The climate crisis isn’t happening in a vacuum. With attacks on Black lives, trans kids, and reproductive justice all in the face of increasing fascism and white supremacy, rampant gun violence, and ongoing pandemic, sometimes it feels like tragedy is everywhere all the time.

And yet, so is love. So is courage. So is resilience.

Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer Rachel Myslivy’s reflection for this week considers the way Resilience is found in our work for justice, including climate justice.

Later, she writes: “The strength of “what if” is what helps us continue in this work. And so, what is our resilient, loving way?”

This week’s offerings for 30 Days of Love includes pieces we hope bolster, strengthen, and encourage our collective resilience: a blessing by Rev. Leah Ongiri, a body practice by QuianaDenae Perkins, a new Time for All Ages by Yvette Salinas, a prayer by Rev. Terri Burnor, and another grounding practice by Lora Powell-Haney. We hope these continue to nurture you.

We are heading into our final week of 30 Days of Love, but we still wish to celebrate and honor all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners, and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year-round. Join us for these two amazing events that promise to fill you with joy and, we hope, feel like a big hug from us to you.

Nourish’s Dinner Church Worship Service for 30 Days of Love

Sunday, February 12, 2023, 7:00 PM -  9:00 PM ET

In this challenging time, let your souls rest as you experience powerful, embodied worship and connection. Join the Revs. Emily Conger & Aisha Ansano of Nourish for a worship service to hold your tender heart, offer you respite, and nourish you in body and in spirit. 

In our time together, we'll join in embodied ritual, music, small group discussions, & opportunities to name the challenges we face and to bless one another. We invite you to bring a chalice and at least a bite of food, a warm drink, or your whole meal (real or imaginary). 

Beloveds, a place is set for you - come feed your body and spirit! 

The first 25 confirmed registrants will receive a SnackMagic gift card for this event from Side With Love -- a hug from us to you!
Nourish's Dinner Church worship services feed bodies and spirits through food and ritual. Nourish leverages the ancient spiritual technology of connection through gathering around a table and adapts it for modern contexts. You can learn more at nourishuu.org.

Register Now

Celebration of UU the Vote Good Trouble Congregations!

Tuesday, February 28, 2023 7:00 PM -  8:00 PM ET

Despite widespread attempts at voter suppression and election subversion, UU individuals and congregations around the US collectively reached over 2 million voters last year. Hundreds served as poll workers and election officials, and our partnerships and values won critical ballot measures all over the country.

We are excited to honor and celebrate the work, partnerships and moral courage of our community who got into #GoodTrouble in 2022. Let’s come together to honor our collective work, share powerful stories, and call down joy as we move into the work ahead.

Register Now

In this week’s reflection, Side With Love Field and Programs Director Nicole Pressley writes:

Cornell West famously reminds us that justice is what love looks like in public. As Unitarian Universalists, our work for justice is an expression of deep belief that all people are worthy of love and liberation. Today, that work often looks like resisting the criminalization of people’s identities, their bodies, and their communities. 

In recent years, this has looked like Unitarian Universalists supporting people seeking, aiding, and performing abortions in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky when abortion has been criminalized. We’ve raised money to bail out Black mothers and Water Protectors. We’ve supported ballot initiatives to decriminalize marijuana in Oregon and Colorado, and paid off fines so returning citizens can vote in Florida. 

As a strategy, decriminalization sets us on course to heal, to be held accountable, and to be fully human with one another. Decriminalization cultivates the conditions for wider and deeper transformation. 

Decriminalization is a crucial response to the horrors of the prison industrial complex – the web of forces including the legal system, policing and law enforcement, and mass incarceration whose main goal is the oppression of many for the benefit of a few. Increasingly, our laws make it a crime to be fully human – to be homeless, to seek and provide healthcare, to ask for asylum or to migrate, to be Black or brown, to honor our children’s evolving genders, to teach the real history of this nation. In the US, the criminal-legal systems collude to diminish the power and autonomy of the body politic, whether by disenfranchising entire communities through mass incarceration and voter suppression, or literally wiping people out of existence through both death sentences  and extra-judicial killing. 

But decriminalization isn’t only about policy wins; it is about the victory of literally being with our people once again.

The theme of our third week of 30 Days of Love explores the intersection of Healing and Decriminalization. We have moving offerings that we hope will educate, inspire, and refuel you as you explore what it means to heal communities and families. We have a prayer from Rev. Jason Lydon, a blessing by Rev. Kierstin Homblette Allen, a body practice from Rev. Sky Williams-Tao, a grounding meditation from Side With Love Fun and Nourishment Squad Member Lora Powell-Haney, as well as a Time for All Ages story by Erica Shadowsong. Find all of these here.

