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unitebostonKeymaster
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Jesus, in Mark 12:30-31
When the Bible commands Christians to love their neighbors, what if it really means what it says? That’s the simple, radical idea behind the “Neighboring Movement.” Here are a few churches in the Boston area that are leaning into God’s call to love our neighbors.
Grace Chapel is holding a teaching series on “Neighboring,” including messages on, “Party Like Jesus,” “Meet the Neighbors” and “Won’t You Be Their Neighbor” Listen to them here.
Hope Fellowship Church in Cambridge is also currently doing a sermon series entitled “Who is My Neighbor?”
At Cooperative Metropolitan Ministry’s annual banquet in May, Rev. Liz Walker from Roxbury Presbyterian Church describes that the definition of grace is, “to give your neighbor a break.” She says, “it is too easy to be polarized; in the midst of all the chaos, we need each other and look our neighbor in the eye, speak to a stranger, be kind; and practice a little grace.”
Listen to Dave Ferguson from the Verge Network describes how blessing people often results in a greater number of conversions, and Five Ways to Bless Your Neighbors.
Finally, be encouraged by reading how serving the community transformed a dwindling church in Tacoma, Washington.
How is your church planning to serve in the neighborhood this summer? Email us at info@uniteboston.com and we may choose to feature your story in the UniteBoston newsletter!
unitebostonKeymaster“Church, Jesus calls us to a love that heals, restores, and sets free. To express Jesus’ love in these times, we must take the time to understand the problem of racism in Boston. It negatively shapes the daily experiences and life paths of people of color, who make up more than half of the Boston community. But no one is exempt from its influence. Racism impacts people of all races—in heart, mind, spirit, and body.”
This is a quote from Megan Lietz, Director of the Race and Christian Community Initiative at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, a program that is launching this Thursday evening at Bethel AME Church in Jamaica Plain. If you’re planning to attend, be sure to RSVP by clicking here.
A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Boston University School of Theology, Megan Lietz is a mom, prayer warrior, and social justice advocate. Christians in Boston should take note of the powerful message within some of the blog articles that she has written.
In “Not That Kind of Racism,” Megan candidly reflects on the ways in which she has unintentionally promoted racism.
“Boston Racism: Pathways for Spirit-Led Action” describes concrete data regarding racism in Boston, as well as reflection questions and ideas for Spirit-led action.
unitebostonKeymaster“You are the salt of the earth.”
“You are the light of the world.”
-Jesus, in Matthew 5:13-16
In the weeks following Easter, Park Street Church is celebrating a “Season of Light,” which is an invitation to “enter more deeply into the beatitude life Jesus describes by serving people in need.” They describe that “the way of Jesus is for the renewal of our city.”
Here is their visual liturgy and prayer for Boston:
Dear God,
We pray for our city. There are so many needs all around us. We lift up to you those who are broken, those who are lost, those who are forgotten. Touch each one of them. May they find peace in you. Give us your eyes, Lord, that we might see this city as you do.
This city is yours, God. We ask that these streets would know your joy, and these people would feel your love. Help us to be great listeners. Help us to hear people’s stories.
You have called us to the nations. You have called us to love our brothers and sisters. Empower us also, by the power of your Holy Spirit, to love our neighbors. Show us how to be salt and light to the city. May our worship not be confined to these sanctuary walls, but let it overflow to the streets and onto the sidewalks. May we be your hands and your feet in this city. Your kingdom come, your will be done, in Boston as it is in heaven.”
Additionally, Park Street Church is organizing “Salt and Light” projects as tangible opportunities for people to show mercy and bless their neighbors.
We encourage the UniteBoston community to get outside our church walls this summer to demonstrate the love of Jesus in practical, tangible ways. For ideas on how to get started, check out The Art of Neighboring.
May 9, 2018 at 10:05 am in reply to: Living Out Unity: Louisiana, Boston, and other Adventures #12490unitebostonKeymaster“Poking holes in one another’s theologies is easy; what is difficult is looking at someone who thinks about God in a completely different way than I do and finding a way to see its loveliness.”
[caption id="attachment_12495" align="alignright" width="151"] Photo Credit: Brenda DuPont[/caption]
This week’s blog is written by Elizabeth M. Smith, Ph.D. Elizabeth works as a pastoral associate at Holy Family Parish in Concord and is a Catholic systematic theologian and ecumenist in the Boston area. She received her doctorate from Catholic University in 2017, and also holds a Master of Philosophy, a Master of Divinity, and a Master of Sacred Music. In this blog, she describes the journey that God has led her through in her understanding of the work towards Christian unity.
I never liked the idea of practicing theology as an exercise in calling out those who don’t get it, or emphasizing those who aren’t in the club. My experience with fellow Christians in grad school was, unfortunately, often just such an exercise. Hoping to be aspiring apologists, I believe, I witnessed many well-intentioned Christians from various denominations in the DC area try to poke holes in one another’s theology and in one another’s traditions. These discussions – most of which were outside the classroom – always seemed to leave participants frustrated and drained. If we know a tree by its fruits, I was hopeful that I could find another tree.
I’ve always felt like a peacemaker. I feel more at home finding ways to describe similarities than confronting difference. More at home highlighting ways our differences complement each other rather than ways they separate us. I’m learning that the term for this is “receptive ecumenism.”
I felt the Holy Spirit create in me a deep desire to construct conversations that ran counter to the apologetics I heard in DC. While apologetics is a praiseworthy field, the movement of the Spirit doesn’t seem to reside in apologetics the way it did in the early centuries of the Church. The days of sorting out heretical positions have yielded, in my view, to a new age in which the Spirit beckons us to stop weeding, lest we uproot the entire garden.
I moved from DC to Boston in 2014, the time I began to write my doctoral dissertation. Although my major area up until this point was theology of God (mainly Trinitarian theology), I felt a strong move within myself pulling me toward ecumenism. As much as I loved pouring over the various views that theologians asked us to consider about who and what God is, I felt the Spirit telling me, “You’ve spent so much time trying to understand me, but do you understand you?” By “you,” in this case, I felt God meant “the entire Christian Church.” I spent years of my life discussing various understandings of God with other Christians, but I realized the conclusions didn’t matter if they divided Christians rather than united them. If our Christian theology draws us further from, instead of closer to, the maxim “they’ll know we are Christians by our love,” then it may be theology, but it isn’t all that Christian.
