About GBIO

The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), founded in 1998, is a broad-based organization that works for the public good by coalescing, training, and organizing people across religious, racial, ethnic, class, and neighborhood lines. Our membership consists of over 50 congregations and institutions in Greater Boston representing more than 100,000 individuals. We believe in making Greater Boston a better place to live, work and raise a family.

Our mission is to build POWER by developing local LEADERS so we can ACT together on issues that matter to our communities. GBIO is a founding member of the Just Power Alliance, a coalition of nine broad-based organizations spanning five states and the District of Columbia. Driven by relationships and supported by decades of organizing experience, the Alliance seeks to build a just, joyful world for all.

Our Organizing Cycle

Our organizing works on a fluid cycle anchored by consistent relationship building through one-on-one engagement and leader development through intensive training. By working alongside our member institutions to facilitate relational gatherings that connect people with shared values informed by faith and justice, we identify leaders ready to play a role in public life.

GBIO leaders create cross-institutional teams that work to build and refine the issues surfaced by our communities. These teams identify potential actions, and set the timing for our strategy to effect change.

  • Staff organizers identify grassroots leaders through countless one-on-one relational meetings. People looking to develop their public leadership are supported through both formal and informal training opportunities throughout the year.

  • We listen to each other, bringing people together in our member institutions to share stories about problems that affect the quality of our lives, our families, and our communities. This allows us to focus on issues we can all support.

  • We identify themes that reflect issues of common interest across our membership and do more focused research to develop them from problems to issues, and pinpoint opportunities for relevant, timely, and effective action.

  • We take action by gathering key public and/or private decision-makers, sharing members’ stories, defining specific solutions, and negotiating with those decision-makers to get clear commitments.

Our Member Institutions

Dues-paying member organizations make up our political power in Greater Boston. Leaders from each organization create and shape our issue campaigns and participate in a ​variety of ways, depending on their interests, talents and passions.

  • Azusa Christian Community

  • Beth El Temple Center, Belmont

  • Bethel AME Church, Jamaica Plain

  • Boston Teachers Union

  • Boston Workers Circle

  • Caring Coalition of MetroWest

  • Charles Street AME Church

  • Church of the Covenant, Boston

  • Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton

  • First Church Boston, Unitarian Universalist

  • First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC

  • First Parish Cambridge, Unitarian Universalist

  • Fourth Presbyterian Church, South Boston

  • Grace Episcopal Church

  • Hancock United Church of Christ, Lexington

  • Hillel B’nai Torah, West Roxbury

  • Hope Central Church

  • Hyde Park Presbyterian Church

  • Hyde Park Seventh-Day Adventist​ Church

  • Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action

  • Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

  • Justice 4 Housing

  • Keke Financial Group

  • Lutheran Church of the Newtons

  • Masjid Al Quran, Dorchester

  • Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA), Dorchester

  • Mosque for Praising Allah, Roxbury​

  • Old South Church, Boston

  • Reservoir Church, North Cambridge

  • Resurrection Lutheran Church, Roxbury

  • Roxbury Presbyterian Church

  • Saint Cecilia Parish

  • St. James’s Episcopal Church

  • St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Roxbury

  • St. Paul AME, Cambridge

  • St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Brookline

  • Temple B’nai Brith, Somerville

  • Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley

  • Temple Beth Shalom, Needham

  • Temple Beth Zion, Brookline

  • Temple Emunah Social Justice Community, Lexington

  • Temple Isaiah, Lexington

  • Temple Israel, Boston

  • Temple Shir Tikvah, Winchester

  • Temple Sinai, Brookline

  • The Wellness Collaborative, Roxbury

  • Trinity Church, Boston

  • Union Capital Boston

  • Union Church of Waban

  • Union Combined Parish

  • United Church of Christ, Norwell

  • United Parish, Brookline

  • University Lutheran Association of Boston​​​

  • White Men for Racial Justice​

Ready to Join?

Does your congregation, school, or institution want to have the kind of power it takes to create change? At GBIO, we believe in relational power—that the more we are connected to each other in our communities, the more ability we have to get things done. When your institution becomes a member of GBIO, we will work alongside you — listening to the concerns of your community, developing leaders, and acting together.

Become a Member

Staff

Justin Martin, Communications & Operations Manager
justin.martin@gbio.org

Matt McDermott, Lead Organizer

matt.mcdermott@gbio.org

Sneh Chachra, Associate Organizer

sneh.chachra@gbio.org

Jaime Givens, Associate Organizer

jaime.givens@gbio.org

Strategy Team

Serving as GBIO’s Board of Directors, the Strategy Team authorizes the initiation of new issue campaigns, reviews the progress of current campaigns, and attends to financial and structural aspects of the organization.

Philip Hillman, Chair

St. Paul AME Church, Cambridge

Members

Barbara Berke
Temple Israel of Boston

Alan Epstein (Clerk)
Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton

Sis. Dr. Ethlyn Davis Fuller
St. Paul AME Church, Cambridge

Fran Godine
Temple Israel of Boston

Dru Greenwood
Temple Israel of Boston

Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond
Bethel AME Church, Jamaica Plain

Marcia Hams
First Parish in Cambridge

Dr. David Landis
Temple Emunah SJC, Lexington

Eric Leslie
Union Capital Boston

Khalid Mustafa
Masjid Al-Qur’an, Dorchester

Faith Perry (Treasurer)
Church of the Covenant, Boston

Phillip Servello-Jones
First Church in Cambridge

Sajid Shahriar
Greater Boston Labor Leader

Jumaada A-K. H. Smith
St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Roxbury

Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton

Rev. Burns Stanfield
Fourth Presbyterian Church, South Boston

Bishnu Tamang
Union Capital Boston

Rev. Steve Watson
Reservoir Church, North Cambridge

Yvonne Watson
Bethel AME Church, Jamaica Plain