room hosted on the last Thursday of each month at 6:00 PM. Pastors and ministry leaders are also encouraged to attend Citywide Prayer on May 6 from 9:30-10:45am at 874 Beacon St. For additional events and resources, visit pray.boston.

Solidarity is Sacred: Good Friday Public Worship & Action for Immigration Justice

“During Holy Week, Christians remember Jesus’ death as a confrontation with – and triumph over – the powers of empire. Jesus’s crucifixion was God’s ultimate act of solidarity with persecuted people — an act that calls us into radical solidarity with the crucified people of today.”

As a key practice this Holy Week, we invite the Boston Christian community to join Solidarity is Sacred, a movement devoted to reclaiming the story of Good Friday to stand in solidarity with our immigrant friends and neighbors.

Read more below as the organizers share the theological heartbeat of this initiative, which transforms the Stations of the Cross into a powerful public witness for Christ-centered sanctuary and justice.

By Sarah Hansman, Stef Grossano, and Katy Fazio 

In March 2025, just blocks from First Church in Somerville – where one of our authors is the pastoral resident – plain clothes, masked men grabbed a Tufts graduate student off of the street in broad daylight and put her into the back of a car. For hours, the young woman’s attorney could not figure out where she had been taken. The student, later identified as Rümeysa Öztürk, had her visa revoked and was shipped thousands of miles away to a Louisiana detention center – all because of a student journalism piece Ozturk had written for the Tufts Daily. Members of First Church Somerville knew Ozturk and her friends. Fear and anger set in. Immigration enforcement tactics were changing and many wondered who would be next. The next 12 months revealed a campaign of cruelty towards immigrants that we continue to live through today.

Immigration enforcement tactics have long threatened the safety of our neighbors. But in this moment of authoritarian breakthrough, state violence is intensifying, causing fear and outrage in our communities. We have seen a record number of deaths in US detention centers (including Emmanuel Damas on March 2, a Haitian man living in our Boston), a near total ban on asylum, and the continued separation of families. 

We are the co-coordinators of a grassroots, ecumenical coalition of people of faith responding to this moment. Our response to this moment comes out of our shared humanity, in recognition of the fundamental dignity in each person that has for too long been violated. Our distinct voice, however, is a Christian one. Our strength comes from drawing upon who we are and what we believe, which breaks through with striking clarity on Good Friday. 

We are a coalition of Christians from various faith traditions and experiences. Sarah is a doctoral student in theological ethics, a hospital chaplain, prison minister, and Catholic woman committed to bridging the worlds of the worlds of theology, ministry, and community organizing. Stef believes in the creative power of human beings and the Holy Spirit to bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice. She has tried to flex that creativity and Spirit as an organizer, a prison educator, a facilitator, a legal worker, and now as the queer pastoral resident at First Church Somerville, UCC. Katy is a children’s minister, mom of two, and a gardener- all roles  that require hope for the future and the pursuit of peace. This is the second year we are coordinating this action, because we believe that Good Friday is a unique moment for us to join together, as people of faith, to remember the memory of Jesus’ crucifixion and how it calls us to be in solidarity with the crucified peoples of the present.  

Christians follow a God who was murdered by the state so that no one else would be subjected to such cruelty. The moment we forget this story is the moment we forget our call to solidarity as followers of Christ.  If the cross is a spiritual instrument, it must be a mirror challenging us to never allow what happened to Jesus to happen to anyone else. 

Last year, we joined together on Good Friday for Sanctuary is Sacred, a public worship and action, to call out persecution and scapegoating and demand  that our state government protect our immigrant neighbors and refuse cooperation with ICE. We made it clear that the Jesus who was himself scapegoated calls on our politicians, and each of us, to pick up their cross and walk with the oppressed.

This year, we return stronger for Solidarity is Sacred: Public Worship & Action for Immigration Justice. We refuse to be scared into silence by the disappearance of our neighbors and the deployment of ICE into US cities. We refuse to fall prey to scapegoating narratives that seek to turn us against each other, self-interest that feigns ignorance, or despair that believes that there is “nothing we can do.” We believe public worship and nonviolent collective action matters and so we come to Good Friday with three main goals. 

