UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

This Saturday: Bless the City Prayer Walk and Rally for Community Peace

There is an exciting gathering that is taking place this Saturday, June 25! The “Bless the City Prayer Walk and Rally for Community Peace” will begin at 10:00am at 3134 Washington Street, Roxbury, and end with a celebration at Mozart Park in Jamaica Plain.

 

I met up with Pastor Marcos Cisterna yesterday to hear more about the event. When he was 17, Pastor Marcos prayed about organizing a prayer march, and now this dream is coming to fulfillment. He has been amazed to see God’s favor to gather a diverse cross-section of churches throughout the city. Now there are over 35 churches coming!

 

Marcos is passionate about Christian unity, and he believes that “unity is what brings us into the power of Jesus Christ.” In the Prayer & Rally Walk for Community Peace, people are coming together to say that “we would like to see the violence in our city stopped so that everyone can live in unity, peace, and safety.”

 

So, come and join us! We’re having a UniteBoston Meetup at the event. Email me back if you’re planning to come so you can find our group.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27). May God bless each of you this summer, and show the Christian community together into the way of Christ’s reconciling peace.

 

Click here to read the invitation for the Community Peace Walk.

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Kelly Steinhaus
Team Leader, UniteBoston

Christ, Our Peace

This week, we hear from UniteBoston’s own Kelly Steinhaus, as she shares how the upcoming 10 Days of Prayer provides Boston’s diverse Christian community an opportunity to reconcile differences by remembering Christ as our Peace.

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For He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

What a radical concept Christian unity is! The fact that in Christ, we are one!

This heavenly reality certainly does not appear to be true when we look around the world. We all come from various backgrounds and cultures, life experiences, and we have our own denominational distinctions. Each person sees the world very differently, and because of this, we are inherently prone to disagree with and distance ourselves from those who are culturally, denominationally, and ethnically distinct from us.

Yes, it is easier to worship with people who look like us, act like us, and have the same theological beliefs as us. But as Christians we are called to go beyond this place of comfort to see and value Christ in our neighbor.

Paul acknowledges the difficulty of extending Christian fellowship by exhorting us to “earnestly endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). According to Karl Barth, the Greek word here implies a “full effort of the whole man, involving his will, sentiment, reason, strength, and total attitude”. “Earnestly endeavor” is not simply an outward action of embracing the other, but is first and foremost an inward examination of our hearts.

When you look at your brother or sister, do you see Jesus? What might be hindering your view?

From my experience, one of the chief hindrances to Christian unity is my need to be right. This places walls between me and my brothers and sisters, resulting in a self-righteous attitude. At the end of the day, only God knows those who are His, and so the “right” answer is Jesus’ work and righteousness, extended to all.

During 10 Days Boston, we have the opportunity to step outside our comfort zones to get to know our brothers and sisters from various denominations and backgrounds. As we do this, we learn to respect those that disagree with us. We learn to be confident in the fact that the fellowship of the saints goes beyond a uniform doctrine to involve a unity of Spirit (Eph 4:3) based on the inward spiritual rebirth of those who confess faith in Jesus as Lord. We also learn to value the breadth of Christian traditions rather than promoting a particular expression as having greater spiritual authority over another. Indeed, the deep, difficult work of Christian unity is to respect and honor those with whom we may have significant disagreements.

When we step back, we realize that the one and only thing that makes us one is our revelation of Jesus Christ. It is what Jesus did in his incarnation, sacrifice, and resurrection that has reconciled us to God and to one another, thus forming an inseverable and eternal peace. It’s as we all gaze at Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross that we are one.

Jesus, we confess our tendency to exclude rather than to include, to judge rather than to honor, and to assert our position rather than to love unconditionally. Lord, have mercy.

 

*Note: This devotional is a part of the 2015 daily devotional published by the national 10 Days team.

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Crossroads of Peace in Boston’s Back Bay

For the past five months, the UniteBoston Reps have been engaging in various activities to listen and learn from their communities. These past four weeks, each rep will be writing a brief blog to share their findings with the Greater Boston Christian community. This week, Andrew Walker, UB Rep in the Back Bay, shares his insights.

We dream of having every community in Boston connected with a UB Rep! UB Rep Cohorts begin in October and finish in May. If you’re interested in being a UB Rep in your community, email Kelly Steinhaus, kelly@uniteboston.com

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When I think of Back Bay, two symbols come to mind that help me capture the character of this neighborhood: a pen and a wagon wheel. The pen represents learning and the pursuits that require a high level of literacy. Most of the activities that are evident in the Back Bay, from commerce to the various trades and occupations require learning and literacy as basic preconditions.

