Union Matters!

Are worship and the arts viable methods for building community? How can music and drama support the efforts of community engagement? You’re about to learn the story of a small Massachusetts congregation that used community organizing, theater programs, and relationship building to revitalize a diminished ministry and enliven an urban neighborhood. Fourth Presbyterian Church of Boston was near closing when it embraced a commitment to serve its surrounding neighborhood with community organizing and a variety of ministries, including a community music and art program. One piece of that program grew into a popular children’s musical theater program for the neighborhood, which then fed the congregation’s growing use of music, drama and even musical theater in its worship and congregational life. The Reverend Burns Stanfield has served as the church's pastor for the last 27 years and led its afterschool offerings in music, art and children’s theater. he’s also a musician and an instructor at Harvard Divinity Scho