My dissertation seemed to pour out of me when I approached it as a reconciling tool rather than yet another exercise in making distinctions that divide. After graduating, I turned much of my paper into articles and a book. The Spirit seems to be working in the hearts of so many people I’ve encountered, because I’ve been invited to speak on my topic – mainly Anglican-Lutheran dialogues and their ecumenical successes in the US, Canada, and Northern Europe – in Louisiana, Minneapolis, Boston, and hopefully more. I know that our hearts are hungry for God, and if anyone is finding something attractive in my work, it isn’t of me; rather, it’s the Spirit of love that is of God, and I’m fortunate enough to be tapping into it as an ecumenist. That’s what people are attracted to, and I find that the more I open myself to it, the more opportunities keep springing up for me to do ecumenical work.
[caption id="attachment_12501" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Elizabeth giving a talk at her parish (Holy Family Parish) on ecumenism[/caption]
Poking holes in one another’s theologies is easy; what is difficult is looking at someone who thinks about God in a completely different way than I do and finding a way to see its loveliness. We are all unlovely in some way; yet, Christ died for all of us. What I’m learning in my work as an ecumenist is that the heart of Christian theology is to love the unlovely as Christ does, loving it into loveliness: “My song is love unknown; my saviors love to me. Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be.” We are all unlovely in some way, yet wholly lovable. The same is true for our theologies. This may sound like a watered down version of merely feel-good extractions from the cross of Christ; it is, in fact, the cross itself.
I’m attempting to argue this point as a theologian and scholar. I’m continually working to adopt it as a way of life, as well. I’m thankful to those in my ecumenical cohort and to Unite Boston for helping me move towards that goal.
[caption id="attachment_12497" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Elizabeth is participating in the ACT 3 Network Missional Ecumenism cohort here in Boston this spring, along with a number of other local clergy[/caption]
unitebostonKeymasterOne of the greatest ways to learn about the manifold expressions of Christianity in Boston is to worship with different denominations and traditions. Shelton and her husband visited six different worship services during Holy Week this year, many of which were promoted through the UniteBoston website. Shelton is a former student at Fuller Theological Seminary and currently works as program director for Boston’s Interfaith Youth Initiative. She describes that these experiences of mourning the death of Christ and celebrating our shared hope witnessed to evidence of God’s New Creation that is springing up all over Boston!
Holy Week 2018 will forever remain an especially important ritual and experience of worship for my husband and me. Just three weeks before, we lost our first child after giving birth preterm. Our daughter Hosanna, meaning, “A shout for joy! A cry for help!”, being embraced by God’s grace and love, rose from this earth. We, her parents, were witnesses of death by sight and of resurrection by faith.
Isn’t this the story of Holy Week? We all cry for help, desperate for salvation to come deliver us. And in Jesus, we shout for joy knowing salvation has come once and for all. It is the now personalized nature of Jesus’ story of death and resurrection that led us to six very different Holy Week services. We craved a taste of what Revelations 7 and 21 describe as the New Creation, a people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping God on the throne. We wanted to share a glimpse of our Hosanna’s glorious new life.
Eager to soak up the diverse songs of praise and lament, scripture interpretation, prayer and rituals that so beautifully make up Christ’s Church, we made our plans to drink deeply from the Black Ministerial Alliance’s Seven Last Words service, a house church Good Friday gathering, Stations of the Cross at the JP Pond, an Anglican Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday at our small, multiethnic neighborhood church.
The good news I have to share is the evidence of this New Creation all over Boston! We witnessed components of God’s Beloved Community boldly, creatively and distinctly mourning death and celebrating our shared hope and future with Jesus each in their specific ways. As unity between us comes to fruition, the more we’ll experience the true joy of our salvation and shout “Hosanna! Hosanna! Salvation has truly come!”
Perhaps this Holy Week glimpse into our full unity in heaven has become for us a healing salve from God and from Hosanna. As I expressed before, never had the darkness and suffering of Good Friday, the confusion and grief of Holy Saturday and the resurrection of Easter Sunday mattered more to me. But what preceded and inaugurated these three profound days in my life was my annual favorite liturgical service: Maundy Thursday. Weighted down with an anger I could not name, masking a sorrow I could not bear, I hurriedly made my way through frustrating traffic to the Old South Church’s jazz service, which is held weekly at 6pm. Tight chested and complaining about work-related stress, I loudly tip-toed into the candlelit chapel, silent, yet full somehow, and found that I had time traveled in my spirit to the night Jesus ate with his disciples.
This being only my second time as a visitor to the Old South Church, I did not enter expectantly. And I have found that if I’m able to loosen my grip on expectations as a visitor to another Christian community, I am profoundly reminded how God always shows up where two or three are gathered in His name.
What stood out to me this particular visit was how all five of my senses were exercised and enlivened during the course of this time of worship. The music of the stunning jazz musicians and chorus convicted me to reflect more honestly with God than I had allowed myself to since Hosanna’s passing. The smell of incense and candle smoke attuned my soul to the unseen presence of God filling the room, filling me. The touch and taste of the bread and wine drew me in to physically receive the extravagant grace Jesus offers when it felt my hardened heart might resist forever. The altering of my sight by increasing darkness – each candle blown out as different brothers and sisters read the story of this holy night long ago – demonstrated that my eyes would adjust over time to seeing in the darkness. The feel, sight, taste, smell and sound of my streaming tears freely dripping onto my journal is what I’ll remember most.
Hope and welcome. Weeping and lament. Light and darkness. Shame and forgiveness. Healing and unity. Beauty in pain and chaos. Freedom to be held as I am, where I am. Jesus, arms wide-open.
These are among the words I scribbled in my journal during the time in the Old South Chapel. This precious conversation with God came out of this new and different shared sacred space.
My husband and I continue to walk, sometimes crawl, the long road of healing toward Jesus’ wide-open arms. You might find yourself in a similar place but for different reasons. If so, I invite you to take your imagination with you next time you visit another Christian community in this city to catch a glimpse of the New Creation we so long for, the New Creation Jesus died for, the New Creation where my beautiful daughter now resides, now and forevermore.
unitebostonKeymaster“This was awesome. Let’s do it again!”
UniteBoston connects Christians to further gospel movement in Boston, and our primary tool for this is neighborhood gatherings which nurture locally-based relationships. We have found that as Christians from various backgrounds gather to share stories and pray, the life of God comes forth for mutual strengthening and uplifting. Christian unity is an iron-sharpening iron mechanism by which all become more reconciled to God and one another.
We are learning to dream about what it means to be the Church and to share the gospel in practical ways. In each of the dinners, people have said, “This was awesome; let’s do it again!”
