City Engagement
Embodying the presence of Jesus in the city
City Engagement seeks to provide ways for Park Street Church to reach the City of Boston with the good news of Christ through word, deed and virtuous lives.
Jesus has given us both a model and a call to love our neighbor, especially the hungry, the lonely, the poor. Each of us has the opportunity and privilege to be a neighbor in and around our homes and our places of study or work. City Engagement supports initiatives with focused ways of doing that together:
- HOME Ministry: a weekly Thursday dinner and Saturday breakfast for our unhoused neighbors and others in need.
- Sanctus Sports Fellowship: using soccer and other sports to build friendships with refugees and internationals.
- Haitian ESL: Saturday morning English language classes for our Haitian Creole and French-speaking neighbors, many of whom are in shelters.
- Afghan Friendship: continuing friendships and occasional gatherings with our Afghan neighbors.
HOME Ministry: Food and hospitality ministry every Thursday evening & Saturday morning.
We welcome 75 to 130 unhoused neighbors and other neighbors in need every Thursday evening for dinner and Saturday morning for breakfast. While hosting, we provide our guests with food, drink, clothing, toiletries, resource guides, friendship and spiritual care (including personal prayer, Bible study on Saturdays, and sermonettes on Thursdays).
Our guests are typically unhoused, in vulnerable or challenging housing situations, or seeking community and fellowship.
Times:
- Thursday dinner (Guests: 5:45-7:15pm, cooking prep and room set-up from ~3:00, clean up & debrief until ~7:45pm)
- Saturday breakfast (Guests: 8:30-11am, cooking prep from 7:30am, clean up and debrief until 11:30am)
- Sitting and chatting with guests.
- Food prep and serving on Thu & Sat.
- Ordering, organizing and donation management other times of the week.
- Donating clothing!
SANCTUS: Weekly Soccer (Time & Location Varies)
Sanctus Sports Fellowship seeks to show God’s love to asylum seekers, displaced people, and international students during their time in the Boston area. In pursuit of this, we host weekly pick-up soccer matches, launch teams into local adult leagues, and invite our players to other fellowship events like dinners and holiday celebrations.
Currently, we play soccer at various times and fields around the city and play futsal in the church gym during the winter.
Opportunities: Come join and play! We’re particularly looking for new leaders, as we seek to add groups for varying skill levels and expand into new sports.
HAITIAN ESL: Saturday mornings
Boston is host to many Haitians seeking refuge in our city as their country, especially Port au Prince, continues to suffer civil disintegration and violence.
We’ve had the privilege to host them at our Saturday Home ministry breakfasts for the past couple of years. In an effort to meet needs unique to these newly arriving Haitian guests, we launched an ESL program that now runs parallel to Home on Saturday mornings. The focus is currently on Level 1 and 2 English classes and conversational practice, though we have also been able to provide some support with housing and employment searches, areas of support that we are actively seeking to strenghthen.
Opportunities: Be a conversation partner – no experience or ESL training necessary. ESL-trained people very welcome! Haitian-Creole or French speakers would be a real bonus!
Afghan Friendship
Along with Christians from several area churches, we welcomed several Afghan families to Boston at the end of 2021 following the collapse of Kabul and the immediate threat to their welfare if they stayed. Through regular gatherings we’ve built friendships with several more families. The journey of adjustment continues to be challenging and often lonely for them, so the opportunity and invitation to be a friend and neighbor remains. The main organized activity is occasional gatherings in the Fellowship Hall or in people’s homes.
Opportunities: Just be a neighbor, especially if you’re local to our families in Medford, Melrose, JP and Roslindale. We highly recommend doing this as a group or community.