For generations, UUs have been jailed for our conscience in resisting systems of oppression. As our tradition becomes more justice oriented, rates of UU arrests are on the rise. How does our conscience also call us to be there for those whose bodies are on the line?

Learn how UUs are building capacity to support and share the load in the face of mass arrest. Find out more about how to organize support for those who are arrested and jailed as a conscientious form of protest. Join our virtual training on February 7 at 4pm - 5:30pm PT / 7pm - 8:30pm ET. Presenters: Rev. Karen Van Fossan, Antoinette Scully, Rev. Dr. Clyde Grubbs, and friends.

Register Now

UUs have been engaged in social change efforts, including nonviolent civil disobedience, for many generations. Today, it seems that UUs who resist injustice are being arrested and detained at increasing rates. This is due, in part, to an enhanced partnership between corporations and the state in criminalizing dissent.

The sustainability of UU activism, as well as the sustainability of UU activists, well may depend upon the capacity of UU entities to provide a spectrum of support for those at the frontlines.

Learn more & download the toolkit

“Grounding ourselves into a deep gratitude for the miracle of our bodies - however they look, move, and interact with the world around us - includes not only a celebration of our individual physical beings, but also a deep reverence for the intimacy of our connections. After all, our bodies do not exist in a vacuum - we physically interact with countless structures, systems, and communities each day that impact, and are impacted by, our flesh, bones, and spirit. For some of us, these interactions are predominantly empowering moments of welcome and respect. And for some of us, we encounter confusion, denial, and outright rejection as our norm.

As Unitarian Universalists, we have historically embraced the breadth of our lived experiences of the world as a faithful teacher, crossing the permeable barrier between sacred and profane to deepen our embodiment of liberating and life-affirming holy truths.”

from Rev. Ranwa Hammamy’s Reflection on Embodiment

Our second week of 30 Days of Love feature resources focus on the intersections between the spiritual theme of embodiment and Side With Love’s work on LGBTQIA+, Gender & Reproductive Justice. Offerings this week include a blessing from Julica Hermann de la Fuente, a Time for All Ages from Rayla Mattson, a prayer from Adrian L. H. Graham, a body practice from Leika Lewis-Cornwell, and a grounding movement meditation from Canedy of our Fund and Spiritual Nourishment Squad. Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Side With Love Congregational Justice Organizer, opens with a reflection on this week’s theme. See all of this week’s fantastic resources at our website.

Faith leaders and congregants are expanding their abortion-rights curriculum, partnering with clinics and abortion funds, and ramping up spiritual counseling services for pregnant people who want abortions.

For that reason, we are back again with our transformative three-part Reproductive Justice Congregational Organizing Series.  

This work is not new. It is part of a long history where people of faith work to protect reproductive freedom. For this series, we are strategically identifying teams within congregations to be part of a mobilization strategy to support abortion care networks. In many of our religious traditions, our sacred texts always depict sacred people who resist unjust laws to do justice and to show kindness and compassion to our fellow people. It’s now on us to be the next chapter in history books. We hope that you would consider joining us, once more, and participate with other members of your congregation in our upcoming series.  

Whether you have participated in this series before or are new to reproductive justice organizing, we hope you will join us! Please recruit your congregational team/group and make sure your teammates register for the series by the morning of 1/27/23.   

Reproductive Justice Congregational Organizing Series for Teams

Sundays January 29th, February 12th, & February 26th from  4pm - 6pm ET / 3 CT / 2 MT / 1 PT

Participation in all 3 sessions is required. 

• Register for Session 1

• Register for Session 2

• Register for Session 3

As we digest the impact of the fall of Roe v Wade, we know that there will be a huge need for local organizing, resource sharing, and collective action as abortion becomes criminalized in various places. By signing up for this three-part series, you are committing to being a part of organizing a TEAM in your congregation that will organize the congregation for specific action(s) in support of abortion access and Reproductive Justice in your community. Everyone who signs up for this series is expected to bring at least one other person from their congregation, with whom you will apply the learning from these sessions immediately in your own context. Facilitated by Rev. Ranwa Hammamy and Charity Howard of the Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team.   

Session 1: The Role of Faith Communities in a Post-Roe World : With SCOTUS overturning Roe, what are faith communities that support Reproductive Justice called to do? We will explore the range of possible responses, and help you make a plan to begin organizing your team, your congregation, and your community.

Session 2: Discerning Risk, Accessing Courage: To work effectively in solidarity with movements, faith communities need to be clear about our capacity, our commitments, and our boundaries. We will talk about levels of risk associated with various kinds of congregational organizing for reproductive justice after abortion is criminalized, and provide tools to map your congregation's resources and risk tolerance so that your community is prepared to respond quickly and clearly to opportunities for action.   

