UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Solving The World’s Greatest Problems

Join us on Friday, May 8 for an 8:30-12:30 dive into Solving the World’s Greatest Problems.  We’re looking to gather 40-50 Christian leaders from across the Boston area to watch a 2 ½ hour videocast of a recent well-regarded event on this topic that included several known Christian leaders (for example, Tim Tebow).   We’ll then dive into table discussions about what we can do together to actually solve some of the biggest problems that New England faces.  Ideally we’ll come out of this with a rough framework for an action plan with some next steps.  We’ll be meeting at Grace Chapel in Lexington.  Cost is $39, lunch is included.

For more info and to register, click here

Showing Up Well: A Training for Volunteers on Genuine Engagement

Every volunteer engagement that involves another person is a relationship. And like any relationship, what we bring into it shapes what’s possible.

Often volunteers’ biggest challenges aren’t logistical, they’re invisible. The unspoken expectations we attach to our help, the moments when our instinct to fix things gets ahead of what someone is asking for, how our own cultural lens can shape — and sometimes distort — how we show up.

UniteBoston is partnering with Sarah Blumenshine, Director of Intercultural Ministries at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, to offer a zoom training where we can all take an honest, non-judgmental look at the mindsets that can quietly undermine the very relationships we’re hoping to build. We’re especially encouraging congregations and volunteers who have been part of our spring “Love Thy Neighbor” initiatives to join this opportunity!

Expect honest conversation, relatable scenarios, and practical tools to help you engage with love and care.

Sign up here to receive the zoom link and help us spread the word!

Migrant Care & Solidarity Follow-Up Call

Join us for a follow-up call as we continue this network of collaboration and support for our immigrant neighbors. This will be on Wednesday November 19 from 12pm to 1pm on zoom.

We will share updates about the Boston Immigrant Resource Dashboard, hear the steps you have taken to support our immigrant neighbors and discuss how we can best support one another doing this work. Be sure to check out the Migrant Care & Solidarity Resources & Collaborative Opportunities document.

To RSVP, please email kelly@uniteboston.com and she can add you to the Google Calendar invite.  Here is the zoom link.

Thank you for joining with us as we seek to foster a “city of belonging” and show God’s love by creating a more connected and efficient support network for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Boston!

September Green Book Tour

September 27th, 2025 | 9:30AM to 1PM | Cost: $60

Tour will begin at the Union United Methodist Church

located at 485 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA 02118.

This 2-hour walking tour will include lunch at Slade’s Bar and Grill which has been bringing the greater Boston communities under one roof since 1935. Slade’s was listed in the Green Book between 1935-1939 and it is known for its soul food and hip urban vibe. Reproductions of the Green Book for selected years will be available for sale at the conclusion of the event.

Click here to register today!

On the Wonder of the Incarnation

Today, we are featuring a blog post written by UniteBoston’s Executive Director Rev. Kelly Fassett. Having written this shortly after she birthed her second daughter, Kelly shares a moving reflection on the season of Advent and the meaning of the incarnation.

December 18, 2021

‘Hail, space for the uncontained God’

From the Agathistos Hymn,
Greece, VIc

Many of you know that my family welcomed a beautiful little girl into our family and into the world on November 14. Today I wanted to share how raising a baby during Advent season has inspired new wonder and new questions. 

I now wonder:

– How long was Mary’s labor? How painful were her contractions?

– Who was there to catch baby Jesus, as he entered the world?

– When leaving the stable, did she ride away on a donkey? (I know how tender your lower region is after delivering a baby!)

When I set baby Elyse on my chest, and consider the notion of God enfleshed… all that God is – all the love, mercy, power, and compassion… wrapped up into a tiny little human that is no bigger than two of your hands… What was it like to be Mary, to hold this Jesus in her arms and consider everything that the angel had said to her – that this little baby will be called the Son of the Most High; that He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; that His kingdom will never end (Lk 1:32)…

As I consider all of this, the wonder of the incarnation comes alive for me. Fully divine AND fully human. All-powerful and all-knowing in divinity… and yet so tiny, seemingly vulnerable, and defenseless.

God in human flesh. God with us. 

Those five little fingers wrapping around mine… those deep blue eyes staring into mine… infinity and eternity within skin. The ineffable reality of God enfleshed.

In some ways it seems impossible… yet this is the stuff of the kingdom. 

I look at my two-year-old Abigail, and wonder – What was Jesus like as a toddler? I know that Jesus was sinless.. A toddler who really did listen to his mother and father every time, obeying and never talking back? The wonder of that! 

And when I hold my two little ones, the two girls that I carried for nine months in my womb and then birthed, I am filled with such love… coupled with the fierce desire to protect these little ones from all pain and difficulty that life would bring their way. Mary must have had similar feelings as she watched Jesus grow up…  Yet how could she bear to watch those final hours, where her beloved son was brutally beaten, then painfully walked up the steep hill at Golgotha with the cross on his back, then the agony as nails pierced his bloody hands and He breathed his final breath.

Was this the end? No… Jesus took the weight of sin on his shoulders, imputing it on our behalf for the sake of redeeming the world. The veil between God and humanity was forever torn. Glory. 

And through these acts of incarnation and redemption, God displayed that He chooses to not exist aloof in the clouds but to come near to us, walking with us, and working through the limitations of our humanity, of our humble bodily vessels. God with us.

Mary questioned, ‘How can this be?’… yet obeyed. And in that moment she must have realized it all was true. May I be filled with such courage to believe the things of the kingdom. 

Emmanuel. God with us. Hallelujah!

May we never forget the mystery, and the wonder, of the Incarnation.

“Let the Word, I pray, be to me, not as a word spoken only to pass away, but conceived and clothed in flesh, not in air, that he may remain with us. Let him be, not only to be heard with the ears, but to be seen with the eyes, touched with the hands, and borne on the shoulders. Let the Word be to me, not as a word written and silent, but incarnate and living.“ – Bernard of Clairvaux


Give to Further Christian Unity

DONATE!