Here are a few photos of the UniteBoston gatherings from just this past week!
[caption id="attachment_12388" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] “Let’s Talk Evangelism” dinner at Deborah’s house in Dorchester[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12389" align="aligncenter" width="1816"] Hillsong United concert meetup[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12387" align="aligncenter" width="4290"] Dorchester neighborhood dinner at Cleo’s house[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12386" align="aligncenter" width="1080"] Watertown neighborhood brunch at Pastor Stephen and Rebecca’s house[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="695"] UniteBoston board meeting – It’s a joy to work with this amazing group of leaders![/caption]
A movement is growing; come and join us!
- Sign up for UB neighborhood dinners here! Once we have a dinner coordinator in your neighborhood, we can launch it!
- Join our team! We’re looking for people to host neighborhood dinners throughout the city.
“Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” – Ephesians 4:15-16
City Gospel Movements
Learn more about Gospel Movements happening throughout our country at http://www.citygospelmovements.org
Testimonies about UniteBoston:
“I appreciate UniteBoston’s ministry. I think your site has to be one of the few anywhere that regularly presents Christian content across the whole spectrum of the Church… Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical/Pentecostal and Historic Protestant. It’s awesome to see.”
-Matt Crane, Institute for Christian Unity“I’d encourage you to follow Unite
Boston, a Christian organization that focuses on bringing all followers of Christ together. Because Jesus is more than a religion!”
-Isaura Wilma“Unite
Boston is a ministry/ nonprofit that God is using to unite the body of Christ, regardless of denominations, in Jesus’ name!
– Carolina de Jesus, Lion of Judah Church“I had a fabulous time with Kelly Steinhaus and other Unite
Boston participants . We all shared our personal testimonies at the “Let’s Talk Evangelism ” community dinner! The fellowship was divine! The potluck contributed food was fabulous! But overall, the night was highlighted by the power of unity: “every tribe and every tongue” of people are gathered in the Lord’s family!!! Thank you Unite Boston for uniting Boston! Hey, let’s spread this ministry domestically and globally!!!
-Carol Thomas“Unite
Boston is a great ministry that is bringing believers together all across the city of Boston. The heart, vision, and mission of this organization is more than ministry – It is to build community and family across denominations, races and credentials so that we can make a difference in the cities of Boston and Cambridge!”
-Omar Brown“UniteBoston is very international and their worship team is an example of diversity. There are many different backgrounds coming together as one knitted in Jesus. Let’s be a connected body!”
-Colin Giwon“Teaming up with UniteBoston and worshipping into the night was one of my favorite memories of last summer! They are doing some amazing things in the Boston area!”
-Ben Laine“A truly awesome ministry where e-mails are replied to (haha) and the team leader, Kelly Steinhaus, takes time to meet with you to know your heart for the city! After I rededicated my life to Christ over a year ago, the Lord has been calling me to pray and move towards unity for Boston and our nation and UniteBoston is on the forefront of such a mission!”
-David Lu
“Although I have only attended one UniteBoston publicized event (an MIT Professor talking about science, religion and climate change which was terrific), UB has spawned at least a half dozen other meetings, dinners or events mostly centered around taking care of the earth and the poor. And even though I’ve only been to one Boston event, I get inspired when I read your newsletter. So grateful for your work and commitment!!”
-Michael Eagan
” ‘Even when I feared and detested Christianity, I was struck by its essential unity, which, in spite of its divisions, it has never lost. I trembled on recognizing the same unmistakable aroma coming from the writings of Dante and Bunyan, Thomas Aquinas and William Law.’ – CS Lewis
I had the privilege this summer to work with UniteBoston at a concert on the Boston Common. It seemed like almost everyone on the team was from a different church, a different denomination.
That’s very intentional. Their mission is to bring Christians of all kinds together to serve this great city. It’s a beautiful thing, and you should be a part of it. Going to UniteBoston events is like walking into a dinner party and finding out it’s your long lost family’s reunion. Who are these people? They’re family!
UniteBoston introduced me to Christian brothers and sisters I might never have known. Thank you UniteBoston!”
-Erich Clark
Read Erich Clark’s story “Turning God’s mic up” from the logistics team at last summer’s worship night.
Thanks to all of you for joining into UniteBoston! Truly as Christians, we are better together!
April 18, 2018 at 5:22 pm in reply to: Christos Anesti: Catholic and Orthodox Christians Celebrating Easter #12348unitebostonKeymaster[caption id="attachment_12349" align="aligncenter" width="860"] Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Metropolitan Methodios light Paschal candles. Photo Credit: Alex Mavradis[/caption]
Christians around the world have recently celebrated the resurrection of Christ. The Paschal greeting to people in the Coptic or Greek Orthodox Church is: “Christos Anesti!” which means “Christ is risen!” and the response is: “Truly He is Risen!” or “He Has Risen Indeed!”
Did you know that here in Boston, the Catholic Cardinal Sean O’Malley and the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios often attend parts of each others’ Easter Week services to celebrate Easter together? The Orthodox Easter Vigil service begins at 10pm and often lasts until 3am, and Metropolitan Methodios welcomes Cardinal Sean at the proclamation of Christ’s resurrection. Cardinal Sean always says what a joy it is to share this with brothers and sisters within the Orthodox Church. This is a testament to the strength of their ecumenical relationship across Christian traditions.
Read below to see Cardinal Sean’s reflections from this Easter Celebration, which has been reprinted with permission from from Cardinal Sean’s blog.
While this weekend we marked Divine Mercy Sunday, it was also the time when the Eastern Churches celebrated Easter this year. So, that evening I had an opportunity to take part in two different Easter Vigils.
First, I went to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral to join in their celebration.
Metropolitan Methodios always very graciously invites me to read a passage from the Gospel and to address the congregation.
We are so grateful that the Metropolitan comes to our Chrism Mass each year. As he often says in his remarks at the Chrism Mass, it’s a great joy to be able to celebrate Easter twice, once with us and once with his own community.
Well, I may have one up on him, because I returned from the Orthodox Vigil in time to greet the Ethiopian and Eritrean Ge’ez Rite Catholic community at the cathedral, who were celebrating their Easter Vigil that night, as well. So, it was my third Easter Vigil of the year.
Their liturgy ends with very joyful singing, dancing and playing the drums, and it’s always a very lively celebration.
Below is Pope Francis’ prayer from World Communications Day, May 13, 2018. Communication is central to relationship; Pope Francis reminds us how we can be communicating across our Christian traditions to build greater unity:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Help us to recognize the evil latent in a communication that does not build communion.