Session 3: Making an Organizing Plan: Using the learning from sessions 1 & 2 about which actions your faith community/congregation is prepared to take, we will talk about how to create a work plan and strategy for your particular congregational context.

Whether you are in a state where abortion has been criminalized, or a state to which people will come seeking abortion care, there is a role for all of us–and all our congregations–to play, starting right now. The fight is far from over, but we’re grateful to be in it for the long haul with you.

“The Clearing”

Do not try to save

the whole world

or do anything grandiose.

Instead, create

a clearing

in the dense forest

of your life

and wait there

patiently,

until the song

that is your life

falls into your own cupped hands

and you recognize and greet it.

Only then will you know

how to give yourself to this world

so worthy of rescue.

–Martha Postlethwaite

Happy 2023, Beloveds, and welcome to 30 Days of Love, Side With Love’s annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice! 

Having recently marked both the Winter Solstice and Gregorian New Year, this is a period of pause and contemplation – a time to reflect upon what has been, take stock of what is, and dream about what could be. And as we do so, both individually and collectively, we are all aware of how hard it is to be human in these times: to maintain hope for a just and sustainable future in the face of all the broken systems that surround us, to muster compassion for one another in the midst of extreme polarization, to find the energy to keep fighting for liberation when our bodies and our spirits often feel so depleted. 

At its core, the work of Side With Love is to build communities of relationship and power that tap into the power of Love to both sustain and free people. Through our many programs and campaigns, we invite UU individuals, congregations, organizations, and movement partners to collectively ground our spirits, grow our skills, and act for justice. And, we are keenly aware that the world we are fighting for is literally and metaphorically on fire – which often means that we struggle to find the time to cultivate the practices and seek the spiritual nourishment that will sustain us in our long-haul work for justice. We too often are compelled to address  the urgent at the expense of the important. 

In that context, this year’s 30 Days of Love is an offering to our whole community – a love letter, a warm hug, a spiritual balm for all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year round. It is an invitation to slow down, to create that “clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently,” as the poet Martha Postlethwaite writes. 

Each week will be grounded in a spiritual theme overlapping with one of Side With Love’s intersectional justice priorities, and will feature an array of offerings to help nourish your spirit and give gratitude and affirmation. We invite you to engage with and share these resources as part of your daily spiritual practice, around the family dinner table, in communal worship, in committee meetings – however feels useful to you and your community. Read more about this year’s weekly themes and the kinds of resources you can expect. 

This first week of 30 Days of Love, our resources focus on the intersections between the spiritual theme of Interdependence and Side With Love’s work on Democracy, Voting Rights, and Electoral Justice. We are delighted to offer you a blessing from the Rev. Duncan Teague, a Time for All Ages from JeKaren Olaoya, a body practice from Katie Resendiz, a prayer from the Rev. Wendy Bartel, a grounding practice from Canedy and our Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad, and a reflection on the week’s themes by the Rev. Ashley Horan. See all of this week’s fantastic resources at our website.

Do you want to get a text when we update each week? You'll only receive five texts, which will arrive on a Monday after 12pm ET. If you're interested, text 'days of love'  (without the quote marks) to 866-533-1494. You can quit getting updates anytime by replying STOP.

January 2023

Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. –Fannie Lou Hamer

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In 2019 the Rev. Bill Sinkford and the wonderful staff at First Unitarian Portland invited me to join them for “Seminary for a Day,” when we reflected together on how our inherited liberal tradition is accountable to the theological work of liberation. Such transformation is central to the promise I find in our living tradition. I rarely speak of liberal theology in isolation unless specifically asked to do so. This conversation, this accountability, and this transformation are why I consistently draw on my understanding of our liberal and liberating faith. So what does that ask of us in this season where we are working together on expressing our highest values in community?

Recently the Rev. Dennis McCarty in his blog “Thoughts from a Gentle Atheist,” reminded us of the central values of Unitarian Universalism. He writes, “The worthiness of the human condition is one… investigation, research, and intellectual growth is another. Openness to change produced by that intellectual investigation and research is a crucial third.” This promise is described in the current language of Article II as “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” and in the latest proposed draft for a revised Article II as both a promise to “collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically,” as well as “learn from one another in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” The human worthiness that Rev. McCarty highlights is beautifully reflected across both versions, and both call us to the work of justice.

Latin American liberation theologies often speak of a preferential option for the poor, but also for a range of inequities in our living. The “preferential option” teaches that God themself, the work of the Church writ large, our values, and our wisdom are centered on those most impacted by systemic oppression. Traditionally one might say that if we want to know God, we need to live in solidarity with those facing the injustices of poverty and class oppression.

