boston – Page 58 – UniteBoston

Oct 07 2017

“We Will Rise” Pastor William Nunez Declares at Boston City Council

Rev. William Nunez, local Diocesan priest at Diocese of Christ the King and Community Building Coordinator at IBA Boston, was invited to last week’s Boston City Council Meeting to pray in light of the devastation from the recent hurricane in Puerto Rico. Here, he shares opportunities for people to send supplies to Puerto Rico, and offers a benediction, declaring “we will rise.” (See 4:00 to 10:00 for the portion of the video that Pastor William shares)

The Franciscan Benediction & Prayer of St. Francis

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
And the Blessing of God, who Creates, Redeems and Sanctifies, be upon you and all you love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen.

Sep 30 2017

A Case For Neighborhood Chaplains in Boston

Steve Daman from the Emmanuel Gospel Center considers how Christians can respond to Boston’s population growth and declining interest in church. He writes: “Imagine a church, or a collaborative of churches, sending certified chaplains into new communities to extend grace and life in nontraditional ways to new, young and/or affluent Bostonians. Could this be a way to implant a compelling Gospel presence among this population?”

Various ministries are highlighted, including Rev. Dr. LeSette Wright’s Peaceseekers, which cultivates partnerships in Boston to prevent violence. She has trained over 100 people in the area to serve as community chaplains.

Sep 09 2017

Turning God’s Mic Up in Boston

“I had hit rock bottom, but Jesus wasn’t done with me yet.”

Erich Clark, our guest blogger this week, attends First Presbyterian Church in Ipswich and was on the logistics team to help set up the stage for our worship night in August. Erich writes about the significance of the worship night in his own spiritual journey of faith, and the power of God to transform hearts and lives, both personally and corporately.

I was the Assistant Sound Tech for the UniteBoston Worship Night on the Boston Common. During sound check and rehearsal with the Worship Team, I felt my past and present collide. To understand that, I need to tell you my story.

I’ve set up a lot of stages for a lot of bands.

I get there early, go over the plan, run the cables, note the channel numbers, wait for the musicians to arrive, sound-check, and start the show.

The last time I sound-checked in Boston, my life was collapsing. I worked for a heavy metal band from Rhode Island, and we had finally made it to Massachusetts. It was an important opportunity, but by the time the musicians were plugged in and ready, I was so drunk and stoned that the club’s in-house sound guy had to take over completely.

That was my pattern: set up, sneak off for some drugs, come back and drink until the night became a blur. The band had kept me on until that point only because I promised them that I would stay sober until after each gig. But I was out of control, and that was my last gig with them. At the end of the night, they told me never to contact them again.

I drove home drunk that night to an apartment where I was soon to be evicted. I’d spent all the money I earned (and a large sum I had borrowed) on my chemicals. I was soon to be fired another countless time. Then my car died, abandoned and spewing thick black smoke on the highway during a drug run. It was all over; my life was a write off, the end of the line, my rock bottom.

But Jesus wasn’t done with me yet. I checked into a Christian sober house, Place of Promise, because it was the only one that would take me. That’s where I gave my life to Jesus, for whatever limited use He could get out of me. It was the only thing I had left.

When I graduated from Place of Promise, I found a work-for-rent-position at First Presbyterian Church in Ipswich. They knew about my past, but they accepted me with open arms. They have become my family, supporting me in a myriad of ways as my life has healed.

I started running sound for the church, grateful to use my skills in a positive way. I’ve worked with the Middle School youth group for the last decade and passed on my sound skills to several young people.

One of my trainees was Benjamin Hills, a pastor’s son I’d met when he was 8. He’s a young man now, attending Gordon College, and the Head Sound Technician for the recent UniteBoston worship night on the Boston Common. Ben invited me on as his assistant, and I was intrigued by the prospect.

Benjamin Hills and Erich Clark working the sound board at the worship night.

