Telling and Weaving Stories Around the Table (Lake Burien Presbyterian Church, WA; March 2026)
Ministry in the City HUB Update, April 2026

Dear HUB friends,

What a joy when we can inspire each other to try out new things! For those who attended last fall’s convening, this picture may feel familiar, as we also sat around in circles to share our stories and weave them together around a loom. A shout out to Rev. Lina Thompson for taking this activity into her own context, with over 100 members of her congregation gathered at the end of last month to tell stories in their HUB Congregations and Communities grant project, “From Church to Hub.” We love hearing stories about what you are doing to gather people and listen to how God has been at work in their lives.

This month we hosted our first HUB-team AAPI Affinity Working Group (AWG), led by Dr. Maria Liu Wong and Rev. Dr. Geomon George. We gathered ministry leaders from the Asian American community in Chicago, New York, San Diego, and Seattle to share stories, listen, and pray for each other. This latest iteration of AWGs convenes a small group over three online sessions, as a way of building new relationships and holding space for each other.

We close out April with the final “Light Breaking Out” episode of Season 2, featuring Creative Community Care team members Sasha Hallock and Eva Ting. We’re also moving into the review phase of Affinity Working Group and HUB Local Gathering proposals. Thanks to all who submitted a proposal for this round! There will be another round for applications in the fall.

Please stay in touch and keep us posted on what’s happening in your cities!

Peace, Maria and Mark (with the HUB team)
Highlights
AWG: AAPI Ministry Leaders
NET MAKING
In April, our AAPI Ministry Leaders Affinity Working Group met to connect with one another. As they gathered, they shared about the gift that their respective cultures bring to their faith formation, and what it meant to being fully themselves. Their approach to this learning journey together will be centered around story-telling. Pray for them as the group explores a common question around ministry in the urban context that is particular to Asian / Asian American Pacific Islander communities.
Net Works: Structures of Mutuality
GRANT STEWARDING
HUB Grantee and New York-based artist, Noemia Marinho, and the Gleaning Project are excited to announce the opening of Net Works: Structures of Mutuality on June 5th, 2026. Made from reclaimed plastic, woven nets, and collaborative labor, this exhibition transforms discarded materials into a reflection on connection, care, and collective making. Net Works is both an artwork experience and an invitation: to slow down, to notice the systems that hold us, and to imagine community as something we actively weave together. Attend or learn more.
Sense Walk
RESOURCE SHARING
This deck of sensory walking prompts is designed to help ministry leaders and practitioners develop the discipline of attentive presence in the city. Rooted in the conviction that paying attention is a spiritual and pastoral practice, the Sense Walk offers participants a set of sensory prompts — cards organized around sight, sound, smell, touch, and feeling — to unsettle habitual ways of moving through urban neighborhoods. Participants select a card and follow its instructions as they walk a defined area. What do people notice, that they hadn’t attended to before? How do we learn to pay attention to God in the city? Learn more
Light Breaking Out
Storytelling
In this season of Light Breaking Out we’ve focused on the “Creative Community Care: Artists Respond to Pandemic Times.” In our final episode of the season, Eva Ting and Sasha Hallock, key members of the Creative Community Care team, share their reflections on the residency and traveling exhibit in this episode. We hear how their gifts of administration, facilitation, and hospitality supported the materialization of this project, and how they saw God at work in the midst of the journey. Listen as they share their reflections.

Ministry in the City HUB
City Seminary of New York
302 West 119th St, 3rd Flr
New York, NY 10026, USA

This national initiative is generously supported by Lilly Endowment, Inc.
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