Unitarian Universalists might say that we are most able to co-create the All-Embracing Love that our tradition teaches us when we center those most impacted by long established systems of injustice. We save one another, and remake the sacredness of the world, through prioritizing what is truly needed for that remaking. Anything less drives us away from our faithful living.

Today’s Unitarian Universalism asks us to re-engage the largest questions of our living in the service of liberation. I want a Unitarian Universalism that troubles the waters of what we mean by freedom, just as the Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison Reed asked of us quite some time ago. I want a Unitarian Universalism that offers up its power and authority in the service of justice, and embraces new learning and surprise as sacred offerings. This especially when our beloveds directly impacted by injustice over generations somehow still welcome us when we show up in the spirit of lamentation, regret, determination, and a deeply invested discipline of hopefulness that together we might yet survive.

My hard-won hopefulness, as Ecowomanist scholar the Rev. Dr. Melanie Harris would call it, is that many of you might want to build a Unitarian Universalism together that is humble, that demands little from those who have been made to sacrifice much, and that prioritizes its commitments to faithful living even when we don’t quite know how to make our way. That is the Unitarian Universalism that I believe in. Right now, I think it is on a journey from liberal to liberation. And I am orienting myself toward the day when those words have new and fully empowered meanings in the world.

What does liberation mean to you? What does it feel like, and how do you access it?

Russell
CLF Member, incarcerated in MD

I often hold deep discussions over the tier between me and my Brothers in Chains. The object is always to get each other to share what we’ve learned from life and insights we’ve gleaned while doing time.

Often this leads to arguments, but for the most part it leads to self discoveries. When I find myself learning something unexpected from a brother I feel elated at the new information. Especially when it destroys a long held belief of mine that is ultimately wrong.

This is liberation to me. A changed view. A new realization, some witty information I’m made aware of, or simply something I’ve deduced via the open conversation that leads me to a feeling of evolving and getting closer to a certain truth. Often, these revelations come simply because I don’t look for them, but keep an open mind. It is often said that liberation can not be obtained in its actual form in physical life. I have discovered this to be a lie.

Liberation is anything that frees you from your current state of ignorance. We alone can prevent our own liberation. I strive to be liberated in my everyday affairs!

The following is adapted from a sermon that Aisha gave in CLF online worship on Nov. 6, 2022.

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about learning to love myself fully, especially my body. I was jokingly explaining that I never learned to dress myself in a way that was truly flattering to my body type. She explained that the problem wasn’t that I didn’t know, it was that I was conditioned through marketing to think fashion looked a certain way and only on certain bodies. Primarily what looks good on thin, white women — and those things simply didn’t look good on me.

She suggested I follow plus sized, Black women on social media. She sent me invitations to gorgeous Black models and activists who I continue to follow.

As their posts showed up in my feed, I was able to expand my notion of what is beautiful and as time went on, I was able to see myself through a more expansive and generous lens.

These fashionistas are unapologetic, fierce and simply beautiful.

One of the people I found myself in awe of was Leah Vernon, a Black Woman whose posts continue to expand my imagination with regards to fashion, because she does not exist in a prescribed paradigm. She is the author of a new book, Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim.

Through Leah’s posts and those of Black leaders like, Sonia Renee Taylor, Ijeoma Oluo, Jessamyn Stanely and adrienne maree brown, among others, I was able to change my perception of beauty through changing the default of what I was exposed to throughout my entire life.

Through a friend’s recommendation, I was able to challenge assumptions I held about myself and about beauty for my entire life. This has helped me experience beauty differently and in a much more liberated and loving way, for myself and others.

This brings me to an email the CLF received a while back about the assumptions the writer seemed to hold. The person, who is not incarcerated, wrote to us asking why they seemed to be getting the “prison ministry version of Quest.” They said that, though they support work with incarcerated people, it is not their work, and they have no interest in being a part of that ministry — they would simply like to get the traditional version of Quest.

Over two long email responses, I told this CLF member that as we center liberation at the CLF, we care about giving opportunities for all to grow an awareness that extends beyond an intellectual understanding that there are “people in prison.” For those of us who are not experiencing incarceration, reading the thoughts and feelings of those who are is powerful. I invited this member to consider the possibility that they have something to learn and be moved by something written by someone whose words you may not otherwise be exposed to, and emphasized that the Worthy Now Prison Ministry is not separate from the ministry of the CLF. We are one entity and one congregation that centers Unitarian Universalist values of community care.

This exchange and the response of this person to the changes in Quest, a publication that for decades centered primarily on the words of ordained clergy, had me thinking about assumptions being made about others.

