UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Awakening Boston: The Vision and Heart of Pray.Boston

At UniteBoston, we love seeing churches pray and serve together, which is why we are grateful to feature Pray.Boston, a new citywide movement of prayer to see the city of Boston awakened to life with Jesus.

In this week’s blog, Yasmin Lountchenko (Pray Ministry Lead at Grace City Church) shares her vision for building “altars of prayer” where believers from all backgrounds intercede for our city’s flourishing. Click below to read how a humble prayer room has grown into a collaborative space for people to contend for God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

By Yasmin Lountchenko

I used to walk through downtown Boston, and I would see the city seal but not think anything of it. Last summer, I was on a prayer walk in the Boston Common, and felt the need to look up the significance of the seal. Inscribed on the seal is the motto of our city, which is “SICUT PATRIBUS. SIT DEUS NOBIS”. 

This translates to “God be with us as he was with our fathers.” Our city motto comes from King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicates the temple as a place to host God’s presence. This has largely shaped how we pray at  Pray.Boston — like Solomon, we are praying that God’s presence would be known here in a tangible way. 

My name is Yasmin Loutchenko, and I am serving as the Prayer Ministry Lead of Grace City Church and Pray.Boston. I moved to Boston for undergrad in 2020, and quickly got involved at Grace City Church. It was at Grace City that I was discipled in prayer and grew in love for the city of Boston. Throughout my time at Boston University, I felt God invite me to pray for awakening in Boston, which eventually led to Pray.Boston being formed out of Grace City. 

Pray.Boston is a movement of prayer to see the city of Boston awakened to life with Jesus. We are calling our city to seek God, love him wholeheartedly, and contend for a move of His Spirit in our time. We exist as a citywide ministry for Boston, aiming to be a resource and a gift to the church in Boston. 

We see prayer as the primary means through which God advances his kingdom on Earth. All throughout Scripture and awakening history, we see God move when his people gather to pray. The Northeast has witnessed significant moves of God, and our own city has a rich spiritual history. Boston was founded to be a “city on a hill,” a vision articulated by John Winthrop, later reinforced by Harvard as a center for training ministers, and dramatically renewed during the First Great Awakening. We have heard of all that God has done in our region, and we believe that God is raising up a praying community of people who are calling on him to do it again in our time and in our city.

In 2019, the Prayer Room started at Grace City Church – it was small and humble, but characterized by a deep dependence on the Spirit and confidence that the Lord responds to those who seek him. Even before Grace City officially launched, prayer was central to the leadership of the church, and the prayer room was born out of the belief that in order for us to faithfully steward our calling as a church, it needed to first come out of a place of total dependence on God. We needed God to do in his power, what we couldn’t in our own strength, so we met consistently every week, asking God to move in Boston and across New England. 

As we continued to meet for prayer, God placed Pray.Boston on our hearts. We wanted to remain faithful with what God had entrusted us with, while seeking God’s heart for Pray.Boston. Over time, the Prayer Room grew and we started to welcome people from different churches and backgrounds. It was a space for people to encounter the presence of God and contend for God’spurposes in our city and world. 

In August 2025, we sensed a clear release from the Lord to formally establish Pray.Boston—formalizing what had already been unfolding. With this step, our vision expanded: not only to cultivate a culture of prayer within Grace City, but across Boston. Since then, we have increased capacity in the Prayer Room, launched Prayer Labs to equip churches to build cultures of prayer in their own contexts, and begun forming meaningful relationships with pastors, leaders, and congregations throughout Boston.

We know that Jesus’s heart is not for one individual congregation, but for his entire body. And while we may have different expressions of our faith, we believe that communion with Christ and one another unites us and fulfills Christ’s desire for his bride. This is why we also started to host Citywide Prayer. Citywide Prayer is hosted bimonthly on Wednesday morning as a space for ministry leaders across the city of Boston to gather in united prayer as we seek God to move in and beyond our city. 