The wagon wheel brings to mind travel; and the Back Bay is certainly a hub of travel with Back Bay Station serving as a major gateway bringing people into the city and sending them to destinations within the region and beyond. Numerous hotels and restaurants provide hospitality for these travelers as well as those calling this home. And a healthy selection of shops along Boylston and Newbury Street attract shoppers from near and far.

For the most part, the resident population in Back Bay are those who can afford the high real estate prices, which consists of people with professional or highly technical training who hold jobs in the near vicinity. Among them are many families, as well as many with no close family ties.

The churches in the Back Bay are mostly examples of “traditional mainstream” denominations. Their congregations draw from the immediate neighborhoods, but also among them are some who come from surrounding schools as well some who commute to church, just as they commute to work sites in the Back Bay. But there are also a few more recent church planting efforts. The CityLife Presbyterian Church and Renewal Church are two examples of growing fellowships whose leaders speak with great excitement about praying and working for renewal in the city guided by the Spirit of Christ. They seem to be reaching mostly students and young working folks.

So one might gain an impression of the Back Bay being a crossroads offering comfortable domesticity as well as lively commercial and entertainment activity. But there is also in the Back Bay a confrontation with a less comfortable contrast: In 2013 the celebration of cosmopolitan expansiveness that is so much a part of the Boston Marathon and so appropriate to the character of the Back Bay was shattered by the explosion of two bombs. We witnessed and marveled at heroic interventions by so many first responders. In the following weeks admirable efforts were launched in aid of the casualties and their families. All of Boston’s citizens rightly drew encouragement from these acts and efforts. And then, four months later a young man was shot to death on Boylston Str., just across from Trinity Church. This event was not completely over looked by local media, but it got nowhere near the attention of the Marathon Bombing. That young man’s mother has asked us to consider, was the loss of her son any less tragic? Similarly, leaders in other Boston neighborhoods have asked us to consider, of the more than 300 shootings in other parts of the city, over the past ten years, are they any less tragic that they are deserving of so much less attention?

As I consider the question that we are all addressing, what’s God doing among us, this contrast weighs heavily on my heart. But I am not without encouragement.

At First Lutheran Church in Boston, my home congregation on Berkeley Street, I was invited this spring to present 3 sessions of instruction in Biblical Peacemaking during Sunday Morning Adult Bible study. I was pleasantly surprised at how well received it was. Three sessions grew into five sessions and there were more participants at the last session than at the first. I was especially delighted to observe that the sessions included allot of discussion and many thoughtful and penetrative questions were raised and debated. Perhaps most encouraging was the readiness of participants to consider the consequences of avoidance of difficult questions; how the patterns of avoidance hinder discussion when important issues like budget need to be addressed.

Participants in the congregation at First Lutheran are in many ways similar to the folks in the immediate neighborhood. Some are families, some are single, many are students. And we are blessed by much cultural diversity. Career interests are similar. Economic goals are similar. So I don’t consider it too much of a stretch of imagination to suppose that the thoughtful interest in Biblical Peacemaking I was surprised by at First Lutheran might imply that a similar interest exists in the larger community.

God is working among us and we’ll see the benefits when we listen to Him and to one another.

Keeping the Peace in Cambridge

By Kelly Steinhaus, UniteBoston Team Leader

Above, about fifty people gathered for a prayer vigil in honor of Kensley Davidson on Wednesday evening, who lost his life in a shooting on the corner of Windsor and Harvard Streets in Cambridge last Thursday night after the fireworks.

Amidst fears of retaliation, Bishop Greene called together pastors and leaders in Cambridge for this prayer vigil, sending a message to those who are considering revenge that “there is another way, a different path, and a better choice; one that will nurture healing and hope, instead of sowing more seeds of tension, strife, and destruction.” Pastor Ford also delivered a powerful message on the importance of coming together, keeping the peace, and stopping the violence in order to heal the land. It was a moving time of uniting together around the only One that can truly bring the peace that this city needs.

“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.“ Colossians 3:15

Syrian Bishop Finds Ecumenical Solidarity in Boston

Today, Dr. Vito Nicastro, the associate director of the archdiocese’s Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, shares about the rich ecumenical gathering initiated by a visit from His Grace Bishop Elias Toumeh, Antiochian Orthodox bishop of Pyrgou in Syria.