We are a faith community that does not promise heaven or hell. In essence, we are trying to figure it out. Why are we here? What does it all mean? How do we navigate this beautiful, scary, joyful and painful thing we call life?

I don’t have answers to these questions and the hard truth is no one really does with any degree of accuracy. No one is an expert at being human, not even faith leaders.

What we can offer as faith leaders is a place to grapple with the questions and create a container that invites into an expansive and loving way of being.

Faith leaders receive training to become either ordained, credentialed, or lay leaders in order to have a shared understanding of the container we are creating. Faith leadership is not a science, it is where those given the sacred charge of ministry (in all its forms) choose to be in an accountable relationship with the members of the congregation and in many ways an accountable relationship to UUism itself. I center UU values in how I approach my faith leadership, a leadership rooted in religious education.

Revelation is not sealed, and as part of the search for truth and meaning, learning from those most impacted by oppression is a crucial way to learn the ways we need to do better and love more as we work to dismantle systems that actively cause harm.

When the three of us, the current Lead Ministry Team, started our leadership of the CLF, one of the aspects of this ministry we knew we wanted to transform was that of Quest and how this publication can more faithfully serve all of our members, both incarcerated and free world.  The three of us were in agreement that Quest can both include reflections and sermons from faith leaders and our members, both incarcerated and those that are “free.”

In the email I referenced earlier, this CLF member took exception to being called a “free world member.” In retrospect, I realize that this person is accidentally correct to take exception to this term.

As Fannie Lou Hammer said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Every day in the U.S., it is painfully clear how those in power who want to affirm white supremacy and patriarchy are doing all they can to make sure no one is truly free. The rights of half the population have been taken away with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. There are hundreds of anti-trans bills across the United States and there are people running for office in the U.S. that are running on platforms of intentional disenfranchisement of those with target identities. While the CLF is based in the U.S, the results of policies enacted by the U.S. government impact people all over the world.

It is more important than ever that those of us in faith leadership positions center the voices of those most cruelly impacted by the systems of oppression that harm us all.

However, those with privileged identities have been deceived into believing they are separate and somehow protected from oppression. This is a lie. Humans are inextricably connected and the destinies of the most powerful are tied to the most marginalized, history has demonstrated this over and over.

Countries with wealth disparities like the ones we have now in the United States do not last, and in fact topple.

We have an opportunity to save ourselves by caring for each other and learning from each other by being open to the reflections from those who are most in harm’s way. Not only Black people, but also indigenous people, trans people, immigrants, those with seen and unseen disabilities, but also learning from people who are incarcerated, most holding some or all of the identities I just listed.

Let us embrace the opportunity to be nourished and impacted by the reflections of people we may never meet in person, but whose lives matter.

I want to share with you the words of Joseph, an incarcerated UU and CLF member. Joseph shared their reflection of the idea of sacrifice. They write:

The value of sacrifice is relative. Without sacrifice, I would not be here living life as I know it. If my mother hadn’t sacrificed her time and put her dreams on hold, then she wouldn’t have been able to raise me so lovingly. She was 20 years old, barely an adult and I feel certain I wasn’t planned. She probably had many other plans. Maybe traveling, concentrating on school. I thank mom for her sacrifice, it was very valuable to me.

Some sacrifices seem small to us but can be very valuable to the recipient. Perhaps you sacrifice some time once a week to go visit a nursing home. If you have spare time, you would normally watch TV or spend it on the internet, you could make a sacrifice that is of little value to you, but could be of enormous value to the nursing home resident who has no family.

Our sacrifices are offering to the group soul of humanity. No matter how small or large, if it does good for one, it is good for all. Depending on my commitment and intention, my sacrifice doesn’t have to be public. When things are done without my attachment to the result, they are more pure and powerful. Some sacrifice all their lives, in order that others may live. Some make small sacrifices of that social awkwardness to overcome that to share a kind word with a stranger. No matter how small a good thing is, it is still good.

In sharing their reflections in Quest, incarcerated CLF members — people who have had their freedom taken away — are now giving the gift of their presence and reflections.

It is incumbent upon those of us with more privilege to examine our assumptions and do what we can to learn from those most impacted by this cruel and harmful system we call the United States. It is incumbent upon us to center love, community, compassion and liberation.

May we be humble in how we receive and move through this faith community and the world.