Help us to remove the venom from our judgements.
Help us to speak about others as our brothers and sisters.
You are faithful and trustworthy; may our words be seeds of goodness for the world:
Where there is shouting, let us practice listening;
Where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony;
Where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity;
Where there is exclusion, let us offer solidarity;
Where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety;
Where there is superficiality, let us raise real questions;
Where there is prejudice, let us awaken trust;
Where there is hostility, let us bring respect;
Where there is falsehood, let us bring truth.
April 12, 2018 at 10:50 pm in reply to: Ubuntu in Action: Trends in Today’s World Missions Movement #12245unitebostonKeymasterThis week’s blog is written by Kelly Steinhaus, UniteBoston’s team leader. Kelly is currently a Masters of Divinity Student in Global and Community Engagement at Boston University. Gospel movement in Boston is just one small part of God’s work throughout the world – In this blog, she describes global trends that she is seeing in the world missions movement.
Declare God’s glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. (1 Chronicles 16:24)
While North America and Europe are seeing a decline in Christianity and church attendance, this trend is not reflected worldwide; rather, the center of Christianity has shifted to the Global South (1). Thus, to understand what is happening in the World Missions Movement, why not go to Africa and see it firsthand?
I had the privilege of attending the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute this past March, which was a short-term study exposure program with 110 students from 40 countries. My study group had young adults from Finland, Myanmar, India, Brazil, and Tanzania, and facilitators from Norway and Kenya. Our GETI program was paired with the World Council of Churches’ World Missions Conference. It was a globalized conference for a globalized Church in a globalized world: liturgy was read in multiple languages, the plenary presentations had headsets available for translation, and multiple times per day, we recited the Lord’s prayer in our own languages together at the same time, a cacophony of united prayer. The conference brought together many world Christian leaders, and I had the honor of sharing meals with prominent leaders such as Rev. Casely Essamuah from the Global Christian Forum, Dr. Rosalee Velloso Ewell from the World Evangelical Alliance, Father Ioan Sauca from the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, and Professor John Mbiti, the man recognized as the founder of African theology.
[caption id="attachment_12274" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo of my study group[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12276" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Professor Petra, myself, Father Ioan Sauca and Casely Essamuah after one of our evening meals.[/caption]
One of the biggest influences within the conference was contextual theology. The 21st century has seen an increase in theological reflection coming from personal experience, which is based on the incarnational notion of God becoming enfleshed into humanity, with our varied cultures, backgrounds, and circumstances. I was amazed to the extent to which our unique context played a role in how each of us spoke of applying a particular scripture passage or theological concept. One of my favorite sessions was when our young adult program held a “living library,” where fifteen of us were given the opportunity to become “books,” and other people came to listen to our stories of faith and ask us questions. I was asked to be one of these living books, and I shared my faith journey based on the title of: “Liberals and Conservatives: Is Unity Possible?” Truly, our lives are the living letters that the Holy Spirit is writing to bring forth the gospel in our world today (2 Cor 3:3).
Another key theme was “ministry on the margins.” While in the past, some Christian groups have tended to approach mission in a dominating way that has erased local cultures, the current understanding of mission is that of empowering those on the margins. Jesus himself promoted the idea of God’s mission beginning from the lowly places and from the people to whom the world often forgets. As Christians, we evangelize but we are also the evangelized: We have to hold in tension the sharing of the good news of Christ with the willingness to be changed ourselves by seeing the face of God in those around us. One of the quotes that was mentioned frequently by the African people was, “White people came to share the gospel, and we closed our eyes to pray. When we opened our eyes, our land was gone.” Lord, have mercy.
During the last evening, each continent was given the opportunity to offer a cultural presentation: a song or dance to represent their country. The young adults from the United States met to consider what we would say or do. I proposed that the main thing we needed to say to the world was “I’m sorry.” I devised a short confessional statement about the ways in which we as Americans have promoted a gospel of arrogance rather than humility, the ways that we have rejected the gifts of people from other nations, and how we have been more concerned about our own well-being and protection, rather than God’s call to love our neighbor and to care for our common home.
[caption id="attachment_12251" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The students who participated in the “Living Library”[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12267" align="alignnone" width="960"] Singing “Wade in the Water” during the North American cultural presentation (Photo Albin Hillert/WCC)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12278" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Each of our study groups planted a tree on the property of the university.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12277" align="aligncenter" width="4608"] We were invited to the home of a Tanzanian woman who had created a sustainable farm with cows and biogas.[/caption]
After this program, what will change for me, now that I’m back in America? There is something about meeting people from around the world that leaves deep impressions in your heart: you realize your small part within the great big world of God redeeming and restoring all creation. I am filled with great humility and the relational bonds also necessitate that I care about others around the world, rather than turning a blind eye to global injustices. It’s now harder for me to dismiss global warming, because at the forefront of my mind is a pastor in the Pacific Islands who is seeing the sea levels rise and flooding his church’s land. It’s harder for me to refuse caring for our earth, because now I think of my new friend from Myanmar and how her people depend on wood every day for cooking, building, and fuel. It’s harder for me to have a “neutral” stance on women leading in ministry after seeing the ways in which women are marginalized and shunned from leadership positions in other countries. We can refuse to act when we live out of distance from our neighbor, but when our lives become proximate, and our stories intertwine, everything changes.
I gleaned much from the African way of sharing all for the common good (Acts 2:42). We had the opportunity to attend a Sunday worship gathering at a local church at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro (which I had actually climbed five years ago!) During the offertory, the members of the church brought their gifts: not only money, but also the latest crops and even a chicken! These were then sold at the end of the service to anyone in need. There was a collective sense that “All that I have is not mine; it is God’s, and we need to take care of one another.” I had read about the African ubuntu notion that “I am what I am because of all that you are” in class, but that Sunday, it came to life. My capitalistic, self-oriented mindset in America needs to be refreshed by the open-handed approach to wealth and resources that many people in Africa embody.
[caption id="attachment_12271" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Sunday service at Nkwarungo Lutheran Church. (Photo Albin Hillert/WCC)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12270" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Three women bringing their Sunday offerings to the church. (Photo Albin Hillert/WCC)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12273" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Selling the goods to anyone who was in need. (Photo Albin Hillert/WCC)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12250" align="aligncenter" width="2592"] Vibrant Sunday worship[/caption]
What I’m realizing is that Jesus lived out his kingship by inaugurating kinship. Through his humble obedience to God, he opens an invitation for all to live not for themselves but for God and others. Those with greater resources have responsibility to those in need; in our loving of one another, Christ’s gospel becomes visible (Jn 13:35).
