UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Loving Our Neighbors: Two New Opportunities for Boston-Area Churches

“When we see a civic promotion of fear, hate and violence as the trajectory of our politics, we need a civic faith of love, healing and hope to defeat it. Loving our neighbor, and learning to practice the politics of love, will be central to the future of democracy in America.” — Jim Wallis

This spring, UniteBoston is highlighting two new ways that Boston-area churches can put “love your neighbor” into action: CarePortal and Neighborhood Support Teams. By leveraging digital tools and relational solidarity, these initiatives unleash the power of community. Read more about these initiatives and discover how you can join in!

NEW: Showing Up Well: A Training for Volunteers on Genuine Engagement

UniteBoston hosted a training session entitled “Essential Practices for Showing Up Well,” led by the incredible Sarah Blumenshine from the Emmanuel Gospel Center. We explored how our interior mindsets—including unspoken expectations, cultural lenses, and the instinct to fix things—shape how we serve and accompany our neighbors in Greater Boston.

Every volunteer engagement is first and foremost a relationship. Sarah shared practical tools built around three essential practices for showing up well:

  • Practice 1: Slowing Down (The Accordion Method)
  • Practice 2: Being Attuned (Inner and Outer Alignment)
  • Practice 3: Acting Sustainably (Right-Sizing your contribution)

May these practices strengthen your hands and heart as we follow Jesus to love, serve, and accompany our neighbors at this critical time in our city and country. 

1. CarePortal: A Digital Bridge for Local Families

Massachusetts is filled with an abundance of incredible ministries, foster closets, and outreach teams. CarePortal provides the infrastructure to ensure that existing resources can reach the people who need them most, exactly when they need them, through the local church. It is a rapid-response infrastructure for families in crisis vetted by child-serving professionals that alerts local churches to tangible needs—like a bed for a child, or a working refrigerator. This builds a meaningful connection with someone who cares for them within their own communities.

Imagine a single mother in our region, forced to flee an unsafe situation with almost nothing. When a caseworker posted her need for beds and a way to cook a meal, within hours, a local church arrived not just with a bed and a microwave, but with a spirit of service. They stayed to help her set up the room and offered prayer. Through this digital bridge, the mother received more than just furniture; she received community support and tangible emotional care.

Another father described, “The investigator told me I had 48 hours to get a working refrigerator or my kids couldn’t stay with me. I had no money and no truck. Within four hours of the request going up, a family was in my kitchen installing a fridge. They saved my family that day.” 

See an overview of Care Portal from President and Founder Adrien Lewis:

How the CarePortal Model Works

CarePortal functions as a communication hub that alerts local churches to the needs of families in crisis, vetted by child-serving professionals like social workers, teachers, pastors, or caseworkers. It offers a tangible network of support through four simple steps:

  1. Uncovering Needs: A child-serving professional identifies a specific need of a vulnerable child or family. 
  2. Submitting Needs: The professional vets the request and enters it into the CarePortal platform.
  3. Sharing Needs: CarePortal sends a real-time geo-located alert to nearby churches and community members.
  4. Meeting Needs: The local church responds, providing the items or services, and explores how to build meaningful connections with families for the long term. 

Drunell from Harvest Time Church describes, “Through CarePortal, we are able to touch lives that we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to meet. We’re able to connect with families, and not only provide the need, but pray with them, speak with them, encourage them, and love on them.”  

This platform has already made a difference nationally – you can see their impact live here – to date, 176,000+ needs met and 467,000+ children served!

Beatriz Acevedo is the new Area Director for CarePortal, which recently launched in Cambridge, Burlington, Waltham, Arlington, Chelsea, Malden, Medford, Revere, Somerville, and Woburn. They have plans to expand to the Metro Boston area soon. With a background in public health and pastoral leadership, she has high hopes for CarePortal: “If just 50 churches commit to meeting 2 needs per month, we will serve 1,200 families every year.” This is God’s love in action!