Last night, I awakened
from a dream
I dreamed of an America
in which those sworn to protect
and serve, abused and killed instead
An America whose hunger turned barbed
wire into shredded wheat and
stomachs became caskets
An America where masks were discarded
and grown men hid under sheets
as they stormed halls of democracy
An America who forgot her history
her polls claiming hate was history
an animal extinct like polar ice caps
An America in which no one escaped the
brutality of law and order ran amok
or escaped the massacre in a nightclub
or massage parlor
or a high school
or a supermarket
An America that claimed there were “good” Nazis
but… didn’t Uncle Sam go to war
to stop the goose-stepping in ‘44?
An America where a wall grew in a
land that once told a foreign leader
to “tear down this wall”
An America where hatemongers
quoted the words of Dr. King
and you are no longer safe in a church
An America whose Statue of Liberty
was silenced, her torch gone cold
the ashes our new mascara
An America whose populace quaked
slouching towards a coming apocalypse
Was it just a dream?

Gary
CLF member, incarcerated in SC

For our communities to thrive in a fossil-free dream world, we must have robust, equitable clean energy systems that center justice and the lived experiences of those on the front lines of climate change. Focusing on clean energy as a human right elevates just and equitable clean energy strategies like energy justice, energy democracy, community solar, energy efficiency, and more. As many of our congregations are gearing up to apply for Federal funding for clean energy projects, it’s important that we embrace a visionary and prophetic approach that ensures a clean energy future for all - no sacrifice zones! Stay tuned in 2023 as we dig into these issues to help UUs decarbonize our communities, not just our sanctuaries!

UU Ministry For Earth is hosting a special Solstice celebration December 21 that invites us all to pause, reflect, and honor all that life brings. Register here to join.

Transforming our congregations into clean energy hubs

We need to dramatically reduce emissions by 2030 to avert the worst impacts of climate change and preserve a livable planet. It’s critical that we do this work in a way that prioritizes justice. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 44% by 2030. With funds for churches and nonprofits to implement clean energy projects, the IRA is a great opportunity for UUs to reduce our carbon footprint while cultivating communities of care. Now is the time to think big and broad as we consider these clean energy projects in our communities.

How can UU congregations transform to clean energy hubs or centers of community care? Think big!

• Pair solar with energy storage to offer our buildings as community resilience shelters during severe weather or other emergencies causing power outages.

• Energy efficiency upgrades in our buildings improve air quality, community health, wellness, and resilience, all while saving money and reducing emissions. Empower the energy wonks in your congregation to work with lower-income housing groups or neighborhood associations to increase energy efficiency in your community.

• Installing solar or energy efficiency upgrades on our buildings reduces emissions AND saves money we can redirect toward our justice work. Ultimately, these projects generate economic development and jobs, strengthen communities, and create community wealth.

• As our UU teams become experts on the opportunities (we all will, right?), we can partner with other churches or nonprofits in our community to share the knowledge, learn together, and expand access to clean energy.

We’re here to help!

The UUA is partnering with Interfaith Power and Light, Environment and Energy Study Institute, and the United Church of Christ to develop a series of workshops for congregations throughout 2023. Watch the recording of the Federal Funding Resources for Nonprofits & Houses of Worship Briefing today, and sign up for our Climate Justice updates so you don’t miss a beat - and encourage your friends to as well!

Get your congregation ready!

• Form (or revitalize!) your Green Team, and launch Green Sanctuary 2030 in your congregation. GS2030 will help you form a balanced approach to climate action, ensuring justice is at the center. Get a good team inspired and ready to go - with regular support from our monthly community meetings that are open to anyone working on congregational transformation through climate justice.

• Join our Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration on January 19th to honor the decades of work invested by our congregations and make the commitment to climate justice by 2030!

• Benchmark your building

• Get an energy audit from your utility (often they are free)

Resources from the webinar:

• Recording

• Presentation slides

• Native land digital map

• IPL federal resources website

• IPL federal resources spreadsheet

• Cool Congregations website

• DOE Energy Efficiency Materials Pilot Program for Nonprofits

• Sign up for email notifications from DOE

• DOE program RFI (where to submit comments by Dec. 22)

• Zoom chat

• ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager

Side With Love is thrilled to announce 30 Days of Love 2023! Our annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice, 30 Days of Love will go from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 16) through Valentine’s Day (February 14).

This year’s 30 Days of Love is a gift to our whole community: a love letter, a warm hug, a spiritual balm for all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year round. Each week will feature a spiritual theme overlapping with one of Side With Love’s intersectional justice priorities, and we'll share an array of offerings to help nourish your spirit and give gratitude and affirmation.