Through Pray.Boston, we are witnessing people catch a vision of the inbreaking kingdom through prayer. One of our involved team members went from not really understanding prayer, to now regularly serving in the Pray.Boston Prayer Room, and now even starting a prayer meeting at his workplace. The Prayer Room is not built around any one personality, church, or method, but around the person and ministry of Jesus. Jesus instructs us to pray for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven, and the kingdom picture we see in Scripture is the gathering of a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language before the Lamb who is enthroned at the center (Rev. 7:9). 

Our desire is to see each heart, home, and church collectively agree that the Lord is welcome and wanted in our city, knowing that God’s awakening work is greater than any one church. God is raising up a praying community in our city that serves as a promise to our city that there is a new and better way that is centered on Christ. 

Rev. Devlin Scott & Rev. Kelly Fassett (UniteBoston) along with Pastor Brian Owen & Yasmin Lountchenko (Pray.Boston)

Join in! All are invited to join this praying community and commit to seeking revival and awakening in our city. The Prayer Room is open every Wednesday at 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM at 874 Beacon St., with an Evening Prayer Room hosted on the last Thursday of each month at 6:00 PM. Pastors and ministry leaders are also encouraged to attend Citywide Prayer on May 6 from 9:30-10:45am at 874 Beacon St. For additional events and resources, visit pray.boston.

Route One Ministry – Boston Prayer Walk

Route One Ministry needs you!

Route One believes every woman has inherent value, and exploitation of any type is wrong, oppressive, and needs to be abolished. We believe that each woman is the expert on her journey; our role is to listen and navigate the road together. Each week our outreach teams in Springfield and Worcester reach 40 exploited women by entering strip clubs and building relationships with the women who work there.  And we are looking to start a team right here in Boston!

We will be launching our Boston Prayer Walk Team in March!

What is a Prayer Walk, you ask? Well, we here at Route One believe that prayer is powerful!  Before we step foot into a club, we cover the club, the dancers, and ourselves in prayer for months as we prepare for entry and spiritual battle.  You can play a vital part in this battle!

We need volunteers to come beside us the first three Mondays of every month as we take this step in faith.  Women and men can both partake in the Prayer Walk; but please keep in mind, only women can choose to continue once we are inside the club(s).  Starting March 3rd, we will meet in the lobby of 131 Dartmouth Street in Boston.  We will open the night with prayer and a short devotional before taking the train two stops over to Chinatown.  From there, we will pray in a group before we walk past the clubs and after we walk past – and silently to ourselves as we walk past.

I would love to touch base with anyone who has any questions via phone, Zoom, or even over coffee!  If you are a pastor or leader within your church, we are also willing to come and speak briefly to your congregation during or after church!

Debbie Caraballo – Director of Outreach (debbie@lovedbyrouteone.org)

UniteBoston’s Top Twelve Photos of 2024

From launching the United Gospel Experience Tour and convening the Boston Flourish conference, to hosting two cohorts with emerging leaders, and hiring our first full time staff person, this was an incredible year for UniteBoston! Check out our year in review for 2024 – Glory to God!

#12: UniteBoston Fundraising Party at PKL – In January, the UniteBoston community raised $12,010 to support the mission of UniteBoston and also had some fun playing shuffleball and cornhole!

#11: Boston Unity Walk – 80 faith leaders, community members, the Boston Police Department, and city officials came together for a prayer walk in Dorchester hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The goal was to foster meaningful relationships between faith communities, law enforcement, and city leadership and UniteBoston served as a key convener for the gathering.

#10: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – During this week, UB hosted seven opportunities to pray for the unity of all Christians and put “love thy neighbor” into practice in a variety of ways. The above photo is from a prayer gathering at the Paulist Center with clergy representing Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, and Episcopal traditions where we enjoyed beautiful music, heard the call to care for creation by Dean Amy McCreath, and prayed for the needs of one another.

#9: UniteBoston Board and Staff Retreat – In August, the UB Board of Directors and staff met for our annual retreat! We gained insights into the unique role that UB is playing in the city and talked through some of our initiatives for the coming program year.