2. The “Love Your Neighbor” Project: Support and Solidarity with Immigrant Neighbors

For five years, WelcomeNST has empowered Neighborhood Support Teams to transform neighborhoods into communities of welcome for newly arrived refugee families. In response to shifting resettlement policies and the current political climate, they are now developing a model to support immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking families that are already living in our communities.

In partnership with UniteBoston, WelcomeNST is forming Neighborhood Support Teams by matching local congregations with “sister churches” composed primarily of newcomers through the Love Thy Neighbor Project! Boston is the first area in the country where they are piloting this model! 

Imagine an immigrant family in Boston who has been part of our community, but is now living in constant fear of separation due to shifting immigration policies. A Neighborhood Support Team is there to walk with them in solidarity and accompaniment. 

  • Relational Support: Mutual friendships help families navigate systems and overcome isolation.
  • Practical Assistance: Teams listen to the family’s self-identified needs and goals, then come alongside the family with information and resources, such as job readiness, legal support, and language skills.
  • Proven Model: Every team receives a Preparedness Playbook, “Know Your Rights” training, and ongoing support from a WelcomeNST Specialist.
  • Grant funding: We’re pleased to share that the first NSTs will start off with a small amount of seed funding to support families.

The beauty of these partnerships lies in their mutuality; everyone has resources to give and places to receive. Recently, North Shore Community Baptist Church partnered with WelcomeNST to resettle a refugee family from Afghanistan. As they walked together, both the church and the family grew through a deep, transformative friendship.

Scott describes the experience: “We didn’t realize what was missing in our own lives until we met this family. Their hospitality and warmth drew us out of our frantic world and reminded us that life is about relationships. By simply being themselves, they showed us a better way to live.”  Scripture calls us to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us (Romans 15:7) and to love the “stranger” as ourselves (Leviticus 19:34). By reestablishing infrastructures of care, and extending our hands in mutual friendship, we follow God’s call to show belonging and welcoming to our immigrant neighbors so that our entire community can be strengthened. 

Join the Movement: Your Next Steps

We are calling pastors, ministry leaders, and compassionate neighbors in Greater Boston to join these two initiatives to live into Jesus’ commandment to “love your neighbor.”

Here is a recording from a Zoom interest call where Kasey Dillon and Beatriz Acevedo shared more about CarePortal and the Love Your Neighbor Project:

Care Portal

We are hoping to recruit 10 new response teams with congregations in the pilot phase.

You can enroll your church or team right away: Get Involved with Care Portal. For questions regarding CarePortal, contact Beatriz Acevedo at ​​Beatriz.Acevedo@careportal.org 

The “Love Your Neighbor” Project (NST)

Our immediate goal is to establish 5 matches between churches seeking support and sister churches by the end of March, with another 5 matches by the end of April.

If you are a church with interest in providing support please complete the Interest Form.  If you are a church seeking support, please complete the LYN Church Intake Form. Churches are all differently resourced and our hope is to nurture reciprocal relationships where all give and receive in different ways. For questions regarding the Love Your Neighbor Project, contact Kasey Dillon at kdillon@welcomenst.org.

churches are all differently resourced – strong in different ways – finances, others strong in relationships and care, churches indicate the types of support they are looking for – reciprocity & how everyone benefits when we extend our hearts and hands to give our resources time and talents to support one another – unleash the power of community

Together, we can unleash the power of community to ensure every neighbor has access to needed resources and friends who care. While much in our world today is pulling us apart, as Jim Wallis suggests, practicing the “politics of love” is an important action step we can all take to re-weave the ties that bind us together and our common life together. 