WEEK 1 (January 16-22): Interdependence :: Democracy & Electoral Justice

WEEK 2 (January 23-29): Embodiment :: LGBTQIA+, Gender & Reproductive Justice

WEEK 3 (January 30 - February 5): Healing :: Decriminalization

WEEK 4 (February 6-12): Resilience :: Climate Justice

BONUS DAYS (February 13-14): Blessings :: Liberatory Intersections 

Each week, you can expect to receive several different kinds of offerings, each from a different voice within Unitarian Universalism. Each week’s resources will be published by 12pm ET every Monday:

• A weekly Side With Love message, grounded in personal story and offered on our blog and via email and socials, reflecting on the week’s spiritual and justice issue themes

• A Time for All Ages grounded in the week’s theme, presented in video and written form, available for free use in your congregation this week or any week it works for you

• A video of Body Practice, suitable for all ages and with attention paid to accessibility for people of varying abilities

• A thematic Prayer, available for use in both video and text formats

• A thematic Blessing, available for use in both video and text formats

• A Grounding Practice to offer at the beginning of gatherings or meetings from our Side WIth Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad, available for use in video and facilitator guide formats

We offer these resources knowing various people will use them in a range of ways. Individuals may take a quick break during their lunch hour to watch a video blessing or read the week’s prayer; religious educators might use the Time for All Ages in worship, or encourage teachers to start their classes with the Body Practice; families might start a family meal reading one of the written reflections and then engaging in conversation; Board members and committee chairs might use the Grounding Practice to kick of that week’s meeting agenda. Please note that while we are not offering a full worship service as a part of 30 Days of Love this year, we hope that many of these weekly resources can be useful in your worship planning now and throughout the liturgical year. 

However you use these resources, we are proud to bring you the love and wisdom of some of our most compelling UU voices, and are thankful for this annual opportunity to collectively nourish our spirits and love each other up for the long haul. 

In 2012, Minnesota become the first state in the nation to defeat an anti-gay marriage bill – a massive campaign and a watershed victory, won in large part by progressive religious folks having one-to-one conversations about their values with tens of thousands of people across the state. When Karen and I moved to Minneapolis in 2014, however, the new availability of marriage to queer folks meant that if we didn’t choose to get legally married, I (and our soon-to-be-born second child) couldn’t access health coverage through my partner’s job, along with many other legal protections and benefits available only through state-sanctioned marriage.  

Karen and I were clear that our covenant was between ourselves and the Holy – not the State. We would not have chosen to participate in the institution of legal marriage if we felt like we had a choice. While it was wildly unfair that the benefits conferred upon married people weren’t available to so many of our beloveds for an array of reasons, we also knew that refusing to protect ourselves and our children on pure principle would not bend the arc toward justice. So, on a lunch break on a November Tuesday, when I was 37 weeks pregnant, we had a perfunctory wedding in front of a judge at the Minneapolis courthouse and signed the paperwork making our union legitimate in the eyes of the law. 

The following summer, infant child in tow, we were at UUA General Assembly the day the Supreme Court announced their decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, making “marriage equality” the law of the land. Unitarian Universalists had been on the frontlines of this issue for years, and the decision was received by the several thousand UUs gathered in the Portland Convention Center with utter jubilation. While I celebrated alongside my siblings in faith – especially the gay and lesbian elders for whom this victory was profoundly significant – I also remember thinking, “What would be possible if Unitarian Universalists gave as much energy, money, and organizing to other struggles for justice as we have for marriage equality?” 

What I feared back then was that we as UUs–like many liberal advocacy groups at that time– would receive the Obergefell decision as an indicator that the work for LGBTQ+ justice was over; that our organizing energy would dissipate, instead of charging forward to organize for protection and rights and safety and freedom for trans people, BIPOC communities, disabled folks, people in a variety of family configurations–everyone who wouldn’t benefit equally from “marriage equality.” 

I’m thankful that since 2015, UU support for LGBTQ+ liberation hasn’t disappeared. We’ve watched the growth of powerful queer and trans leadership within UUism. We’ve deepened our congregational work through the Five Practices of Welcome Renewal program. Congregations and State Action Networks have shown up powerfully at school board meetings and legislatures to fight against laws criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare and teaching about sexuality and gender in schools. Our recent launch of Side With Love’s UPLIFT Action campaign for LGBTQ+, Gender & Reproductive Justice is a testament to what we have built together, and the power of our faithful action to declare that every body is sacred. Given the attacks on queer and trans people occurring everywhere from courtrooms to city council chambers to nightclubs, it’s a good thing we continue to grow our capacity to stay in the struggle for the long haul. 

The Respect for Marriage Act is not a victory for LGBTQ liberation – at best, it is harm reduction for a few that leaves the most vulnerable among us behind. Although the mainstream media continues to note that this is “groundbreaking bipartisan legislation,” lawmakers agreed to profound concessions in order to get the bill passed. In effect, this bill will only ensure that should the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell, state and federal governments will be obligated to recognize existing legal marriages. The bill makes it clear that neither churches nor non-profits (like adoption agencies) will face any consequences for denying the legitimacy of same-sex marriages. And just for good measure, the bill reaffirms that legal marriage is defined as the union between two people, explicitly leaving out poly relationships. As one commentator put it, “They’re throwing us crumbs because they can’t serve us safety and dignity.” 