Originally published in the 4/4/14 edition of the the Boston Pilot. Reprinted with permission.


Above, Vito Nicastro, associate director of the archdiocese’s Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs; Rev. Dr. Rodney Petersen, executive director of the Boston Theological Institute; Bishop Elias Toumeh, Antiochian Orthodox Bishop of Pyrgou; and Rev. Luke Veronis, Director of the Missions Institute of Orthodox Christianity at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology are pictured at Costas Consultation of the Boston Theological Institute, March 28. Courtesy photo.

“Hello, Bishop? Would you mind picking up two prisoners, driving them alone behind enemy lines into a war zone, and completing a prisoner exchange for two kidnapped Christians?” This paraphrases part of the experience related by His Grace Bishop Elias Toumeh, Antiochian Orthodox bishop of Pyrgou in Syria, to an academic convocation March 28 in Brookline which was also an ecumenical gathering of Christians united in listening to his peoples’ plight.

Hostage exchange is not even the most heartbreaking part of his ministry as a Syrian bishop. When his phone rings, he does not know if it is another request to come and collect the body of one of his flock. “In the last three years, I learned what it means to be a bishop. It is about being ready to be sacrificed at any moment for the people.”

And his people were the centerpiece of the message, in my impression. The message Bishop Elias brought was Jesus, as witnessed in the life of the Christians of Syria. “We have no enemies. We carry no weapons.” His church instead has become a relief center trying to cope with needs ranging from traumatic stress among children to hygiene supplies. They have built a Peace Center for Children – children of many Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. “We teach them to care for each other.”

A glance at the crowd listening to Bishop Elias told of the bond between Christians. “If one part of the body suffers…” (I Cor. 12:26) The gathering was the Costas Consultation of the Boston Theological Institute, a consortium of 10 theological schools and seminaries of Greater Boston. This year’s host was Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. There was a large crowd, perhaps over 150, of Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants. There were professors and students from Andover Newton Theological School, Boston College, Boston University School of Theology, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. There were Evangelicals from Unite Boston and Emmanuel Gospel Center; there were mainline Protestants including the head of the Massachusetts Council of Churches; there were Catholics of several stripes including representatives of the lay ecclesial movement The Community of Sant’Egidio; and there were Orthodox of many Churches: Antiochian, Greek, and Romanian. Bishop Elias himself, like many Middle Eastern Christians, has a deep ecumenical background – and a doctorate from Rome.

This diverse group came together in Christian solidarity around the suffering of the Syrian churches. We came first of all to listen and learn. When we Americans hear about Syria on the news it can seem an enigma to us. Most of us think it is a Muslim nation; few know it is historically composite, with a strong Christian presence. Even fewer of us realize how deep the Christian presence runs. Paul was converted to Christ in Syria. Christians were first called Christians in Syria. St. Peter was bishop of Antioch in Syria for seven years before he went to Rome. This is our family in the Triune God. They are precious members, giving witness at great cost. We were there to support them. Once again, as in the Christian Unity Martyrs’ Prayer service of Jan. 25, one of the themes was “you are not forgotten.”

Two bishops have already been kidnapped in Syria and are still missing after almost a year. Priests, Religious, and people of many traditions have been abducted. For all these centuries, Christians have kept the faith, literally, in Syria. Except now, Syria has not kept the Christians. Bishop Toumeh described a Syria which held approximately 2 million Christians three years ago. Now he believes approximately one-third have emigrated, one-third are displaced within Syria, and one-third are left in their homes. He compares their situation to that of the Churches in Iraq. And Syria as a country, he says, is losing a generation. Children have put aside toys and have ordinance collections.

It is not a problem for one Church only, but for all Christians. Subsequent to Bishop Toumeh’s address, news came out that Kessab, Syria, the last Armenian town in the Mediterranean region to survive the 1915 genocide, has been the subject of attacks from Islamic rebels. The result of all of this adversity is the need and desire for deeper Christian unity. As the Holy Father has said, we are living in the age of “the ecumenism of blood.”

Bishop Toumeh said the first need is to stop the violence and begin a political process, then bring in humanitarian aid. After that, economic growth is the key to providing jobs to prevent emigration and thereby save the Christian presence in Syria. At that point, he said, Christians can reclaim the confidence of their historic leadership role in concert with the other parts of Syrian society in the land of their ancient heritage.


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