UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

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.

Join us this week for 10 Days Boston!

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10 Days is an annual opportunity for the Body of Christ in our city to step away from normal routines of daily life and enter into a consecrated time of experiencing God together through worship, prayer, fasting, and fellowship. It’s a way for all the believers  to unite with Jesus at the center. It’s rooted in the 10 Days between the biblical Feasts of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

33 other cities around the nation (and now in Africa as well) will be joining with us in these days of fasting and prayer.  We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to come together in unity around the person of Jesus Christ!  Let’s be an answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. It’s time to come together and call upon God to pour out God’s Spirit over our city!

10 Days in Boston 
Location: Lion of Judah (20 Reed St. Boston MA–4th floor of new Sanctuary)
Come and join us to pray 24 hours a day between Sunday, Oct 2 at 7pm to Friday, October 7 at 11pm.
 Click here to view the schedule  for worship & prayer leaders.

As always, 10 Days is a city-wide event.  We’re looking for the participation of Christian communities around the city ofBoston.


Restore: October 12 at the Moody Campus (1 Moody St. Northfield MA)

Restore is something of a New England church family reunion.  We’ll begin with a picnic lunch at the Northfield campus at 11, with historic tours, worship, and workshops beginning at 11:30.  Don’t miss the main event starting at 3pm with representatives from the six-state region!  Plan ahead to take the day off work and enjoy the drive in the midst of beautiful fall foliage!

Take the day, and join us for a NE Church “Family Reunion”.  You can read more at 10days.net/restore or watch any of these  five videos

October 12 Schedule: (1 Moody St. Northfield, MA)

11-3pm: Workshops, Revival history tours, Picnic Lunch, Worship (some food will be provided, but bring something as well)

3pm-6:30: Restore Convocation in the 2,500 person Moody Auditorium! (No registration, no cost)

“He Called All to Unity” – The Holy and Great Council of 2016

From June 19th to the 26th, bishops from Orthodox Christian Churches around the world gathered together on a scale that has not been matched for over 1,000 years. This week, our blog is written by UniteBoston Rep Jason Oneida, who updates us on the decisions made at the Pan-Orthodox Great and Holy Council and its worldwide witness towards Christian unity.

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Image credit: https://www.holycouncil.org/

From June 19th to the 26th, bishops from Orthodox Christian Churches around the world gathered together on a scale that has not been matched for over 1,000 years. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople issued the invitation for Orthodox bishops everywhere to come together for a great, holy council. The goal of the united body of hierarchs was to advance work their predecessors began generations ago. Over 340 bishops responded to the call and met His All-Holiness at the Orthodox Academy on the island of Crete in Greece. These bishops accompanied their Primate, or leader, in delegations representing their respective local church. Of the fourteen autonomous Orthodox Churches in the world, united by God through common faith and sacramental grace, ten were represented at the council.

The work of organizing the council began in 1930 with a preparatory council that drafted a list of 17 topics for discussion. The 17 topics were combined and reduced down to six through additional pre-conciliar conferences between 1961 and 2015. Unanimity—the ability for all Churches to come to a common mind and witness—was the primary criteria for selecting the topics covered at the Great and Holy Council of 2016. The capability of coming to unanimous decisions was carefully crafted through years of dialog before the council began. Such careful planning allowed the Church to issue resolutions with an authoritative voice backed by all the participating bishops. As a result, one of the primary outputs from the Holy and Great Council was six joint statements on the following topics: the importance of fasting and its practice, the relation of the Orthodox Church to the rest of the Christian world, the mission of the Orthodox Church in today’s world, the sacrament of marriage, and organization of multinational councils of bishops throughout the world.

A gathering so long in the making surely begs a simple, powerful question: what does the council’s work mean for us? In particular, how does it speak to Christian ministry in the greater Boston area? The Great and Holy Council provides reinforcement to Unite Boston’s mission for unity and a guide for future ministry endeavors.

The Great and Holy Council embodied Jesus’ call for unity among all people in its mission statement, organization, and very nature. It is no coincidence that the council was chosen to begin during the Orthodox Christian celebration of Pentecost. And it is also no accident that the council took its slogan, “He called all to unity,” from a hymn sung in honor of this feast day. Furthermore, the council’s method of coming to consensus through dialog and the search for unanimity also bear the mark of desire for unity. All these aspects of the council indicate the overriding truth that unity is essential for humanity. We are not strong alone, but rather when we are gathered together in Christ’s name so that He is among us. Therefore, work toward Christian unity is of the utmost importance to the future of mankind. Following the council’s example, we must strive to understand each other and come to a common mind. We must continue to create opportunities for dialogue that removes the various barriers that separate people.

Image credit: https://www.holycouncil.org/

The wisdom of the Great and Holy Council also provides a guide for future ministerial endeavors. One of the greatest concerns for humankind discussed by the bishops at the council was the ecological crisis. Exploitation of the natural environment to suit human desires has resulted in serious problems with climate change, extinction of a large number of our planet’s diverse lifeforms, and poisoning of our environment. The members of the Holy Council called on Christians to view the attitude of indifference toward creation as a sin fully warranting our repentance. In order to truly be the Church, we must seek to right this situation through prayer, education, and organized action. Let us Christians respond to this call, taking it as an opportunity to be leaders in new environmental ministries that help us fulfill our vocation as caretakers of creation. Here we have an opportunity to be prophetic voices that remind the world of the truth that God made humanity to live in harmony with His good creation.