On August 26th I found myself setting up a stage right in the center of Boston. I was checking connections and helping the UniteBoston worship team to arrange themselves and set levels. I was appreciating the quality band, the professional stage, the beautiful weather, the picturesque Boston Common. As I looked around at those musicians and volunteers and technicians lending their skills to the concert, it struck me:

This is God’s concert. He’s playing right in the heart of our capital city, shouting out Grace, love, hope, and healing. The God I serve took this useless shell of a man and made him whole, happy, and useful. If He can heal me, I know that He can heal the children of this wounded city.

Let’s turn His mic up.

Jun 30 2017

Unity Through Diversity

Lena Denis is our guest blogger this week. She is a local librarian and information professional. Lena inspired young people at her parish to come out to BostonServe with us on May 6th. Read the story below to hear more about Lena’s heart for Christian unity!

When people ask me why I care so much about Christian unity, I often give a personal answer: because over the course of my faith journey, I’ve been in and out of many different kinds of churches. I’m Catholic, but I have ties to Evangelical ministries and I’ve been affiliated with mainline Protestant churches. For as long as I can remember, there hasn’t been only one Christian tradition for me to get to Jesus; it was always a multitude of Christian voices united in my life. For example, I could tap into the ancient traditions of Cappadocian church fathers’ meditation, similar to what we now consider Eastern meditative practices. I could also go to the contemporary worship service down the street and tap into praise music with beats that sounded like they came straight out of the club. Either way, Jesus was present, because according to His words in Matthew 18:20, Jesus is wherever two or more gather in His name. The adventure of finding Christ again and again, sometimes in a completely unfamiliar place, is the joy of the Christian life for me. Unity through diversity is key to my understanding of who I am as a Christian, and how I live the Gospel.

That’s the personal answer to why I care about Christian unity, but there’s a much shorter cut-and-dry answer: because the Bible says to. Scripture says that unity in diversity is what God’s people should aim for because it glorifies God and we accomplish more than when we work independently.

Take, for example, BostonServe on May 6, where churches came together to serve the city. Previous blog posts about that wonderful day show how our Boston-area churches, through their many spiritual gifts, had the opportunity to help a variety of populations ranging from refugees to the unhoused. Attention to all of God’s creation also meant that we cleaned streets and planted gardens. I handed out hot lunches to our brothers and sisters who spent their days on the street, and that alone required a variety of gifts: attention to detail in supply-gathering, packing lunch bags full of essentials like clean socks as well as food, cooking a meal for a large number of people, striking up a conversation and showing a stranger that you care, and the ability to listen deeply when someone wants to tell you their story.

St. Cecilia and Old South Church preparing lunches for our friends on the street for BostonServe

Paul knew that this diverse functioning is us at our best. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 12 that, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work…Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” We are good at so many different things, both individually and corporately. We’re not supposed to be robots who all do the same task at the same time, because that would be sad and boring and not particularly effective, and it would erase all the beautiful diversity that God made us to be. If we take our diverse gifts and put them together, we are limitless in how we serve the world, which glorifies God.

Participating in BostonServe inspired me to help coordinate a “Reformation 500 Theology on Tapas” event at my church, St. Cecilia Parish. I invited Vito Nicastro (Catholic) and Scott Brill (Lutheran) from the Institute for Christian Unity to speak about their faith experiences and how are honoring ecumenical work and unity in this 500th year since Luther’s Reformation began. I was hopeful that the event would be fun and well-attended, and I couldn’t believe my eyes as the parish hall filled and filled and filled, until we ran out of chairs and had to start bringing them in from neighboring classrooms! People ate and had a great evening of thoughtful questions and some good laughs with our brilliant speakers. This was a tangible demonstration of our unity through diversity.

“Theology on Tapas” Gathering at St Cecilia Parish, June 2017

Long before the institutional church was born, King David knew that this kind of unity is what God desires. In the short and sweet Psalm 133, he sang,

How good and pleasant it is
    when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head,
    running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
    down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon
    were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
    even life forevermore.

