Write Here! Write Now! for April

As Unitarian Universalists, we are called to boldly respond to the growing climate crisis and the glaring racial and socioeconomic inequities revealed by the pandemic. We believe that the right changes in our food systems can help slow  climate change and begin to address  injustices in our agricultural systems. The transition to a more climate-friendly agriculture must also respond to social problems like land loss, racism, unemployment and hunger. We urge  Senators to support legislation that would improve both climate change and social inequalities, such as the Justice for Black Farmers Act and the Climate Stewardship Act.

• WHWN Handout
• Online letter writing platform
• More Information

The Environmental Action Team will host an Issue Briefing on these bills April 15 at 2 pm ET, featuring Adam Zipkin, counsel to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ben Thomas, Senior Policy Director for Agriculture at the Environmental Defense Fund. You can register Here.

Immigration Town Hall

Wednesday, April 28
7:30-9 pm ET | 6:30-8 pm CT | 5:30-7 pm MT | 4:30-6 pm PT

Please join this Zoom Town Hall (you will receive the Zoom link when registered) with the UUSJ Immigration Action Team, immigrant-led advocacy organizations, faith partners, and fellow UUs to discuss immigration advocacy efforts in Congress and at the Federal level.  

Help UUSJ determine its strategy and priorities both now and as it looks ahead, in coalition with partners. Should we focus on: 

• Creating pathways to legal status for those already here and integrated in our economy?
•  Reducing detention and deportation?  
• Comprehensive immigration reform ? 
• Raising refugee resettlement caps and strengthening federal services for resettling families? 
• Encouraging a return to broader acceptance and humane treatment for asylum-seekers? 
• Strengthening oversight of US immigration agencies? 
• Changing the negative narrative about immigrants by emphasizing immigrants’ humanity and contributions? 

Your input will help define the focus for UUSJ’s June virtual visit to Congress, mobilize constituents to join those meetings and will refine UUSJ’s priorities and strategy. Sign Up Here

UUSJ News and Events

Widening the Circle of Concern

Friday, April 2, 12 noon ET | 11 am CT | 10 am MT | 9 am PT
Register Here

This is a time of significant institutional and cultural change in the United States and in our Unitarian Universalist Association. The US Congress and the new Biden-Harris administration are quickly moving on issues that matter to the values and principles that UUs hold. UUSJ priorities are priorities for many people in our congregations. How do we create a more dynamic local, state and national network that can galvanize the power to give voice to UU values in the public square?  Now is the right time to have a conversation about where we are called to stretch so that we can maximize our impact and what that might look like.- Paula Cole Jones

As part of that effort, Paula will facilitate a Widening the Circle of Concern two-hour dialogue/consultation with UUSJ leadership and volunteers.  She brings perspectives to her work with UU organizations having career experience inside of a state, local, federal partnership that advocated annually for federal policies that impacted local communities and landowners. Her work with the 8th Principle has been a successful experience in building a new national grassroots movement within Unitarian Universalism.

Widening the Circle is the report of the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change. Congregations and leaders can learn more about the 2020 report and implementing its recommendations at: https://www.uua.org/widening.

New Board Members Sought for Major UUSJ Transition at UUSJ Annual meeting

UUSJ will move to a new governance model aimed at living into its vision, values and mission at its Annual Board meeting on June 26. The meeting will include election of new Board members, approval of next year’s budget, discussion about policy priorities for the next two years, and results of this year’s membership survey.

As part of the transition, current Board members will elect their successors, in accordance with the new UUSJ bylaws approved last October as part of the strategic planning process. The eleven new Board members will begin their terms immediately following the adjournment of the annual Board meeting. 

The current Board is expecting to fill a number of the positions with candidates from outside the National Capital area who have never served as a UUSJ trustee or alternate. This reflects UUSJ’s commitment to broadening its horizons as a national organization and including "moral owners”, agreed to during the board’s strategic planning work. Applicants are not required to be a current member of UUSJ. (Find more information about UUSJ on our website (www.uusj.org).

You can find the Nominating Committee’s  details on the nomination process and deadlines, qualifications for new Board members, how individuals can seek nomination, submission requirements and more (LINK). The Committee asks that applicants apply by May 15. For further information, contact Nominating Committee chair, Sean McCarthy, at (seanamccarthy48@gmail.com or tel. 301-395-5915).

UUSJ members interested in observing or speaking briefly at the Annual Meeting should contact: info@UUSJ.org.