“Our work lives far above the realm of politics. It lives at the core of every faith – to love our neighbors. It’s the great commandment – and it applies everywhere in the world to everyone in the world. At the heart of it, this isn’t about a program, it is about standing together in kinship with those who are targeted, abused, persecuted and hated.  And it’s our chance to write the story that we will one day tell our grandkids when they are learning about this era in their history books in hopes that one day, they too will do the same.​” 

— Elizabeth Davis-Edwards, Executive Director of Welcome NST 

Collaboration in action! Snapshot into a call we had this week with Beatriz from CarePortal, Rev. Kelly from UniteBoston, and Kasey from Welcome NST

Would We Notice? Is There Room?

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus this week, we invite you to reflect on the wonder of Christ’s coming through “Would We Notice? Is There Room?”, a new Advent poem by Bill Ivanov. Bill is a nature photographer, poet, pianist, and Christian storyteller, seeking God’s presence in the beauty of creation. With Evangelical roots and a Catholic spiritual home, Bill is a journalist for UniteBoston to capture stories of faith and unity across the city and is currently developing a series of photography books exploring the presence of God in creation.

We invite you to read Bill’s poem below, which invites us to slow down, lift our eyes, and ask anew whether we are making room for Christ in our lives and in our world.

Tonight the skies shimmer with wonder—
a moon brushed in copper flame,
auroras lifting like veils of green fire,
comets stitching silver prayers into the dark.
The heavens still speak.
They whisper. They tremble. They sing.
But do we look up long enough
to listen?

Photo by Antonin Duallia on Unsplash

For once—long ago, Bethlehem breathed,
and the heavens carried another message.
Jupiter bowed toward Saturn,
a king inclining toward Israel
in the silent dark.
Mars drew near—
three wandering lights gathering like witnesses
to a story about to break the world open.
A comet burned for seventy nights,
a royal announcement written in fire.
Creation held its breath.
Heaven leaned toward earth.

And then, one night, it happened.
Not in a palace,
not in a city of gold,
but in a stable where no one had room,
where every door was shut
to the One who carved the galaxies.

Light broke through the cracks of the manger—
falling softly on a mother and her child,
radiance resting where heaven touched hay.
The baby stirred beneath its warmth,
and even the critters grew still.
A cow lifted its voice, low and reverent,
as if creation itself recognized
what had finally come to rest among it.

No trumpets,
no anthems of earthly choirs.
Only the soft cry of God
wrapped in swaddling cloths,
the hush of breath,
the crunch of hay beneath holy feet.

Breath met breath in the cold of night.
Mary pondered what her heart
could not yet hold.
Joseph stood silent beneath borrowed stars,
guarding a mystery too vast for words.
The weight of eternity slept between them—
small enough to cradle,
yet strong enough
to save the world.

“Joy to the World” by Paige Payne

The angels came—
not to kings or scholars,
but to shepherds
the world had already forgotten.
Heaven tore open above a field
and poured its glory on the poor.

Far away, wise men saw the star—
a brilliance unlike the others,
steady, insistent, calling them forward.
They stood in awe of what they saw,
knowing the heavens were pointing
to something the earth had never held.
And so they went—
leaving comfort for dust,
certainty for wonder,
following light wherever it led.

They carried gold for a King,
frankincense for a Priest,
myrrh for a Savior
who would offer the greatest gift
ever given.

Yet when He arrived,
only a handful knew.
The world slept on,
lost in its distractions.
To most,
nothing had happened.

And tonight—
with our faces lit by glowing screens
instead of the skies
still declaring His glory—
I wonder…

Would we notice
if heaven announced His coming today?
Would we lift our eyes long enough
to see the heavens dance again?
Would we recognize the divine in the stranger,
the holy in the unexpected,
the Savior in the place
we least expect?

If Christ came now,
is there room?

Who among us—
in this spinning, shimmering,
distracted, and broken world—
would be the first
to see
the light?

