In June the Diocese of Massachusetts launched two new mission hubs to serve the North Shore and Boston's Metrowest area.
The new hubs join three existing mission hubs serving the Merrimack Valley, the South Coast and Plymouth, Cape Cod and the islands and are part of the Mission Hub Initiative funded through the diocese's Together Now campaign.
A mission hub is a collaboration of three or more Episcopal churches in a geographic region, committed to implementing mission outside the walls of their church buildings.
According to the Rev. Sam Rodman, Project Manager for Campaign Initiatives, churches working together in hubs are able to pool their resources and talents, allowing them to do far more than a single church could do alone. Successful hubs strengthen relationships between churches, between parishioners and between the churches and the community—all of which contributes to long-term sustainability.
The Metrowest Hub is an ecumenical collaboration that includes St. Andrew’s Church in Framingham, St. Luke’s Church in Hudson, Epiphany Church in Walpole, St. Paul’s Church in Hopkinton and Christ Church in Medway, in addition to a Lutheran church and a Presbyterian church. The Metrowest area has the second highest concentration of Brazilian immigrants in Massachusetts, and the hub is focused on providing English and Portuguese language classes for the these newcomer families.
The first phase of the hub’s project features the development of linguistic and cultural programs to facilitate better communication within and beyond Brazilian families. The hub will provide English as a Second Language classes for adults in Framingham and Marlborough and children’s Portuguese language and cultural instruction in Marlborough. The Marlborough program is modeled after an existing children’s program in Framingham called the Nucleo Educacionista. Portuguese education helps children stay connected to their heritage and to the Brazilian community.
In time, the hub plans to expand its focus to include structural and economic issues that its Brazilian partners have identified as important priorities. It also plans to add a house of Life Together interns in 2016. The interns will be deployed in social service site placements engaging in the work of the hub.
The North Shore Hub currently consists of St. Stephen’s Church in Lynn, Grace Church in Salem, St. Peter’s Church in Beverly and St. John’s Church in Gloucester. The hub's leadership hopes to eventually bring in all of the parishes of the deanery. The hub will build on the work of four existing ministries: Kids in Community in Lynn; Grace, Salem’s choir school and partnership with the Bowditch School; the feeding ministry at St. Peter’s, Beverly; and Grace Center, a ministry of hospitality and advocacy for low-income families, based at St. John’s, Gloucester.
The hub will spend its first year focusing on at-risk youth, and in the future plans to widen its ministry to provide services and advocacy for the homeless and hungry. In 2015 it hopes to open a Life Together house for the North Shore. Interns will engage in community organizing and help the hub focus on relationship building as its mission expands.
According to Rodman, both hubs will be spending the summer working with one another and with consultants on programming, staffing and other groundwork for these new collaborations. The hubs will be presented to the diocesan community at Diocesan Convention on Saturday, Nov. 8.
Congregations interested in beginning the mission hub discernment and application process can visit the Mission Hubs page for documents and more information.
--Ellen Stuart