While the theme of the conference was “transforming discipleship,” at times, I felt that the conference focused on communal liberation of social structures while neglecting what I understand to be the core of the gospel: a life-giving relationship with God through Jesus the Christ. There is nothing like knowing God personally and intimately – We are called to be God’s image bearers and be transformed into his likeness (2 Cor 3:18). In our attempts to contextualize the gospel and become all things to all people (1 Cor 19:22), we cannot lose the core message: the good news of God reconciling all to God’s self through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s gospel is holistic: it brings liberation and salvation in the fullest sense, yet it starts with each one of us and our commitment to follow Jesus.
God works from the inside-out, and Jesus modeled a life of deep communion with God the Father that resulted in the transformation of everyone He met. He modeled loving and serving the world’s most vulnerable. I believe that as we humbly give ourselves to one another in the likeness of Christ, we will bring ubuntu to life, and the glory of God will be seen in all nations.
[caption id="attachment_12280" align="aligncenter" width="1356"] New friends! Suk from India.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12264" align="aligncenter" width="1356"] More new friends in my study group – Mikaela from Finland & Shi Yu Me from Myanmar[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12266" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Women of various cultures dancing together at the celebration evening. (Photo Albin Hillert / WCC)[/caption]
References:
(1) – Granberg-Michaelson, Wes. “Think Christianity Is Dying? No, Christianity Is Shifting Dramatically.” The Washington Post. May 20, 2015. Accessed April 02, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/20/think-christianity-is-dying-no-christianity-is-shifting-dramatically/.
unitebostonKeymasterCambridge Community Fellowship Church Lives Out MLK’s Legacy
Martin Luther King was a doctoral student at the school of theology at Boston University, and lived in the South End. He was an assistant preacher at Twelfth Baptist Church. He led a mile-long civil rights march from the South End to the Boston Common.
He also stood at the Parkman Bandstand, in front of 22,000 people, speaking to the racial divisions: “Now is the time to make brotherhood a reality. Now is the time. The vision of the new Boston must extend into the heart of Roxbury. Boston must become a testing ground for the ideals of freedom.’’
While this week, the world commemorated the 50th anniversary of his assasination, King’s legacy lives on in our city. Pastor Larry King from Cambridge Community Fellowship Church seeks to extend this legacy and shape the identity of his church around social justice and racial reconciliation. Their congregation was featured on Channel 10 News – Click on the above image to watch this!
Where Martin Luther King, Jr. Lived, Worked and Played in Boston
Martin Luther King’s Prayer for the Church
We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you.
Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.
Help us to walk together,
pray together,
sing together,
and live together
until that day when all God’s children
– Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow –
will rejoice in one common band of humanity
in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray.
Amen.unitebostonKeymasterUniteBoston was featured in this month’s “Living City” magazine, a magazine published by the Focolare Movement.
“If we look at our cities, what people yearn for today is precisely a ‘new city,’ a ‘living city’ and a ‘fraternal city,’ where, beyond every division, we are sisters and brothers to each other,” Focolare founder Chiara Lubich said, commenting on Focolare media. “Our magazine’s goal is to be a pathway to universal brotherhood, a means of dialogue at all levels, and an instrument of unity and communion.”
Read more on Focolare and Chiara Lubich
Read the original UniteBoston blog article that was published in the magazine – “Deepening Our Experience of Unity at the Local Level” by Father Tom Ryan
unitebostonKeymasterThis week, Christians all over the world are remembering Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. People often tell me that their congregation’s Holy Week service is their favorite in the year. Come, join the family of God in Boston in these liturgical services and beautiful myriad of Christian worship.
We know that it can be intimidating to go to a new church, so some of these gatherings have member of the local congregation listed as “host.” This person can sit with you and help you navigate the service.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25)
I’m convinced that our shared declaration that “Christ has risen” is the most powerful statement in the world. As we declare this together, Jesus will be lifted up and draw all people to Himself (John 12:32).*Note that this is only a few of the many amazing worship services taking place in the Greater Boston area this week – check out http://www.uniteboston.com/events for more!
6:00 and 8:00pm at Old South Church, Boston
This service combines modern jazz music with ancient liturgy of Tenebrae, where the stories of Jesus’s passion are read, and after each reading a candle is extinguished. The service ends in darkness, and the congregation listens to the repetition of 39 dissonant chimes of low handbells, symbolizing the suffering of Jesus on the night of his arrest.
Host: John Edgerton, john@oldsouth.org
Holy Thursday – Potluck & Foot Washing Service
6:00 to 7:30pm at Reservoir Church, Cambridge
Join us for a family potluck meal and service. Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, gets its name from the Latin translation of John 13:34: “I give you a new commandment” (or, in Latin, “Mandatum novum“). It was as Jesus washed the feet of his friends and followers that he said these words.
Host: John Archibald – dan@reservoirchurch.org
10:45am to 1:00pm in South BostonThe Way of the Cross – or Stations of the Cross – is a representation of Jesus Christ’s day of crucifixion, which is commemorated on Good Friday. Churches often have 14 images hung inside, which people can stop and pray at sequentially.
Alternatively, the Way of the Cross can be walked outside, as is done each Lenten season with the South Boston-Seaport Collaborative. This ecumenical event is organized by St. Monica-St. Augustine, St. Brigid and Fourth Presbyterian parishes.
Come and join us! We will meet inside the front doors of St. Monica Church, 331 Old Colony Ave in South Boston, before embarking on a prayerful walk ending at Dorchester Heights.
To learn more, read this article entitled “We Walk With Jesus” published in the South Boston Online website.
Black Ministerial Alliance Good Friday Service
12:00pm at St John Missionary Baptist Church, Roxbury
You are invited to this year’s Good Friday Service to meditate on the Seven Last Words of Christ. There will be seven preachers from many different Christian traditions!
Host: Ellen Bass, ebass@bmaboston.org
6:30pm at Tremont Temple Baptist Church, Boston
11 churches are joining together for a worship service at Tremont Temple Baptist Church. Each church is independent, but we love worshiping and cooperating together so that people far from God can be filled with life in Christ.
Social Justice Stations of the Cross
March 30 from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm at the Paulist Center, Boston
All are invited to the Paulist Center to walk through the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross, but with a Social Justice lens. Our 20s/30s group will lead reflections on each station as we contemplate and pray for the many people and groups who are suffering unjustly, just like Christ did. This is a beautiful way to connect Good Friday with our lives and the world around us today.
