28 August 2026 - Friday after the 13th Sunday of Pentecost

One of the biggest transitions that’s underway has to do with the way we use the church building and garden.

In June of last year, Q Studio Labs informed us that they would be moving to a new space at the end of their lease, which ends on Monday. So we’ve spent the last 14 months sowing seeds for potential partnerships, and discerning how the Holy Spirit was guiding us toward new ways of using our space to live out our mission: “that the whole world would see and know that things which have been cast down are being raised up, and things which have grown old are being made new….”

What’s emerging is “the Greenhouse”—an ecosystem of partners who share our passion for transformation and growth, and who are courageously following their own callings: In the next week, All Saints Church will welcome the Sunnyside Literacy Lab, Citation Needed Press, and Parenting Style playgroups as partners in ministry that centers solidarity, integrity, and creativity. (You can learn more about our dream of an emerging ecosystem of mission-aligned initiatives here.)

I’m so excited to see what will emerge from this ecosystem, what new partners will be drawn into it, and how we as a community of Christian practice will be transformed as we learn from our partners and from the community we all love and seek to serve.

In this time of transition, we could use your help. We need volunteers to clean, paint and schlep, and the golden time for this work to happen is this Thursday, September 3, 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.

Transitions can be hard—and there will be challenges we don’t foresee. But we trust that God is with us on this adventure, and that God will do amazing, abundant, transformative things far beyond our efforts…

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!

One 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!

Last Sunday much fun was had at an intergenerational Process Art with watercolors out in the garden. These little tiles of watercolor paper were brushed, dripped, dipped, and flipped—and then chained together to make this stunning mosaic.

Thanks so much to Ari for facilitating—and to Grace, Brânwyn, Jonathan, Verity and others for making it happen. (And thanks to Harold for modeling the mosaic as cape.)

Father Carl was the guest preacher at St. Ann’s, Bridgehampton—and was there to share our gratitude for the spiritual and financial support of that community. St. Ann’s has pledged $12,000 for each the next three years to support our emerging partnerships.

This year, that money will underwrite 5 full scholarships at the Sunnyside Literacy Labs, empowering 5 kids who have struggled to read take pride and joy in it.

Father Jim Erwin and some members of St. Ann’s will be visiting us in October for an Open House, celebrating what’s emerging in the Greenhouse, and Fr. Jim will preach here. We’re so grateful for this partnership—and for the generosity of our east end siblings in Christ.

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...