4 September 2026 - Friday after the 14th Sunday of Pentecost

Dear friends,

I was one of those kids who loved nothing more than visiting a construction site. Over time, my interest has shifted toward more subtle processes of transformation, but I still love to see concrete results of shared labor unfold in real time and space.

Q Studio Labs is in the midst of moving their things out—and should finish today. Our first crew of volunteers came yesterday to clean and prep rooms for painting. As you can glimpse in that photo of Owen above…we got really into it.

We’re doing all this in order to live out our mission with partners who share our passion for transformation and growth, and who are courageously following their own callings: Sunnyside Literacy Lab, Citation Needed Press, and Parenting Style playgroups. These partners share our values of solidarity, integrity, and creativity—and we trust that these partnerships will ground an ecosystem where new ministries and initiatives will flourish. Our nickname for this ecosystem is “the Greenhouse”—learn more about it here!

In this time of transition, we could use your help. We need volunteers to clean, paint and schlep, and there’s still time for that to happen today (Friday), through Monday, September 7 (which is Labor Day). Come labor with us! All abilities welcome!

And/or, can you give some money to nourish the seeds we’re planting in “the Greenhouse”?? Your gift will not only help pay for spackle and paint, but will nourish this ecosystem so that it can become an incubator where neighbors discover their vocations, and are supported as they pilot and grow new initiatives which will contribute to the flourishing of this neighborhood.

Right now, this work is messy, sweaty—sometimes “two steps forward, only to take one step back.” And it’s all holy. God is working in it; God is with us in it.

peace,
carl+

As a community, we take turns giving and receiving—spending time in the spotlight, and doing work behind the scenes.

Can you help out this week? Or in the Sundays to come? Sign up here!

and…how can we pray with you, or for you?

Every Sunday, part of our service is “the Prayers of the People.” We’ve started making more space for people to name their own personal prayers in that moment. Some people will feel comfortable speaking aloud, but we also wanted to make a space for folks to ask for prayers during the week.

And—if you’re praying for help or for a way to help, we made a Whatsapp Group for that!

The Peer Support Group, organized through Sunnyside-Woodside Mutual Aid, aims to restore the rightful place of community care. In a culture dominated by the shallow preeminence of self care -- which neglects our responsibilities to each other and frames individual wellbeing as a solitary responsibility & pursuit -- this group insists that that we cannot successfully self care our way out of or through polycrisis, and that healing & care must come from the collective for the collective. Reach out to Zehra for more info!

Thursday mornings from 9:30-11am, we have a drop-in gathering on Zoom where we can do some of life’s challenging administrative tasks in the context of a supportive community.

At the start of each session, we introduce ourselves, share how we’re doing and what’s on our to-do list. Then we’ll each work on our stuff, on mute, until a few minutes before the end of the session, when we’ll come off mute, share with each other what we’ve accomplished, and celebrate the progress we’ve made.

Thanks to Hugh Klitzke, who has volunteered to host these Thursday morning sessions! If you have questions, you can reach out to Hugh, or to Fr. Carl.

Looking for ways to protect our neighbors from ICE?

The neighborhood ICE Watch “Office Hours” meets every Saturday from 2-3 pm. This is now a movable feast—gathering in different places each week, but this is a great way to get connected to the work of protecting our neighbors and building power. All are welcome—reach out to Lila Klatz for info about how to get involved.

Zehra A
a second moon strings itself in the sky

Zehra A (she/they) is a creative neighbor person based in Sunnyside, Queens. While collage was a favorite creative medium for them during youth, they returned to it again last year, drawn to its accessible & tactile nature, and a desire to connect with their inner child’s desire for play.

This particular piece was born late one night, when Zehra was experiencing some heavy feelings and recognized that she needed to give them a channel for outlet. She remembered some paper a friend had specifically gifted her for the purposes of collage, and started there, creating most of what you’re looking at. She then put the piece away, thinking the glue had fully dried, but when she pulled it out some days later, she saw that some string with a little pink tag had elegantly gotten stuck across it. It felt to her like an act of divine collaboration where the universe was participating in the act of creation with her. So this work invites the question…

What is an act of divine collaboration or synchronicity YOU’VE experienced?

Let us know what YOU think on the Little Window Gallery website! We’ll anonymously post all the responses there, and on the LWG’s Instagram page. And in a few weeks we’ll randomly select one of the people who responded and they’ll get to keep Zehra’s collage—a local work of art for their very own!

Thanks to Zehra for sharing this beautiful work, and for the story that, again, reminds us that we are not alone—that divine creativity is breathing through this world, if we can stay open to it…

Please—if you're yearning for something that you haven't seen here, reach out start a conversation. This new mission in Sunnyside is made up of...US. So it gets to be what we want it to be...