#8: UB’s Sankofa Cohort – This cohort is experiencing history firsthand by seeing the sights in Boston pointing towards the legacy of slavery, the black freedom movement, and where racial healing and repair is taking place with a special focus on Christian churches and congregations. We recognize that we must understand and confess the mistakes of our past – of the sin of racism and its impacts – in order to pave the way forward towards racial healing and shalom. Here we are visiting the Embrace Memorial, remembering the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, and many other leaders who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement in Boston.

#7 – Collaborative Migrant Care Efforts – This year, UniteBoston catalyzed congregations and leaders to care for and accompany our new immigrant and refugee neighbors through launching a “Sanctuary for Strangers” campaign with Migrant Sunday resources in four languages. We also hosted a breakout session at Boston Flourish where 32 people committed to taking a variety of tangible action steps to support and accompany our new immigrant and refugee neighbors. UB Board Member and local pastor Melinda Priest (on right) is now leading a team to create a Boston Immigrant Dashboard to better connect the needs of our new neighbors and service providers.

#6: Legacy of Slavery at Harvard University Tour. In November, 35 church leaders and community members engaged in a walking tour on the Landscape of Slavery at Harvard University. While Boston is known for its world-class colleges and universities, not many are aware how these institutions have deep historical ties to the exploitation of enslaved people. This photo shows the burial ground that holds the oldest known gravestone of a Black person in the Americas, serving as a tangible reminder that slavery was not just an abstract concept at Harvard—it was a reality woven into daily life. Louis Agassiz also founded the theory of polygenesis at Harvard, seeking to prove genetically that Black people were inferior to White people. Christianity was grievously often used to justify the enslavement and exploitation of African people, many whose legacies are still unknown.

#5: UniteBoston Island Retreat – In July, we hosted our third annual “Circle of Restoration” Island Retreat for BIPOC leaders to get away for self-care and connection in community. Individuals enjoyed a boat ride out to the island, beach games, music, massages, and a catered lunch.

#5: Christian Unity Cohorts: Above – our original Christian unity cohort who is “building bridges and breaking walls” (pictured with hammers) has transitioned to a curriculum development cohort that we launched in May. This new cohort of leaders is meeting monthly to learn about nurturing “Christian unity” in their own contexts by being ambassadors of reconciliation and repair (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). We are building the components of our curriculum of the knowledge, skills, habits, motivation/attitude, and environment for walking in the way of Jesus towards Christian unity. We look forward to piloting this curriculum in 2025!

#4: Hiring Our First Full-Time Employee – This year, UniteBoston was able to hire our first full time employee, Rev. Devlin Scott, who is doing an incredible job as UniteBoston’s managing director. He is leading UniteBoston’s communications, social media, strategic planning, and various programs, and has really taken UniteBoston’s mission and ministry to a new level!

#3: Launch of the United Gospel Experience Tour – Dozens of college students from six campuses across the region have united this year for a United Gospel Experience Tour, beginning with Morning Star Baptist Church and Providence College. There is something about being led in worship by 70+ young adults from diverse backgrounds, all part of a mass gospel choir that has strengthened each individual campus as well. Save the date for the next concert at March 1 at UMass Lowell or April 12 in Wenham!

#2: Boston Flourish. In November, UniteBoston worked with other organizations to convene a conference where 266 leaders gathered across sectors to collaborate around essential issues facing our city: housing justice, migrant care and solidarity, youth and family trauma, and innovative church building use. By uniting our efforts and sharing ideas, we’re creating pathways for real change, so all who call Boston home can truly flourish ????

#1: Church & Civic Engagement gathering – UniteBoston and ten other organizations convened 75 diverse Christian leaders to share their hopes and concerns as Christian leaders in this election year. While conversations on politics can often lead to an entrenchment of positions, the structured dialogue enabled many to grow in understanding in the stories and values behind our differing perspectives, allowing God to spiritually form us through actively practicing the fruit of the Spirit. We celebrate the relationships among pastoral leaders that were inspired or birthed, as we seek to be a public witness to our churches and our city that the way of Jesus is to love all our neighbors through intentional, curious, respectful conversation. This gathering was even featured on Religion News Service! ????

It’s been a great year! Thanks for joining with us – your prayers, participation, and finances have made this ministry happen! We look forward to seeing what God has in store for us in 2025!