Host: Liz Muscolino – elizabeth.muscolino@gmail.com
All Heaven Broke Loose – A New Passion Play
Still Small Theatre presents a staged reading of All Heaven Broke Loose, a new full-length drama about Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Come hear from a multitude of voices as the threads of history, Scripture, and their own lives are woven together in ways they never expected.
Saturday March 31st at 5:00pm in Woodville
April 5 & 6 at 7:00pm in Beverly
Host: Jasmine Myers, stillsmalltheatre@gmail.com
8:00 to 11:00pm at Ruggles Baptist Church, Boston
The Church of the Cross Easter Vigil marks our passage from the darkness of the tomb to the brilliant light of Jesus’ resurrection. Filled with original art created for this night (poetry, music, visual art, dance, etc.) and congregational song, this is a celebration of grand proportions. The service features readings from scripture that highlight God’s great work throughout salvation history, beginning in the work of Creation and reaching its height in the resurrection of Christ. Come join us as we reflect, pray, and raise a joyful song to God!
Host: Carson Rockett – carsonrockett@gmail.com
Good Friday Orthodox Service of Lamentations
Friday April 6 at 7:15pm at St Mary’s Parish in CambridgeThe beautiful hymns of this service express these feeling of grief and loss through a dialog of prayer between the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Ultimately, they show that the tomb of Christ is not a place of death and decay, but a source of life and hope. The sorrow of the crucifixion gradually transforms into joy as the faithful process around the Church with the eptitaphios (a symbolic tomb) and pass under it on the way back inside, symbolizing Jesus’ passover from death to life as He breaks the gates of Hades and frees the souls of the righteous trapped there.
Join the St. Mary’s Orthodox community to celebrate this moving, joyful service which invites us to enter into the profound mystery of humanity’s redemption.
Happening All Week
Daily in Lexington and Wilmington
Where are the cracks in your world? If your news feed leaves you troubled, or your relationships could use a little more glue—if you need a place to process what’s going on halfway around the globe or inside your own heart, Sacred Spaces is waiting for you.
In the week leading to Easter, Grace Chapel’s Lexington and Wilmington campuses host a self-guided spiritual retreat. Different rooms are transformed into spaces where, with the help of a written meditation, you are invited to spend time in quiet prayer and reflection.
Reflective Art for This Week
Artist: Adrian Johnston, Park Street Church
[caption id="attachment_12186" align="alignnone" width="768"] Maundy Thursday[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12188" align="alignright" width="530"] Good Friday[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12184" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Easter Sunday – He is Risen Indeed![/caption]
March 21, 2018 at 11:20 am in reply to: CityRuach: Where the Love of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) and Jewish Life Unite #12107unitebostonKeymasterThis week, Joe Miterko, graduate of Berklee College of Music and Talbot School of Theology, explains the importance of our Jewish heritage as Christians. He is a key leader at CityRuach, a new intentional Believing community in Brighton with Messianic Jewish Followers of Yeshua (Jesus). Read below to learn from our Messianic brothers and sisters about the roots of Judaism within Christianity.
The secret is out! Almost everyone knows about Jesus’ Jewishness. But have you considered:
- …that His Twelve Disciples were all Jewish?
- …that His later Followers were also Jewish? In fact, did you know His brother James’ real name is Jacob according to the Greek?
- …that His mother Mary was really named Miriam, also 100% Jewish?
- …that Peter and John still prayed at the Temple according to Jewish customs after His Ascension into Heaven (see Acts 3:1)?
- …that the New Testament was written primarily as a book by Jewish people for Jewish people? It’s so Jewish!
As a result, when someone asks, ‘Can you be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time?” the answer is a confident and hearty “Yes!” This is what CityRuach is all about. (Ruach, pronounced Roo-ahk, in Hebrew means “Spirit”).
CityRuach is a new ministry based in the Boston area, desiring to promote an authentic encounter where the love of Messiah Yeshua (Hebrew name for Jesus – literally meaning “Salvation”) and Jewish life unite. In short, Messianic Judaism is defined as Jewish people who believe that Jesus-Yeshua is the promised Jewish Messiah. We are building a Messianic Jewish presence in Boston as a safe space where all people can come, no matter what.
Many people move to Boston and have a hard time being away from family. In a completely new environment, finding new friends in an unfamiliar city can be challenging. Also, for college students, constant stresses and pressures of projects, papers, and academia can be daunting. We want to be a place where people can come and be supported with a warm, Yeshua-centered community. For Messianic Jewish college students within the Boston area, we will be a familiar face for their home practices. For Yeshua-Believers in the Church, we serve as a place where they can explore their Jewish heritage and faith more. And for non-Yeshua believing Jewish people, we provide a safe place where their questions can be answered and views can be expressed.
Jewish Life and Yeshua Faith go hand-in-hand. Through Shabbat (Sabbath) dinners, Holiday events, Bible Studies, Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) initiatives, fun social gatherings in the city, and much more, we are trying to build a vibrant atmosphere where the gospel can be heard and people can feel at home.
[caption id="attachment_12109" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Shabbat (Sabbath) Dinner at the Ruach House[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12110" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Some of our members made Challah (traditional egg bread) during our recent bread baking activity.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12108" align="aligncenter" width="576"] At the end of the evening, we broke bread together in the spirit of Acts 2:42.[/caption]
Our ministry is birthed out of Congregation Ruach Israel in Needham. a longstanding Messianic Jewish Congregation (founded and established in 1979). For the average college student, it is a schlep (long way) to get out to the suburbs, with little to no public transportation, so we are taking the congregation to them as a satellite campus! Our home base is the Ruach House, a communal house located in Brighton, where our residents are the lead coordinators of the CityRuach team. Residents are also covenant members of the Synagogue and in good standing with Ruach Israel leadership.
We welcome non-Jewish people to come and see what we are about. Jesus was Jewish. As stated, He lived as a Jew and died as a Jew. By having those from the nations participating with us, we see Kingdom realities break loose. The prophet Isaiah not only says, “So all nations will flow to it (The House of the Lord)” (Is. 2:2) in the Last Days, but he also says, “For My House will be called a House of Prayer for all nations” (Is. 56:7). Jesus is One Man Israel and is the Light to the Nations. By joining with us, you can understand these realities in a deeper way.