Mary and Joseph look with faith on the child Jesus at his Nativity By Elizabeth Wang

Bio: As a member of the Blue Nose Society, Bill has traveled as far north as the Arctic Circle, photographing grizzly bears, orcas, reindeer, and the luminous skies that declare the work of God’s hands. He also serves in the choir at the Apple Valley Catholic Collaborative and plays piano, believing that music, nature, and spirituality move in harmony to illuminate the human soul.

Bill is an open mic storyteller at the Harvard General Store, sharing narratives shaped by wonder, faith, and the beauty of the world. He is currently developing a series of photography books exploring the presence of God in creation—offering images, reflections, and meditative experiences that proclaim YHWH’s name and invite readers to fill their eyes with goodness so their lives may be full of light.

Inspired by Garrison Keillor, Bill aspires to continue telling stories that reveal the sacred in everyday life, blending art, music, and nature to awaken awe and reflection.

🎄 Christmas Carol Concert – Open to the Public! 🎶

You are warmly invited to a joyful and inspiring evening of worship, music, and celebration!

The True Vine Evangelical Ministries presents our Annual Christmas Carol Concert, open to the entire community.

📍 Venue: 1208 VFW Parkway, West Roxbury, MA

📅 Date: Friday, December 5th

⏰ Doors Open: 5:30PM. Events starts at 6:00PM.

Come and enjoy:

✨ Beautiful Christmas carols

✨ Powerful international praise & worship

✨ Live musicians and talented singers from across the Boston area

✨ A festive, uplifting atmosphere centered on the birth of Christ

This special Christmas event brings together diverse voices and gifted ministers for a night filled with joy, unity, and heartfelt celebration. Bring your family and friends and experience the true meaning of Christmas in song and worship.

Dress Code: Elegant / Holiday Festive

Admission: Free & open to all

For inquiries or interest in participation, please contact Elizabeth Amas at: lizzyamas@gmail.com

We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

New Book Release! For the Love of Women

At UniteBoston, we are committed to building bridges across divides and strengthening the Church’s witness by reckoning with the deeper causes of division. This week, we’re excited to highlight a new resource that speaks to this mission: For the Love of Women: Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America — a brand-new book released this week by local author and longtime Boston ministry leader, Dorothy Greco.

Dorothy and her husband, Christopher, have faithfully served the church in Boston for decades. In her latest work, Dorothy explores how misogyny continues to show up in subtle and harmful ways across everyday life — from healthcare and the workplace to media, government, relationships, and even within the Church itself.

Below, you’ll find a snapshot of Dorothy’s heart for this work and her invitation for all of us to recognize these patterns and pursue healing, equity, and justice — so that the Church can more faithfully follow Jesus and embody beloved community.

P.S. If you’re looking to re-imagine and re-form gender relations that move toward forgiveness, healing and the restoration of relationships, consider attending the upcoming Gender Equity & Reconciliation International training taking place in the Boston area.

Dorothy, can you share more about yourself and what led you to writing this book?

I’m in my mid sixties, a wife and a mother of three grown sons. I’ve spent the past forty years working as a photographer, writer, and serving in various capacities in church settings. At core, I’m a journalist with a pastoral heart. I’ve written two other books, Making Marriage Beautiful, and Marriage in the Middle, with the most recent focuses on misogyny. 

The inspiration for writing For the Love of Women emerged out of personal experiences, being proximate to ongoing sexual abuse in church settings, and the current political moment where women and children are routinely being mistreated. As I read and listen to women, so many are choosing to leave the church in part because some vocal church leaders are using their positions of authority to control and demean women. This breaks my heart and I think God wants more for his church and our culture.

How would you define misogyny?

It’s super important how we define this term. Though the literal definition is “the hatred of women,” that’s not the definitive or even the most helpful definition because many people who engage in misogynistic behaviors or hold misogynistic beliefs don’t hate women. Linguist Ben Zimmer notes that misogyny “has more to do with ingrained prejudices against women than a pathological hatred of them.”