Join Volunteers to Plan UUSJ’s 2021 Social Justice Awards Gala 

Every two years, UUSJ recognizes social justice heroes with our Social Justice Awards Gala. This year’s event will be held in early October and planning is underway. Several UUSJ members have already volunteered to take on major roles. Please consider lending a hand with planning the event or organizing the awards. For more information, contact David Strauss, chair of the Development Committee (davidstrauss42@gmail.com).

For the People Act, UUA Statement

Unitarian Universalists join leaders of faith nationally and call on the U.S. Senate to pass the For The People Act to begin to repair our democracy and protect everyone’s fundamental right to vote—especially historically disenfranchised Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income communities. 

We hold democratic principles at the center of our tradition and call on senatorial leaders to follow their elected duty and moral conscience to uphold and strengthen our democratic institutions. After years of partisan and politically motivated gerrymandering, we must forge ahead to make voting more accessible for ALL the people. 

We must combat voter suppression at all levels of government and prevent state encroachment of these constitutional rights. Passing this federal legislation is crucial to reclaim our democracy and recommit to our collective belief that every person in our country deserves a voice and a vote.

Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray
President, Unitarian Universalist Association

 

UU Association Positions on Social Justice Issues

As an expression of our faith and values, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) takes positions on relevant issues of social justice. It discerns its positions through the social witness process, as shepherded by the Commission on Social Witness. Grounded in these social witness statements, the UUA will sign on to letters and amicus briefs in coalition with other faith and social justice organizations, magnifying its impact in the larger world. Link to more information about these social action statements. UUA Action Statements (documents are PDF format).

Submit Your Congregation’s Banner for GA Banner Parade

General Assembly (GA) is scheduled for June 23-27 and again it will be virtual this year. New this year will be a virtual version of the GA institution, the banner parade. GA organizers invite UUs to submit a high-resolution photo of their congregation’s banner for a slideshow video, accompanied with music and introductions from regional leaders. Submit your banner photo by Friday, April 30.

This year’s GA theme is Gather ‘Round for Justice, Health, and Courage. The GA Worship Arts Team’s is supporting the creation of thoughtful, uplifting worship experiences that call us to our highest ideals and deepest longings as Unitarian Universalists. Speakers will explore  our theological grounding for the work, organizing for liberation, and the ways we can tend to our spiritual resilience, with a daily grounding worship. Honoring the many communities within Unitarian Universalism, this year’s GA provides  more time for networking, meetups and caucusing. For more information: https://www.uua.org/ga.

March History of Immigration Policy webinar

If you missed the Immigration Action Group’s Immigration policy webinar, or want to review it, here’s the slide Presentation and a more detailed Resource Guide including a list of immigration organizations and their websites. The Resource Guide includes UUSJ’s current 2021-22 immigration priorities. 

More than 70 people attended UUSJ’s March webinar, which covered the history of US immigration policy, with special emphasis on the Trump and Biden Administrations. The webinar was aimed at helping “fill the information gaps” for UUs interested in immigration issues but who lack knowledge of our country’s legislative history or the time needed to follow fast-breaking developments.

Faces of Asylum and Family Separation

UUSJ is proud of Jan Thompson, a member of our Imigration Action Team, for her work supporting immigrants and asylum seekers in New Mexico. Jan does this work in southern New Mexico, near El Paso Texas, a major point of entry and hub of community and faith based solidarity with people migrating to the U.S.

Jan was mentioned in a recent LA Times article about the long journey of a 5-year-old Honduran boy separated from his family. LA Times article: Honduran boy, 5, endures monthlong separation from family after crossing U.S. border. 

Five Myths about Poverty

Is poverty the result of individual failure or economic and political structural failure? Inequality and poverty have been more severe during the pandemic, yet public policies that address such enormous disparities are questioned in part based on myths about poverty in our society. This recent analysis provides a perspective on our misconceptions and the possible remedies. [Read full Washington Post commentary]

Myth No. 1 - Poverty happens to other people
Myth No. 2 - Most of the poor live in inner cities
Myth No. 3 - America's poor can rise from rags to riches with hard work
Myth No. 4 - Poverty is the result of individual failure
Myth No. 5 - America's poor are comparatively well off

Petition in Support of the Poor People’s
Campaign 14 Priorities

Inequality has cost us all too much and has hurt too many in this country. These costs threaten genuine democracy in this country. The health, healing and well-being of the nation depends on concretely and expeditiously addressing policy-based systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the false narratives of religious and white nationalism. Sign the Poor Peoples’ Campaign’s petition for the 14 Policy Priorities to Heal the Nation: A Moral and Economic Agenda for the First 100 Days​.