shalom – Page 3 – UniteBoston

Jun 17 2023

All Heaven Broke Loose

All Heaven Broke Loose – A new Passion play

Still Small Theatre presents All Heaven Broke Loose, a new full-length drama about Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Come hear from a multitude of voices – from Peter to Pilate, from Joanna to Joseph of Arimathea – as the threads of history, Scripture, and their own lives are woven together in ways they never expected.

Join us afterwards for a discussion with cast, crew, and creators! See stillsmalltheatre.com for more details.

Tickets are available online at www.stillsmalltheatre.com; $15 or by donation.

June 30, July 1, July 7-8

7pm

East Baptist Church 300 Western Ave., Lynn MA

stillsmalltheatre.com

Apr 20 2022

In the Wake of Loss, Hope

The beauty of the resurrection is that death is not the end of the story – but leads to ultimate life. Similarly, we often see how there are signs of God’s redemptive life coming out of painful circumstances and broken realities in our world. In this season of Eastertide, we want to feature The Boston Project Ministries, which “engages and equips neighbors, volunteers, and churches to build strong communities characterized by God’s shalom.” Below, Paul Malkemes shares how they worked with residents of the community to create a mural symbolizing hope after the heartbreaking loss of a young man in the neighborhood.

Youth Artists from the Boston Project Ministries in front of the “Hope” Mural

“We have learned that healing as a community is often rooted in relationships.”
– Paul Malkemes

Our community has experienced some real heartache this year. Maybe you have to?

Early in 2021, we lost a young man to violence. He was deeply loved by his family, school, and community. He was an artist, a comic and video game enthusiast, a promising student, and a beloved son. An outdoor memorial and healing service brought together over 100 young people to grieve. Unexpected loss can sometimes be the hardest to recover from.

Then in the spring, retaliatory violence shook our community again. Trauma reawakened. Parents kept their children inside; neighbors wanted to move. What was happening?

Neighbors began to ask: How do we heal as a community? How do we find hope?

Our sense of safety had been shattered. The COVID-19 pandemic layered health concerns, loneliness, economic hardship, and learning loss on top of this tragedy. We have learned that healing as a community is often rooted in relationships. “Knowing and being able to talk to my neighbors helps me get through,” shares one resident.

So we began planning monthly events – a book fair, a vaccination clinic, building raised bed gardens, and having cookouts. But we wondered – could we have a more permanent reminder of our healing-hope journey? One youth expressed it this way, “Hope is like looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.” The idea for a mural was born.

The vision was cast for a mural that would both memorialize the loss of our beloved young person, and speak to the eternal message of hope found in Jesus – even as we face challenges in our individual lives and within our collective community.

Summer arrived and the time to create began. The process of building the mural was a sacred act of hope. “It was a beautiful experience, and I felt really honored to be part of this healing and catharsis for the community, and my friend,” expressed one youth. Another teen shared, “For me, it was an impact to see a memory coming to life. Watching adults, kids, and teens grieving together. At the same time, it gave people life. It was very beautiful – to some people, it was remembering our friend, for others, it was seeing hope for our community.”

Muralist Alex Cook reflects “It is powerful to have a human figure (in the mural) enveloped in hope. It is about our identity, our inner experience, and our struggles. It is intimate. It makes you think about your own relationship to hope. The butterflies represent our letting go and the healing process. You don’t keep a butterfly, but you let it rise.”

As we were completing the mural, a neighbor walked up and said to us, “that person in the mural, it’s Jesus right? It has to be Jesus.” We believe Jesus is the one who restores and embodies HOPE. In the words of Pastor Valerie Copeland, “Art has a way of pointing our hearts toward God.”

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope, is in you alone.
Psalm 33:20-22

Apr 27 2021

CULTIVATING [ spaces ]

FOUR NIGHTS | COMPLETELY FREE | FOR PARENTS OF TEENS

Supporting parents navigating the unchartered waters of raising teenagers in 2021 and beyond. Webinar begins at 7 PM each evening.

CULTIVATING SPACE FOR…

May 17 – INQUIRY: Think about the future of education
May 18 – HOPE: Help your kids face the future with confidence
May 19 – HEALING: Consider recovery & resilience after trauma
May 20 – CULTURE: Navigate a changing & divided world

To sign up or for more information, click here.

Jun 19 2020

Photo Gallery & Stories from Boston Pray

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.”
Jeremiah 9:23-24

In early June of 2020, as the country grappled with multiple murders of unarmed people of color, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and systematic oppression of those peoples, former Patriots player Benjamin Watson reached out to local clergy proposing a united prayer gathering for racial justice. Nine days later, over 1,000 people spanning race, denomination, and age gathered to worship the God of justice and call forth the need for reform in our city.

In a city where Christians are known what we are against rather than what we are for, we were also excited to see local news and press cover this story. There was a huge spread in the Boston Herald, and it was also covered in the Boston Globe and MassLive, as well as through Channel 5 News, Channel 4 News, and Channel 7 News.

This event was hosted by a variety of local organizations, including UniteBoston, Boston Collaborative, the Black Ministerial Alliance, SEND Boston, Greater Things for Greater Boston, and other local churches.

Below are some of our favorite photos from the gathering – more are available on our Facebook album here.

Also, click on the button below to check out UniteBoston’s Racial Justice Page and Wall.