Misogyny is a persistent, insidious belief that men’s ideas, wants, needs, and experiences are more important than women’s and that legal, religious, and social systems, as well as intimate relationships, should uphold this principle. This belief system subsequently influences the laws, policies, practices, and ethos of a given culture.

As I write in the first chapter of the book, “if we define misogyny too narrowly, we may be tempted to disregard or deny it. Misogyny encompasses more than specific, tangible acts committed by individuals who admittedly despise women. If we interpret violence or prejudice against women as random and label the Andrew Tates of the world as anomalies, we will fail to see the patterns. If we constrain the definition to include only violent, hateful acts, some men will distance themselves from the conversation and from having any responsibility to change it. We must understand the scope of the issue and expand the definition to fully encompass it.” 

What’s the thesis of the book? 

For the Love of Women examines six spaces in culture where misogyny has influenced laws, policies, structures, expectations, and behaviors: healthcare, the workplace, the government, entertainment and media, sexual relationships, and the church. The final two chapters explore how women and men can heal from the effects of misogyny and partner together to diminish it.

Because it’s easy to dismiss misogyny as a problem “over there,” I’ve focused on North America, primarily the United States, though the examples transcend geographic boundaries.

I wrote this book primarily for women who’ve had first-person experiences of misogyny. Because misogyny harms, shames, and tries to silence us, I wanted to give voice to and validate our experiences. But this offering isn’t only for women. Despite women’s courage, resilience, and strength, we won’t succeed in eradicating misogyny without men’s partnership, which is why I long for men to read this book with curiosity and humility.

Why does the Church need to address this topic?

I’ve been reading and studying Scripture for more than forty-four years. There’s still much I don’t understand, but I do think it’s clear that God loves women. Scripture tells so many stories about Jesus overturning prevailing cultural norms to care for and love women well. I think of the woman caught in adultery whom Jesus spared a certain death by helping the men to see their hypocrisy. Or when the woman who had been suffering from chronic health issues reached for him in the crowd, he blessed her faith and healed her. Further, as we read about the early church, women were released and blessed to lead alongside men in many different capacities, from deacons (Pheobe), to teachers (Priscilla), and patrons (Lydia). 

It didn’t take long for the church to revert back to pre-Pentecost ways. Since Constantine’s rule and decision to make Christianity the state church, women have been excluded from key leadership roles and have been vulnerable to abuse within hierarchical church structures. The church should be the safest place for women and the best place for them to flourish. Tragically, that’s not consistently been true. I think it’s long past time that we addressed these wrongs. 

How can this understanding benefit both individuals and the Church as a whole?

According to Jesus, the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all of who we are and then to love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, we need to be loving women as defined by 1 Corinthians 13. This is a radical mandate and one that requires us to regularly confess our sin, repent, and work to repair and reconcile. If the church could consistently love like this, Sunday services would be packed. 

Furthermore, men need to realize that protecting, advocating for, and supporting women is not simply a gospel mandate: their lives will be significantly better when they prioritize mutual flourishing. 

How can we interrupt and heal from misogyny?

The final two chapters of the book focus on what healing and repair from misogyny might look like. Everyone’s journey will be unique, but there are common practices that need to be in place. This includes men confessing any of the ways that they have contributed to misogyny, facing and healing from the trauma misogyny causes, grieving and lamenting in community, and ultimately, forgiveness. In spaces where there has been systemic abuse or injustice, we must not rush the survivors to forgive. It must be on their timetable. 

The goal is not simply to interrupt misogyny, but to stop it. This is no small thing, and women cannot do this alone. Men have to be willing to use their power and authority to benefit everyone, not simply themselves. This requires them to interrogate their stories, face any fears connected to losing power, and learn how to trust others. One practical way to frame male engagement is for men to become allies, advocates, and interrupters. Chapter nine has lots of practical ideas connected to this.

It will require all of us to image what it could look like to end misogyny in relationships, the workplace, the government, and the church. God has blessed each one of us with imaginations and given us access to the Holy Spirit. That’s a lot of potential. Let’s put it to good use.   

