UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

#MyFaith Urban Youth Ministry Summit

Calling all Urban Youth Leaders: It’s time to come together and build a network!

Register for the #MyFaith Urban Youth Ministry Summit to learn from Nationally-renowned Urban Youth Ministry voices and receive perspectives from Boston area Urban Immigrant Youth Ministry pastors.

Learn more & register here. Tickets are $35, and $50 for the VIP experience. Register by Monday, June 17th to ensure dinner is included. Please note that dinner is only included for Summit Attendees.

To nominate a youth pastor for an Urban Youth Ministry Networking Award, complete this form by Monday, June 17th.

To register for the Pastors & Leaders Breakfast, click here.

Disability Ministry Virtual Network

In partnership with Vision New England, Joni and Friends New England has launched a VIRTUAL (online) Disability Ministry network group for New England. This Disability Ministry network is designed to provide equipping, encouragement and sharing about including people and families with disability in faith communities. Our next meeting is on Thursday, December 7th from 4:30 – 5:45 PM. Pastors and Ministry Leaders – if you are interested in learning and sustaining a disability inclusive culture, this online group is for you!

To register, visit Disability Ministry Virtual Network | Joni and Friends. Once you’ve submitted a registration, a zoom meeting link will be provided to you by Vision New England.

NOTE: This network group is restricted to New England based churches and ministries!

The Generational Cure

We will have an incredible line up of live music being performed, a message by the pastor and testimonies by Teen Challenge. We have seen tremendous breakthroughs and miracles during the first two events. Testimonials by people declaring they have surrendered their lives over to the care of Jesus and were healed from the bondages of addiction, mental health and abuse. This is a free event and all are welcome. Join us to celebrate the joy of life and the power of Christ. We stand together with God believing to break chains and generational curses.

Revelation in a Time of Plague

A 4-Week Zoom Series of Reflections from Spiritual Leaders of the Abrahamic Family of Faith
4 Wednesdays, April 22 – May 6, 2020
Hosted by MAS Boston and CMM
Starting this Wednesday, April 22, 6:15-7:15pm EST
To register and receive the Zoom link, please click the link here
This week’s speakers:
  • Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007 – 2017). In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rabbi Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Me’ah, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America and in Israel. He is the co-editor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table (Jewish Lights), and the award-winning anthology, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation (Orbis). His most recent publication is the anthology, Words To Live By: Sacred Sources for Interreligious Engagement (Orbis 2018). In 2009 – 2010, he was selected as a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s inaugural North American Scholar’s Circle. In 2014, Northeastern University honored him for his interreligious educational efforts.
  • Rodney L. Petersen, PhD is executive director of The Lord’s Day Alliance of the U.S. (LDAUSA) and Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM), greater Boston area’s oldest interfaith social justice network. He is formerly executive director of the Boston Theological Institute, taught in the member schools and overseas, and was co-founder of the Religion and Conflict Transformation program. He serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. Petersen is author or co-editor of numerous publications, including, Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy and Conflict Transformation (Templeton Foundation Press, 2001); Overcoming Violence (BTI, 2010); Formation for Life: Peacemaking and Twenty – First Century Discipleship (Wipf and Stock, 2013); general editor of George H. Williams, History of Religion at Harvard, 3 volumes (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014); and Religion and Public Policy: Human Rights, Conflict, and Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
  • Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, PhD is Associate Professor of Arabic & Islamic Studies and Director of the Arabic Language Program in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department at Brandeis University. Professor El-Tobgui’s scholarly expertise lies in the field of Islamic thought, with a special concentration on theology, law, and jurisprudence. He has recently published his first book, Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation, which examines a 10-volume treatise on the relationship between reason and scripture. In addition to his expertise in Islamic thought, Professor El-Tobgui has a deep love of language in general and of Classical Arabic in particular and has enjoyed for many years exploring the intricacies of Arabic grammar, as well as classical literature and poetry with his students.
This 4-week program that brings together congregations from the three Abrahamic traditions (Muslim, Christian and Jewish) and other interested persons. 12 faith community leaders (a representative three at each of 4 gatherings), will each offer advice to the community regarding some of the questions below (and others as they see fit), and then to open it for the congregants to reflect, ask questions, etc. The questions might be the following:
  1. What is the role of God in this pandemic?
  2. What is the role of spirituality and religion?
  3. What is the role of people of faith?
  4. How can we connect more with our spiritual being and God so that we can help the world overcome this crisis?
  5. What do we tell our children when they ask why is God doing this?
  6. And many others
This program starts on Wednesday, April 22, and ends on Wednesday, May 13, running for an hour each consecutive Wednesday from 5:30-6:30 in the evenings (Except for April 22, we will start at 6:15).
This period of time is sacred to each of these three traditions and symbolic of fresh transcendent revelation. For Muslims it falls during the sacred month of Ramadan, April 23 – May 23, and calls to mind the year 610 A.D. when it is believed that the angel Gabriel appeared to Prophet Muhammad and revealed to him the Quran, the Islamic holy book. For Christians this period begins after Easter (W: April 12; E: April 19) and ends with Pentecost (W: May 31; E: June 7), 50 days after Easter Sunday which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and disciples of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks. Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) commemorates the revelation of the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people on Mount Sinai, May 28-30.
This program represents a chance for faith leaders to provide more guidance to our congregations regarding the role of spirituality and faith in these trying times, and to leverage this as an opportunity to anchor the faithful to God, in order to come closer to Him, to pray more, and to find answers to big questions that are often posed during a crisis. If faith leaders unite on this purpose we might collectively find an ecumenical and interfaith role in the whole of our societies toward a closer relationship with God or the mystically transcendent, which would benefit everyone.
For more information, please contact Hossam Al-Jabri of MAS Boston (Hossam.aljabri@gmail.com) or Rodney Petersen of CMM (617-331-1747; rlp@coopmet.org)

Converge Partnership Launch Week!

Support the life-changing work of refugee leaders!

1) Join our virtual gathering on Tuesday, December 3rd, from 9-9:30am to learn about the Converge Partnership with the Intercultural Ministries of Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) and Universal Human Rights International, leveraging the skills of our diverse community with refugee leadership at the forefront of refugee work.

2) Register to attend our fundraiser dinner on Thursday, December 5 from 6-8 pm to hear from refugees about how they are taking initiative to support their communities.

3) Mark your calendars to donate on Giving Tuesday. Thrivent Financial Services will match $1 for every $2 donation to the partnership made on Giving Tuesday!

To learn more, join the virtual gathering, to donate toward the match, or to RSVP for the dinner, please visit: www.egc.org/refugee


Give to Further Christian Unity

DONATE!