Additionally, one of our team members can come present a Jewish Roots seminar for your Church or small group, such as Messiah in the Passover, Healing Prayer: A Jewish Approach, Messiah in the Fall Feasts, etc. It is important to remember that we are one body in Messiah and that Jews and Christians need to work together (Ephesians 2:11-22).
We encourage you to connect with us! If you are simply curious about what we do, have a question about modern Messianic Judaism, want to have one of our team members speak at your congregation or small group, or just want to discuss more, please send a note to cityruach@gmail.com or connect with us on our CityRuach Facebook page. We would love to help and collaborate with you! Yeshua simply said “Come and See” (John 1:39), so come and experience a new light to the Jewish people in Boston for Messiah’s glory!
Joe Miterko is a graduate of Berklee College of Music (B.M. Contemporary Writing & Production) and Talbot School of Theology (M.Div Jewish Studies). Born and raised in Connecticut, Joe is passionate about music, travel, and much more!
unitebostonKeymasterWatch this story! Laura lives in the Boston area and saw miracles happen through praying for five friends daily. This was Movemental Prayer, which is a model designed for people to bless people in our lives who don’t attend church through prayer.
Listen to her story and be encouraged by how God is drawing people to God’s self in the Boston area! We can pray to simply bless others and trust that the Holy Spirit moves with our prayers. Laura saw doors open through prayer, even when she felt inadequate; might God do the same for you?
Boston Movement Story: Laura from Dan Lee on Vimeo.
If you’re interested in learning more about Disciple-Making Movements, there are two people who live locally in Boston that I’d encourage you to reach out to:
-Joe Reed – Accelerate Network and involved nationally with Disciple-Making Movements joe.reed@crmleaders.org
-Dan Lee – Movemental Prayer Model and being equipped to disciple others. dan.lee@crmleaders.orgAdditional References for Discovery Groups:- CRM Empowering Leaders – An organization that is at the forefront of discovery groups and employing them for the spread of the gospel. Their website has a blog with lots of useful articles, video links, and other materials related to discovery.
https://www.crmleaders.org/ - Accelerate – An organization seeking to multiply gospel movements. The online platform they have was built around the values of team, partnership, and adaptive learning. Their site is packed with videos, free downloadable resources, training modules, and more. http://www.acceleratetraining.org/
unitebostonKeymaster“We experienced radical welcome from our neighbors, the surprise of the new and unfamiliar, and the unity of celebrating the Eucharist.”
This week, Susan Butterworth, a local writer, teacher, singer, and lay minister, shares about a rich encounter of visiting neighboring churches in Cambridge inspired by the curiosity of her granddaughter. Susan Butterworth is a recent graduate of the Episcopal Divinity School and leads the weekly Song & Stillness: Taize at MIT prayer service in the MIT Chapel.
A recent post on the UniteBoston Facebook page asked, “Have you ever visited an Orthodox church?” This story came to my mind.
When my little granddaughter was a toddler, living in Cambridgeport, we’d go for long afternoon walks along the river, with the stroller. The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, an Episcopal monastic community, keeps the doors of their beautiful chapel on Memorial Drive open in the afternoons, for stillness, silence, and prayer. Anja and I and the stroller would take the little lift up from the street level to the chapel, and spend a few minutes of cool rest. She’d dip her little hand in the holy water as we entered. We’d light a candle and pray for her other grandmother, who had died when Anja was an infant. We’d look at the stained glass windows, and talk about the symbols and objects in the church. Stopping by the monastery church became part of our routine, and Anja got used to the idea that one could go into a church, visit, and rest.
[caption id="attachment_11995" align="alignright" width="218"] Anja at age 2[/caption]
At that time, Anja and her family were living very near the Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Magazine Street. We passed the Greek Church, as we called it, every day walking to and from the Central Square T stop or the public library. Naturally, Anja would ask to go into the Greek Church.
I’m on my home turf in the Episcopal church, but I had never been in an Orthodox church, and I had no idea if the door was even open. Time and time again, I said no, when she asked to go inside the Greek Church. One week, however, I’d spent Saturday night with Anja while her parents went to a wedding, and we were out with the stroller early Sunday morning. It was summertime, the doors of the Greek Church were wide open, and the sound of chanting floated out into the warm air. We spontaneously locked the stroller to a pillar outside, climbed the big stone steps, went in and sat down in a pew near the back. We looked in awe at the gorgeous icons and imagery, and Anja was able to identify some of the saints and symbols she knew from the monastery church.
[caption id="attachment_11996" align="aligncenter" width="576"] View from the inside of the Orthodox church[/caption]
All this time the priest was chanting, and people were following along in their prayer books. Anja pulled out a prayer book, opened it, saw the Greek letters. “What’s he singing?” she asked. “ABCD?” And she began singing along, chanting ABCD, not particularly quietly. I looked around, embarrassed to be making noise in church, especially a church where I don’t know the customs or the language. Fortunately, this church seems to welcome children. People smiled at us. The couple in the pew behind us had a fussy baby with them.
For me, the unfamiliarity of the service fell away when we stood for the Lord’s Prayer. Now the incomprehensible language began to speak to my heart. Even though I didn’t understand the Greek, I knew we were praying a universal prayer together.
We will never forget what happened next. At an unseen signal, a group of children appeared from the back of the church, and began to line up. It seems that in this church, the custom is for the children to receive communion first. My active, impulsive, social two-year-old was loose in the pew next to me. “I’m going down there!” she announced, and in a flash, Anja was in line with the other children. I was at a loss. What to do? The answer came from a hospitable “little old Greek lady” in a front pew, who turned around and gestured for me to join Anja in line. “Okay,” I thought, “it looks like we’re going for communion.”
It was great to be up close, and watch the priest and deacon as they offered the bread and wine to the children, an act that was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. We watched as the priest dipped a long-handled spoon into the cup of wine, and as each child opened his or her mouth, the priest fed them the wine while the deacon held a big red napkin to each little chin. When it was our turn, however, Anja got cold feet. I opened my mouth for the wine. She clamped her mouth closed around her binky, and refused to open it. I was mumbling, “It’s okay, she doesn’t have to do it,” when the deacon calmly pulled out the binky and, quick as a wink, the priest popped the wine into the surprised O of her mouth. Smiling, the deacon handed me the binky, and Anja and I followed the other children down the chancel steps, where there was a big basket of bread. Following the lead of the others, I took a piece of bread and handed it to Anja. Then, we headed out the back door of the church, and I buckled her back into the stroller while she ate her bread.
