Creche

We’re honored to be featured in Faith & Leadership, the journal of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School! 🎉 https://faithandleadership.com/religious-institutions-and-spiritual-innovators-need-each-other

In the article, Danielle Goldstone argues that religious institutions and spiritual innovators need each other and uses Creche as an example of what that symbiosis can look like in practice: each of our houses connected to a local congregation, with real benefits flowing in both directions.

That’s exactly the kind of community we’re trying to build. 🏠✝️

Just some neighbors enjoying the Emmanuel House community garden. This is a four-season ministry to the neighborhood. 🐾

We’d love to say our community garden has become such a thriving ecological haven that it’s now attracting apex predators… but the truth is a little more Allston than that.

This juvenile Cooper’s hawk showed up for the same reason many urban raptors do: our neighborhood’s very healthy rat population. Not exactly the romantic nature story we might script, but still a vivid reminder that even in the middle of the city, life is layered, dynamic, and a little wild.

Moments like this feel like urban magic. A flash of feathers over a chain-link fence, the reminder that we share this place with creatures adapting alongside us, finding food, shelter, and survival wherever they can.

We’re still proud that our gardens, yards, and shared spaces make room for more than just people. And if that means the occasional hawk keeping watch over the neighborhood? We’ll call that part of the ecosystem, too. 🦅