UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

13 Volunteer Opportunities in Boston This Holiday Season

“We believe that we should actively work to make Boston a better place for all of its residents. We want to dream about what Boston could be at its best, then work together to bring that to reality.”

At Christmas, we remember that God gave so willingly for us by entering our humanity, and we are likewise called to give our time, talent, and treasure to others. In this blog, Mags Benz from Renewal Church Boston highlights 13 different opportunities for serving and loving the city of Boston through volunteering this holiday season.

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A Word to White Evangelicals: Now is the Time to Engage Issues of Race

Today, we feature a guest blogger, Megan Lietz, who is an Applied Research & Consulting Associate with the Emmanuel Gospel Center. She challenges the Evangelical community about the critical opportunity today to engage in conversations and action around racial equity.

Check out her blog article here: https://www.egc.org/blog/2017/2/22/a-word-to-white-evangelicals-now-is-the-time-to-engage-issues-of-race

Poem: Cry and Sing of Hope

In light of all that is happening in our nation, we need to remember that Jesus is on the throne and we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We also need to listen and fight for those who are most vulnerable in society.

A few years ago, after hearing the story of a young woman, Sarah Dunham, director of the Abolitionist Network at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, wrote this poem:

Cry and Sing of Hope

Race, privilege – authenticity? Belonging? Permission to grieve?
Who am I who has so much, who am I to cry?
I cry hearing the pain of my sister.
I have not lived it.
I chose to give up what I can easily choose to take back.
My education, my family network opens many doors others cannot access.
But I cry for that reality to change.
Can my cry be a trumpet blast in halls of complacency?

Can the cry of a middle class white girl on behalf of the sad broken state of our justice system, our schools, our neighborhoods and families, be heard and deemed legitamate?
Does it matter if they are?
I think so, but then I wonder, by who?

My friend is being sold. Abused. Exploited!!
No, I am not.
I have never been raped or molested, but my friend, my sister, has and is and This Must Stop!
I carry so many stories in my heart and they are heavy.

I cry out with a cry of empathy
No, I will never fully understand
So I will not try to be your voice but rather sound the trumpet, shake the ground,
open the cages of systems holding you back,
usher you into the doors I can, and then You cry out Your song of lament,
of truth,
and together we proclaim the song of hope.

“injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
If I see the injustice done against you and say nothing, what is that?
If I weep, not on my own behalf but for what is happening to you, am I not showing you I care? That I wish there was some other reality? That I wonder why you and not me and I am sorry for my privilege?

And I do weep on my own behalf in sorrow, regret, apology for what I – my race, my religion and my country have done.
What my government has done and fails to do, what my Church has done and fails to do.
I am part of the problem.
I am so sorry.

But I hear the rumblings of another way possible- in the cry and lament, imagining there must be something better
Do you hear it?
The low, steady heartbeats of hope reverberating in my spirit and yours, calling towards harmony!?
It rises
And I know I must not keep silence!
I invite you to join me in my weeping and my obstinate hope.
Let me not tell your story for you, label or forget you in my rush to sound the trumpet.
You and I together – we will cry and sing of hope.

Praise God in Times Square

Christian unity–the unity of the Church–comes in more than one stripe. Most often, when Christian unity is discussed, the conversation regards the unity, or desired unity, of the great church communities, traditions, denominations.

But there is another Christian unity–another unity of the Church–equal to or greater than the unity of church communities, and that is the Christian unity of colors, races and ethnicities.

Last summer, in New York City, an evangelistic outreach was held, and, as part of the outreach, there was a concert in Times Square. Matt Redman and his band performed (see below link) and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a color, race or ethnicity not represented in this moving and inspiring moment on behalf of the living Christ.

Enjoy!

Re-posted with permission from Matt Crane, Institute for Christian Unity, http://www.instituteforchristianunity.org/?p=466

New England City Forum Report

Please click on this link to see the report, which includes pictures, videos, and links to handouts, slides and a summary of topics discussed. Feel free to share this report with your networks.
Photo Credit: Emmanuel Gospel Center
Photo Credit: Emmanuel Gospel Center

A second New England City Forum is tentatively scheduled for February 16, 2017 in Worcester, so mark your calendars!


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