P.S. At UniteBoston, we respect the variety of convictions on the role of women in church leadership and we encourage individuals to have honest, courageous conversations of listening, learning and story-sharing with those they may disagree with to grow in our embodiment of Christian unity. We believe Dorothy’s book is an important message today for all of us to consider how we can honor women as image bearers; we encourage everyone to pick up a copy of her powerful message for the Church and society. Byron Borger’s bookstore, Hearts and Minds, is offering 20% off. Dorothy also regularly shares thoughtful reflections on her Substack, “What’s Faith Got to Do With It”

Job Listing – Fellowship of Christian Athletes Boston Metro Director

Metro Director #101-5591

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Job Description

The Director is responsible for growing the ministry by praying, staffing, and funding the area through the Advancement Lanes: Ministry, Board, Donor, Talent and International. The Director works in alignment with the Regional Vice President, staff, and board(s) to fulfill the FCA Vision, pursue the FCA Mission, and live the FCA Values by developing and executing a ministry plan for the assigned area. In the FCA Sports Environment(s), the Director creates a strategic, consistent approach to discipleship — making disciples who make disciples. The Director is accountable for ensuring that the FCA ministry is conducted according to biblical standards and adhering to FCA policies and procedures.

MINISTERIAL DUTIES

FCA believes these responsibilities are critical to our mission and that this position plays a vital role in our ministry. FCA expects all functions and responsibilities outlined below to be carried out with a heart surrendered to serving God as a form of worship.

  • Agree with, and abide by, FCA’s Christian Community Statement.
  • Follow a spiritual rhythm including daily prayer and Bible study to seek the Lord’s will for the ministry of FCA.
  • Lead, conduct and provide spiritual leadership for staff, volunteers, coaches and athletes through prayer, Bible study, worship and living by example so they are equipped to serve others.
  • Be connected to and participate in a local church through worship and weekly involvement.
  • At all times, conduct yourself in a manner that affirms biblical standards of conduct in accordance with FCA’s Christian beliefs. (see FCA’s Christian Community Statement for details)

MINISTRY ADVANCEMENT

  • Ensure FCA is engaging, equipping, and empowering coaches, athletes, and volunteers through 1-on-1s, Huddles and events.
  • Train and equip staff to empower coaches and athletes to be disciples who make disciples in the Sports Environments.

TALENT ADVANCEMENT

  • Oversee recruiting, hiring, training and developing effective and diverse staff.
    • Recruit: Actively attract and recruit highly qualified staff prospects to specific ministry opportunities identified in the ministry plan.
    • Hire: Select candidates, ensure they become fully funded, and onboard to fulfill specific roles and responsibilities based upon their calling, character, competence and chemistry.
    • Train: Provide tools, resources and training to develop staff members’ skills and increase their capacity and competence to effectively execute their responsibilities.
    • Develop: Prepare staff to lead self, lead others, lead teams and lead organizationally in their current roles and to grow spiritually, personally and professionally for future opportunities.
  • Ensure the recruiting, training, and developing of volunteers is strategically aligned with the goal of growing the ministry in the Sports Environments.

BOARD ADVANCEMENT

  • Invite, involve, and invest in leadership boards who are committed to pray, serve, and give to advance the ministry.
  • Encourage Representatives to surround themselves with Advisory Teams.

DONOR ADVANCEMENT

  • Serve as the chief fundraiser and financial manager.
  • Provide tools, resources, and training for FCA staff to fund the ministry by connecting, communicating, and caring for donors.
  • Establish and execute an annual budget and funding plan by training and developing staff in growing Home Teams, major donors, and events.

INTERNATIONAL ADVANCEMENT

  • Serve the aligned International Region by mobilizing staff and volunteers to pray, give, and go.

Reports To

Ed Trask etrask@fca.org

 


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