There is much more to say about the Great and Holy Council than can be presented here. If you would like to learn more, please visit the official website at www.holycouncil.org. There you can see the press releases, read the statements issued, and see videos of the proceedings.

The Church for Orlando

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We are grateful to our friends at the Institute for Christian Unity who compiled this list of gospel voices offering prayers and compassion for the tragedy in Orlando:

The Church is the body of Christ in the world. The Church is called by God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole world, and to do so in word and deed. This proclamation is always urgently needed and never more so than in the instance of human brutality and suffering.

We offer to you Gospel voices–voices for light in darkness–speaking for the Church in Boston to our suffering neighbors in Orlando, to the LGBTQ community, to the victims of gun violence, to the Muslim community and to the poor in spirit everywhere.

What follows are a series of links to statements by leading voices in Boston’s Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical/Pentecostal and Mainline Protestant communities as well as a special link to practical action the Church (your church!) can take on behalf of the Orlando victims and the LGBTQ community.

http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Utility/News-And-Press/Content.aspx?id=32619

http://www.hchc.edu/about/news/news_releases/mass-shooting-statement

http://www.grace.org/deeper-closer-wider/praying-for-orlando/

https://www.robly.com/archive?id=a033f5cf5ec356ecc0ef6d57e910e6dc

Also, here are a few great articles recommended by the Lead Them Home ministry:

  1. Scott Sauls: A Pastor’s Reflection on Violence Toward the LGBT+ Community
  2. Russell Moore: After Orlando, Can We Still Weep Together?
  3. Pope Francis: Reflections from Pope Francis
  4. Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition: 5 Ways Christians Can Respond to the Orlando Shooting
  5. Jen Hatmaker: Don’t Say Nothing
  6. Wesley Hill: If the Church Were a Haven
  7. Lead Them Home: What Your Church Can Do

Finally, check out the article “There is Gospel to Preach Here”, with twelve Christian leaders across the country serving in a variety of roles tell the stories of how they responded to the massacre and offer resources to help others responding to tragedy.

One River, Many Streams

13064689_267616503582637_8989441086470772257_oThis week, UniteBoston features Rev. Jacob Urena as a guest blogger. Jacob is an ordained deacon in The Diocese of Christ the King under the Communion of Evangelical and Episcopal Churches. Jacob currently attends LivinGrace Church located in Johnston Rhode Island, where he also leads a Young Adults ministry known as “The Divergence.” As a native Bostonian, Jacob’s passion is to promote the unity within Churches starting in Boston, and to emit Gods love to all he comes in contact with.

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When attending the Orthodox Good Friday Service of Lamentations, I must say that my views of God and the manner in which he functions has changed. Throughout the year I’ve had the pleasure to visit different Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic churches but this service was unlike any other. Once I reached St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, I could instantly feel the love they not only had for the people but for God himself. I was quickly greeted and guided by church leaders and common church members to partake and enjoy the service.

Image Credit: http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org

The service gave me a fresh outlook on the Christian faith. It involved ancient liturgy, which is something I hadn’t seen in other branches of Christianity, and to me this was very enriching. Everything from the ancient chants to the “tomb” of Jesus placed in the center of the room made out of flowers submerged me in the service and added to my own personal experience of God. The service then was brought out onto the streets of Cambridge. As flower petals were tossed onto the floor, we followed one another closely as we chanted in unity.

To my amazement, I discovered that we were actually on our way to meet with another Orthodox church who joined us in the middle of Central Square to pray and worship together. Worshipping alongside them was the most amazing part for me. People from all ends of the world around me and waves of strangers from the streets began to participate and ask questions. The love of God was being shared with hundreds of people.

Image Credit: www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org

On our way back to the church, we then walked under the tomb covered with flowers. I later was told that this symbolized us going from death to life, which brought humility to my heart and filled my heart with passion. The ability for me to participate in these customs was life changing. It left me with so many more questions connected to the meaning behind their liturgy and the symbolism used throughout the service. The service also increased my desire to know God to a greater extent for the level in which I believed to know him wasn’t enough. By the end of the service, I did not feel as if I was a guest or stranger but part of the family, which was amazing because I wasn’t proficient at all in their liturgical customs.

As the service finished, I was astonished by how welcomed I felt, which is so different than the primary mindset that churches have had for so long. We see that people of Christian faith are likely to seclude themselves and limit their interactions to only those of the same church, leaving Jesus and all his teachings in the backburner and clinging on to their understanding. We then create barriers separating one another, yet in reality we are one body in Christ. The reality is that we all have one small piece of the grander knowledge of Jesus and the Christian faith. It is only when we converge together that we expose the masterpiece that God always had in mind.

The unity within the Christian Church is not only beneficial, but is necessary. Scripture continually promotes that God’s desire is for us to function as “one” Church, meaning that Christ came to make us one in Him. Being able to love and worship Christ along my Orthodox brothers and sisters was life-changing for me; I saw people loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving their neighbors as they love themselves. If I could feel the presence of God and His love in a church that is very different than my own, then why can’t we all?

Let’s come together and see that the things that separate us as God’s people are the things that will help us come close together. Let’s come together and be one river with many streams, and one body with many parts!

 


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