“That priest gave me something!” she announced. Indeed, we experienced radical welcome from our neighbors, the surprise of the new and unfamiliar, the richness of the decoration and liturgy in the Orthodox church, and the unity of celebrating the Eucharist across denominational boundaries.
We continued down Magazine Street in the stroller, headed for Dana Park. We then passed Pentecostal Tabernacle, whose doors were open to the summer morning. We heard singing. We could see the worship team projected on a large screen through the open doors. “Can we go in there?” asked Anja.
“Another time,” I said. “Let’s go on the swings now.” But yes, I kept my promise, and in the spirit of knowing our neighbors, we did go to Pentecostal Tabernacle a couple of weeks later.
Susan Butterworth is a recent graduate of Episcopal Divinity School (M.Div. 2017). She is a writer, teacher, singer, and lay minister. She leads Song & Stillness: Taizé @ MIT, a weekly ecumenical service of contemplative Taizé prayer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s chapel. She also sings with Threshold Singers, a group that sings at hospice bedside. She teaches writing and literature to college undergraduates, and writes essays and literary reference articles.
Read similar articles:
- “Discovering the Gold” – Kelly Steinhaus describes the attitudes needed to see the gifts that others bring to the larger body of Christ.
- “One River, Many Streams” – Jacob Urena describes his experience during his first time at an Orthodox service
February 10, 2018 at 12:43 pm in reply to: Discovering the Gold: Mutual Recognition in the Body of Christ #11938unitebostonKeymasterIn this article, Kelly Steinhaus, Team Leader of UniteBoston, describes that Christian unity depends on our ability to see the gifts that others bring to the larger body of Christ. This article was derived from a workshop that she presented at Grace Chapel’s January series entitled, “Unity or Disunity in the Church: Can We Be One?”
As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor… God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-25 NIV)
Scripture’s description of the Church as the body of Christ depicts the mutual depending on one another for proper functioning. Every single movement in our body requires coordinated effort. Thus, we should consider: If the Church today were the body of Christ, would we be healthy, or would we be a body that finds parts of itself freezing up or falling off when attempting to move?
In my seven years working in ecumenical ministry, I’ve found that often Christians hold suspicion and hostility towards parts of the body of Christ with whom they disagree, by saying in their words and actions, “I don’t need you.” This seems to be increasingly true today with the volatile political atmosphere and polarizing ideologies within Christianity. Our identity is falsely based on the ways in which we differ, rather than what we hold in common. We say, “I’m Protestant, not Catholic” or “I’m conservative, not liberal.” This is faulty ground to stand on, as a house divided against itself will not stand (Mark 3:25). What would it take for us to value aspects of both Protestant and Catholic faith? For us to hold together the Evangelical concept of a personal relationship with Christ and the Catholic appreciation for tradition and the Mainline Protestant call to justice, for example? These various aspects of the Christian faith are not meant to be mutually exclusive, yet too often we treat them as such.
As God’s people, we are ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20), proclaiming the message that God has reconciled us to Christ and to one another in the way that we “do church.” We are called to be an image of God and take on God’s way of being. God is three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, perfect unity in community, a oneness of both distinct functioning and mutual interdependence.
However, the encircling divine dance of the Trinity is far from what the Church is today. How can we move towards becoming this body of Christ that we are called to be? I’m convinced that the next wave of ecumenism depends on a new way of seeing. We must learn to recognize Christ in one another, which Jesus defines as “I in you and you in me” (John 17:23). This seeing will allow us to recognize the gifts that others bring, such that our differences are not a curse and a challenge but rather one of God’s greatest blessings and opportunities for mutual growth.
[caption id="attachment_11886" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] UniteBoston Neighborhood Dinner in Revere, January 2018[/caption]
Discovering Christ in One Another: Attitudes to CultivateAn ecumenism of mutual recognition depends on our ability to receive from one another. We need to create structures and mechanisms to help people grow in relationship with one another so that we can find delight and recognize a match between our lack and the other’s gifts.
It will take all of us, but how can you make a difference?
First, think about the types of Christians that you spend time with. Do they represent a cross-section of the beautiful cultures and traditions within our Christian faith? Also, which part of the Church do you have most questions about, or are you most unfamiliar with? Will you make plans to meet up with someone you know from that tradition to hear their story of faith or visit a worship service from that stream of Christianity?
Relationships across difference are important because they expose our own biases in our ways of understanding. As we venture outside of our comfort zones to discover Christ in one another, here are five key attitudes we need to cultivate within ourselves:
- Humility – We have to be humble enough to admit that our own tradition only embraces a portion of the breadth of Christian truth and expression that has existed over the centuries, and recognize our own flaws and biases.
- Bravery – We have to be willing to leave the comfort of the people who look like us and believe like us, and cultivate a willingness to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. There will be unknown rituals, but our discomfort is a normal part of the learning process as we deepen our understanding of God and others.
- Curiosity – We have to learn to approach cultural differences within Christianity with curiosity rather than judgement, and take on a posture of learning. It is as if we are exploring and discovering an unknown people group and seeking to sift through the dirt in order to mine the “gold” that they carry, the particular gift and aspect of God’s nature that they bring.
- Relational – Jesus modeled an ability to love others even when they rejected him. We need to cultivate a desire for deep relationship with other Christians and the fortitude to stay with those relationships even when it’s hard.
- Honor – When we discover the gold in other Christians, behold it and delight in it and call it forth so all can see, this reminds other Christians of what they bring to the whole body for mutual enrichment.
If you look again at our passage in 1 Corinthians 12, you’ll find that what divides is arrogant lack of recognition, and what cultivates greater unity is honor. As we recognize how other Christians fill our gaps, we embody more of the perichoretic nature of the Church and become more the body of Christ we’re called to be: “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).
Every joint supplies. Every part of the body has gifts and treasures of gold that are given for the health and maturity of the whole body. Will you discover a new way of seeing the body of Christ, so its parts can rise up and begin to move together as the living, dynamic force of Jesus Christ on earth?
Kelly Steinhaus is Team Leader of UniteBoston, whose mission is to build relational connections throughout the diversity of Boston’s Christian community. She is pursing a career in full-time ministry, and is studying to receive her Masters of Divinity in Global and Community Engagement at Boston University.
This article was originally posted in the Paulist Center’s Koinonia Journal and was derived from a talk that she presented during Grace Chapel’s “January Jolt” series entitled, “Unity or Disunity in the Church: Can We Be One?” You can watch the full video and teachings here.
To learn more about UniteBoston’s neighborhood dinners that are taking place throughout the city, click here: http://www.uniteboston.com/dinner
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