These days, most of us wouldn’t be too happy with people pouring oil on our clothes, but when we remember the context of priestly consecration in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, it makes sense that this would be a happy image for David. When Aaron and his sons were consecrated with oil and the blood of sacrifice, service to God through these priests could begin.

Though the traditions have changed, our message is the same. When we all band together from our many traditions with our many strengths to live in unity, we are consecrated, and our service is holy. And for me, I can’t think of anything better to strive for.

Jun 08 2017

Serving Together as the United Body of Christ

This week, our blog is written by Kaitlin Roberson, BostonServe project coordinator for the care bag packing party for refugee youth. It’s encouraging to see how Kaitlin mobilized resources and volunteers to meet a need in the community, and how Christians coming together showed the love of Jesus in a practical way to our neighbors.

Being a mother of four, I have a huge passion for children and families. My heart breaks when I see children often getting caught in the crosshairs of adult conflict. Through no fault of their own, they are left fleeing for their lives, sometimes with a younger sibling in their arms. Some are orphans, parents killed in the midst of war and persecution. Some are here because their parents surrendered their rights out of an inability to care for their children, and some are rescued from human trafficking or extreme abuse.

These children are here in our midst, right in the Boston area, and there is a program that receives unaccompanied refugee minors and places them in foster families called the Ascentria Care Alliance. The children in this program are alone here, waiting for foster care and adoption. Many have spent a decade in refugee camps and some are here with their younger siblings. Unlike the regular foster system, which aims for reunification as soon as possible, most of these youth don’t have that option.

One evening, as I visited with a staff member of the Ascentria Care Alliance, I asked what their immediate needs were. I explained that a group of friends would like to do something to make a tangible difference. Two things came out of that conversation: children needed duffle bags to carry their belongings and older children phasing out of the program needed kitchen supplies for their first apartments.

In the wake of the Boston protest against the travel ban and limitations put on refugees, the timing was perfect to rally people around these two projects. So as not to keep the 170 youth waiting any longer for these supplies, we gathered as much support as possible through GoFundMe, an Amazon wish list, petitioning local businesses, and partnering with BostonServe. I was amazed to see support coming in from 25 states and 4 countries in one month’s time!

On May 6^th BostonServe volunteers joined other volunteers in Cambridge. Together, we packed 130 duffle bags full of personal hygiene items, school supplies, blankets and toys. This was a beautiful gathering of approximately 185 people, some of faith backgrounds and many who would not identify with any particular faith. Boston is a very secular area, but what a tremendous witness it is to the heart of the gospel when we come together to truly love people. A friend of mine who identifies as an atheist pulled me aside and said that we’re really doing what our faith compels us to do, not just saying the right things but doing them.

Over 150 people came out to volunteer to put together the care bags

Children and adults served together to organize supplies and create the care bags

A staff member of the program who oversees the care of these refugee youth came that day to speak and she cried as she stood before the group of volunteers, so touched by the love she witnessed. They have since written me a letter of deep gratitude for the outpouring of support and supplies, but more than anything for helping these children feel seen, heard, and cared for.

The core of my faith, which includes loving my neighbor, welcoming the stranger, and looking after orphans in their distress, energized me around these projects. I had spent many months asking God about the next season of my life, as my four young children are now entering school full time. I believe the church is awakening to the global refugee crisis and our role in welcoming refugees–building meaningful relationships where the heart of Jesus can be shared.

Although we may land different places politically, my hope is that people will see that children tend to be the victims of war and economic unrest. As Christians, we have a tremendous opportunity to be good Samaritans, help them assimilate to our wonderful country, and have the chance to pursue life, liberty and justice. More than that, we have the chance to feed, clothe, and love like Jesus.

Please pray for the refugee children who are currently on a waiting list for foster families and for the 170 youth currently in the program. I cannot fathom how alone and insecure they must feel in a country that is unfamiliar to them and at times, unwelcoming.

Thank you for your support of BostonServe, so that projects like this are possible. There is nothing more beautiful than the unified body of Christ serving together.

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