UB’s Racial Justice Page & Wall

Highlights Video from this event

“I was moved to tears at this event, and deeply deeply encouraged and inspired. Having grown up in the Greater Boston area, I would’ve never imagined this possible — Christians across different denominations, race, and backgrounds coming together to praise God, seek His shalom for this city, and invite more of us to the table in a biblically-grounded way. I want to see more of this in the city!!!!”
Seongkyul Park

“I felt this was a very powerful way to share our faith in a public way as well as unite against racism.”
Kaitlyn McCarthy, New Hope Chapel Norwell

“It was great to be around my friends and a bunch of other believers worshiping God and praying for the city especially since we’ve be in quarantine for so long. This event was a good distraction from all the stress and anxiety of the world.”
Mykaliah A Best, Holy Tabernacle Church

“Worshipping together with people all over the city reminds me of glimpses what it will be like to worship together in heaven one day — all praise and glory be to Him!”
Rachel Murphy, Executive Assistant, Charles River Church

“I have definitely missed gathering together with other Christians for a time of worship and prayer. This blessed my soul as well as ignited me to take action and bring awareness to social justice issues.”
Alicia Wells

“It was wonderful to have a Gospel-led outlet for all of the feelings and thoughts that have come up during this time. I left feeling Spiritually-fed and inspired to continue seeking change, racial justice, and shalom flourishing for our entire community.”
Ashleigh Pelto, Life Community Church

“I felt the Holy Spirit moving and it was incredible! Now we need to continue the momentum to bring change!”
Amanda Gonnella, All Saints Anglican

“I loved hearing the Black church profess Christ in the midst of so much persecution and recent murders of black people by cops.”
Natasha Cassamajor, Church of the Cross

“It gave me so much hope! If the church is actively dismantling racism we are moving in God’s direction and cannot fail.”
Anonymous

Event Coordinators. Photo credit: Joel Putnam

Sep 01 2017

“The Kiss of Peace” – UniteBoston’s 2017 Summer Worship Gathering

This week’s guest blogger is Rev. William David Nunez, a local Diocesan priest at Diocese of Christ the King and Community Building Coordinator at IBA Boston. Rev. Nunez attended our recent worship night on Boston Common, and reflects on his experience below.

You can follow Rev. Nunez’ blog at http://ancientfuturecoalition.blogspot.com

On August 19, I saw the power that abides in the midst of love and unity as I stood next to other ministers leading a march of over 40,000 people in Boston against hate and racism. Love was overwhelming and tangible everywhere you stood. People along the sidewalks would stop and give us water, ask for prayer, give hugs, wave their hands, send love gestures from their apartment windows.

I must admit, what really shocked me in this march was the reality of hate and racism. To stare in the eyes of hate brings such fear to the soul: fear of what’s to come, fear for our kids and the next generation that will soon be leading us into the future. As we arrived at the park where the free speech rally had just took place, I saw a group of men staring at me with a lot of hate. One of them spit on my shoe while the others mumbled words I couldn’t clearly hear but their face were filled with anger as they looked at me. Even vested in my black cassock and wearing my cross did not prevent the eyes of hate to look at the color of my skin, spitting on my shoes, mumbling words of hate. All I kept asking God as I walked was, is this what my kids are going to have to go through?

I left that march with such a heavy awakening, with my heart whispering every two seconds, “we must do more”. It just isn’t enough to meet on Sundays for a worship experience or have small fellowships in our homes once a week, and it isn’t enough to pretend hate and racism doesn’t exist because we haven’t experienced it personally.

So what do we do next?

That is the question that haunted my heart after that march. I saw this event someone shared on FaceBook titled“Peace for the City” by UniteBoston and decided to support because prayer was definitely something needed after that march.

Needless to say, this event was God’s answer to the question that haunted me. As I stood in the midst of the crowd in the Boston Common, enjoying God’s presence while a band composed of people from different denominations worshipping together in unity and love, I couldn’t help but look around. Everywhere I placed my eyes all I saw was people crying, praising, praying for one another, some standing, others kneeling, but everyone enjoying God’s presence in that park. A wonderful breeze brushed through us and at that very moment I felt peace…

This experience reminded me an ancient traditional Christian greeting, “The Kiss of Peace”. The New Testament refers to it as the holy kiss (en philemati hagio) and the kiss of love (en philemati agapes). It is beyond an act of greeting: St Augustine in one if his sermons calls it “the sign of peace” but also calls it “a powerful sacrament” because the kiss of peace is the visible sign of unity and love of Christ on earth. No matter if you’re rich or poor, a kiss is a universal act of love.

This expression of the Holy Kiss is still a part of worship today in many traditional churches and even in some Protestant churches. It was even believed that saints would share the holy kiss with one another before their martyrdom.

Why is all of this the answer to my question of what to do next? Martin Luther King once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The early church understood this: that even though our hearts may know we are called to unity and love, this corresponds with an external act will seal our belief.

Unite Boston made the love of God visible in Boston on August 26^th and God’s peace paid us a visit because It is only when we come together to love one another, that God’s peace will show up. Our unity that night was heaven kissing earth and God saying “Peace be with you” and us responding to one another “and also with you.” God kissing us while we responded by kissing creation. This is what a sacrament is all about, making heaven visible to humanity. There are so many things we can do but if we all just start by loving one another, breaking down walls of denominational separation and coming together in unity, God’s shalom (peace) will always be amongst us, in our communities, and in our city. Keep up the good work UniteBoston!

Prayer for the City of Boston

Look upon us, O Lord,
and let all the darkness of our souls
vanish before the beams of thy brightness.
Fill us with holy love,
and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom.
All our desire is known unto thee,
therefore perfect what thou hast begun,
and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.
We seek thy face,
turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory.
Then shall our longing be satisfied,
and our peace shall be perfect.

(Augustine, 354 – 430)

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