1.  By publicly praying the Stations of the Cross, we hope to provide a theological framing and spiritual grounding for this political moment that moves us closer to solidarity with our immigrant neighbors and to God’s call to set the captive free and to break every yoke. 

The Via Crucis, or Stations of the Cross, is not only a reenactment of distant history, but as a living prayer through the streets of our own time. This longstanding Christian practice traces the path of Jesus’ suffering and execution at the hands of empire. We will join together in front of the JFK Building in downtown Boston, the location of the Boston Department of Homeland Security Office, to pray five out of the fourteen Stations of the Cross and stand in solidarity with crucified peoples of our time. The stations we will observe include: Jesus is condemned to die, Jesus meets his mother, Jesus falls for a third time, Simone of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross, and Jesus dies on the cross.

As we mark the moments along Jesus’ final path——each station reveals Christ present in the crucified peoples of today: in the bodies of those detained and deported without due process, the grieving mother torn from her child, the imprisoned denied medical assistance, the refugee turned away at the border. 

To pray the Stations is to see the world as it truly is—to name suffering, to confront injustice, and to refuse to look away. In a world that still builds crosses, we walk the stations to say: this is not the end. Even as we confront the forces of death—racism, poverty, xenophobia, colonialism, environmental destruction—we do so with the conviction that love is stronger, and that resurrection is real.

This walk is a prayer, a protest, and a public witness. We ask not only what happened to Jesus, but also what is happening to our neighbors, and what is being asked of us. We pray to be awakened. We pray to be changed as people and leaders.

2. To bear public witness to our Christian faith and values. 

We refuse to cede the public square to White Christian nationalism. Too often, Christianity has been distorted for political gain and against our most vulnerable communities, including our migrant siblings. Our Catholic Vice President has wrongly used the ‘ordo amoris’ to justify the Trump administration’s nationalist agenda and Christian Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has used isolated and faulty Bible interpretation to defend Trump’s immigration policy. We are mindful that the story of Good Friday itself has been used across for centuries to foment violence and prejudice against our Jewish siblings and is a part of the legacy of antisemitism today.

We repent for and reject any weaponization of Christianity. We feel called to provide a counternarrative that witnesses to another way of being Christian. Migration is at the heart of the Christian story. From the Exodus, to the story of Ruth and Naomi, to the Holy Family, scripture tells us of people on the move. And Jesus’s death on a cross declares where God chooses to dwell—not with the powerful, but with the broken, the cast off, the dispossessed. 

3. To create opportunities for local, interfaith relationship-building and platform existing ways to take action. 

We learned from Minneapolis that voices of faith matter and so does knowing your neighbor. Scripture teaches us: love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39). But before we love our neighbor, we have to know our neighbor. Who is my neighbor (Luke 10:29)? Massachusetts has a robust network of immigration justice organizations and coalitions to say no to state violence and yes to local and state networks that protect our communities. Rather than ask with despair, “how can I, one person, make a difference?” We join together as neighbors, in solidarity, to see how much power we have, and provide pathways to take action going forward. 

Will you join us? 

We will begin at the JFK Building, home of the Boston office of the Department of Homeland Security  to pray the Stations of the Cross. After the liturgical portion of our event, we will march together, up to the State House, to hear from our final speakers. These leaders in the immigration justice movement will share how you can take further action to be in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors today. Come weary, come hopeful, come yearning, come energized, come lamenting, and bring your communities with you.

We have an incredible group of co-sponsors behind this effort. Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN), MA TPS Committee, Pax Christi Massachusetts, Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ (SNEUCC), Catholics in Communion, UniteBoston, Episcopal City Mission, Center for Public Theology & Migration, and First Church Somerville, UCC

📅 Good Friday, April 3rd, 4PM

📍 Downtown Boston

🔗 RSVP here: https://bit.ly/goodfriday2026  


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