Christians Respond to Neighborhood-Based Trauma and Pain

As we see the wounds in others, we gently encounter our own.  And in growing in our relationship with each other, we grow in Christ. We offer no quick fixes or guarantees but by admitting our brokenness and lovingly bearing the pain of others, somehow, we all become more open to God’s grace.”

The Cory Johnson Program for Post-Traumatic Healing, led by Rev. Liz Walker with her team at Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Roxbury, MA, has been providing community trauma healing services for four years. Each week people are invited to the program that  addresses the mind, body, and spiritual impacts of trauma. Below is Rev. Liz Walker’s pastors’ statement about God’s healing work that is taking place through this ministry. Through this program, eight participants have now become members of the congregation, which she describes is “a testament to God’s healing draw.”

To learn more, you can contact Colleen Sharka at colleensharka@rpcsic.org or attend their “Abiding in the Community” national-level conference on Saturday 11/3!

 

I have often wondered why there are so many churches along Roxbury’s busy Warren Street corridor between Dudley Square and Grove Hall and still so many lost souls on the streets; the homeless, drug and alcohol addicted and the mentally ill.  This is the reality not only in our neighborhood but in many others overrun by poverty, violence and hopelessness. The problem is not that urban churches neglect our neighbors. We all commit to revivals, prayer walks, and door to door evangelism. The problem is a growing disconnect between the sermon and the streets.  We are big on sin but too often we ignore the symptoms of profound pain.

The Cory Johnson Program for Post Traumatic Healing (CJP) is Roxbury Presbyterian Church’s way to bring light and air to these collective wounds.   Trauma is a modern term for the deep suffering that has always been part of the human experience in a fallen world.  It is considered an epidemic in urban American, rivaling far-away war zones. While psychologists and sociologists have tried many strategies in caring for the mentally, emotionally and spiritually wounded, we believe Christ’s redemptive words offer the true healing foundation, “Abide in me and I in you”.

By abiding or remaining with our wounded neighbors week after week in CJP trauma events, we, like Jesus, welcome them as they are.  The program invites all, without entry requirements or judgment, to enter a circle of love made up of our trauma companions (trained church members), many of whom are struggling with their own wounds. After we break bread, we “open the floor” encouraging our guests to share their stories of violence, loss and healing…stories that are too often left festering and unspoken.  Sometimes our guests speak and sometimes they sit quietly. Our most important role is simply to be with them in their darkness, as God is with us. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death….thou art with me.”

We never deny or try to fix someone’s suffering in CJP gatherings.  We are there to “witness” through intentional listening. Our companions provide Kleenex and compassion. Our musicians, the balm of song.  Our licensed onsite clinicians provide counseling when requested (the requests are growing) but above all our presence assures the suffering they are not alone. There is no preaching, no pat answer, no three-step redemption plan.  We allow God’s Spirit to move. And people come, on average about 40 each week. Many join us based on word of mouth. Strangers walk in off the streets, others from far away. People return week after week. The community grows. As we see the wounds in others, we gently encounter our own.  And in growing in our relationship with each other, we grow in Christ. We offer no quick fixes or guarantees but by admitting our brokenness and lovingly bearing the pain of others, somehow, we all become more open to God’s grace.

Just this year, a dozen program participants have started attending services at RPC and eight have actually joined, a testament to God’s healing draw. We are now in the process of replicating in seven faith communities around Boston and, amazingly enough, in Gary, Indiana.  Our doors are open every Thursday evening at 6. We invite you to join us.

In Christ,

Reverend Liz Walker

The CJP leadership team

Scenes from Holy Week in Boston & Around the World

“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you;

Because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.”

Above, a powerful moment of prayer during yesterday’s “Way of the Cross” prayer walk with the South Boston-Seaport Catholic Collaborative.

Check out these beautiful images of Christians around the world celebrating Holy Week (Photo Credit: The Atlantic)

Also, don’t miss this article in the Boston Globe written about a “Hunger for Justice” retreat w/ high schoolers prayerfully reflecting on the life of Jesus.

 

 



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