21 August 2026 - Friday after the 12th Sunday of Pentecost

Dear friends,

Have you ever wondered where our culture of curiosity, experimentation, and embracing imperfection comes from?

One huge piece of that has been intergenerational Process Art. We started these experiments with this way back in the fall of 2024, and since then we've been learning from Ari and Cristina of Citation Needed Press about focusing on process over results, embracing surprise, and letting the curiosity and creativity of children lead us.

That’s one reason we’re so excited for a watery watercolor Process Art workshop this Sunday morning from 10am to Noon (there’s no church service this week). Using liquid watercolor, string, binding rings, brushes, pipettes, and water, participants of all ages are invited to drip, paint, layer, connect, and see what happens. We'll be observing shadows and light to help us inform our work.

Like all our Sunday morning gatherings, this is an all ages event! Kids are welcome—and ADULTS are especially welcome! Just wear clothes you don’t mind getting a little paint on. (This is also a great chance to invite a friend to come get a taste of the community that’s emerging here.)

I’m sorry that I won’t be able to be a part of this myself: on Sunday I’ll be the guest preacher at St. Ann’s in Bridgehampton—telling them about the seeds that are sprouting here in Sunnyside, and expressing our gratitude for their spiritual and financial support. Then Meg, Judy, Wren, and I will enjoy a few days of family vacation at the beach. (I’ll be back Thursday afternoon.)

In keeping with the theme of process, spontaneity, and even collaborating with the Divine—check out the new work in our Little Window Gallery below, and at our website!

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!

Introducing…a Prayer List for our Mission!

Another thing we heard at our Community Check-In was that folks would like a chance to add specific concerns to the Prayers of the People each week. Some people will feel comfortable speaking aloud in that moment, but we also wanted to make a space for folks to ask for prayers during the week. How can we pray with you, or for you?

We’ll offer these prayers on Sunday mornings, and may share some of them here in News and Notes. (There is also a space to ask for prayers that won’t be publicized!)

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

We are thrilled to announce three new partnerships that are grounded in our shared values of creativity, solidarity, and integrity. Come September, All Saints Church will become the new home of the Sunnyside Literacy Lab (founded by Anna Young, left), Citation Needed Press (led by Ari Wolff and Cristina Ferrigno, center), and Parenting Style playgroups (led by Janice Chou, on the right). You can learn more about our dream of an emerging ecosystem of mission-aligned initiatives here.

Registration is open for Sunnyside Literacy Labs’ fall programming, and for Print + Build, the Tuesday/Thursday art classes that we will be offering at the church for kids K-5, in partnership with Citation Needed.

If you have questions about these partnerships, or have other ideas about how to use the All Saints building as a blessing to this beautiful and diverse neighborhood, please reach out.

And—will you bring a little to the table here? Can you put on your work clothes and help make the church ready for this new era in the first two weeks of September? Put in some labor on Labor Day Weekend? Sign up here!

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.

We have our work cut out for us—and we trust that God will do amazing, abundant, transformative things far beyond our efforts…

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 a print of Cristina’s paper pulp poem—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...