Frankly, I’m furious we’re still fighting about marriage at all – that we continue to live in a society in which access to basic human rights and freedoms is doled out via an institution that has never been accessible to all people. I’m furious that progressive movements have poured – and will now likely keep pouring – our energy, our resources, our capacity, and our strategy into the struggle for so-called “marriage equality,” which provides safety and access to so few people. And I’m irate that even if we’re able to protect “equal marriage,” we will still have to keep fighting for financial stability, citizenship, healthcare, recognition of familial structures, and more for entire populations of disabled people, undocumented folks, BIPOC communities, poor people, and people whose primary familial relationships happen not to be a romantic relationship between two people. As many noted warriors for queer and trans liberation have noted, marriage will never set us free.

So what comes next? We get very clear that the fight for marriage rights is not the same as the fight for trans and queer liberation. We sharpen our analysis on disability justice, immigration justice, racial justice, gender justice, capitalism, white Christian nationalism – all the systems that prevent so many members of our communities from accessing the safety and stability that marriage purports to offer. We redouble our organizing for a more just immigration system; for universal healthcare; for life-affirming legislation that protects and affirms queer and trans people regardless of who they happen to be in state-sanctioned relationship with. 

To Side With Love means to fight for collective liberation for queer and trans people for the long haul.

In the coming months, we will offer several opportunities to learn, reflect, and take action together. If you haven’t yet, please sign up here to receive updates about our UPLIFT Action campaign for LGBTQ+, Gender, and Reproductive Justice. We’re grateful to be in the struggle with you, beloveds, taking our shifts to get each and every one of us free. 

In faith and solidarity,

Rev. Ashley Horan

Side With Love Organizing Strategy Director

Side With Love is partnering with Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) and the Energy and Environmental Study Institute (EESI) to host a briefing to learn about the benefits included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that can help houses of worship do energy work on their facilities. 

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most sweeping clean energy and climate legislation in history. With clean energy tax credits for wind and solar, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, heat pumps, and more, the IRA sets a course to reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 44% by 2030, while saving thousands of lives, creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs, investing in environmental justice, and reducing energy bills for working families across the country.  Although it’s not perfect, the IRA presents an historic opportunity for climate action.   

The IRA opens the way for non-profits and houses of worship to access clean energy funds and tax credits.  UU Congregations can now leverage federal funds for energy and resiliency improvements.  This is a critical time for people of faith to reduce the impact of our congregational facilities through the federal funding opportunities.   

Additionally, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides the Department of Energy with $50 million over five years for an "energy efficiency materials pilot program" for nonprofit organizations. This new program will provide grants of up to $200,000 to nonprofits to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities.  

Join Interfaith Power & Light, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the United Church of Christ, and the Unitarian Universalist Association for a briefing on Federal Funding Resources for Nonprofits and Houses of Worship on December 8 at 4pm ET/1pm PT.  Learn how to prepare to apply for Energy Efficiency Materials Pilot Program grants for your congregation’s energy efficiency work.

Register Now

Additional resources:

Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice

Join fellow UUs working on congregational transformation through climate justice.  Climate justice calls us to reduce the emissions that cause climate change, adapt to changing climate conditions, and increase resilience to worsening climate impacts through congregational transformation and community engagement. We must balance the urgency of the climate crisis with the need to center justice in our actions. Opening our minds and hearts to learn and collaborate with communities most impacted will ensure a just transition to a clean energy future where all can thrive.

Join the Green Sanctuary community!

• Introduce yourself to Green Sanctuary staff and volunteers by emailing UUA_GreenSanctuary@UUA.org.

• Engage in the Green Sanctuary Process

• Subscribe to the Green Sanctuary Email List

Come together for shared learning and mutual support with other UUs working on congregational transformation through climate justice on the third Wednesday of the month at 7ET - 6CT - 5MT - 4PT. Each meeting includes a short presentation on a climate justice topic, followed by open discussion on pressing needs.  

• Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration

January 18, 2023 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM CT

online

The Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration will spotlight the amazing work UUs are doing through the GS2030 program. Active Green Sanctuary congregations will share their successes, challenges, and ideas. Come to learn, leave inspired! All are welcome!

Faith Community Resource Spreadsheet

IPL has created this faith community resource spreadsheet to help houses of worship identify federal grant and tax credit opportunities that are available.  Federal agencies are still in the process of developing the guidance and programs for the Inflation Reduction Act. This IPL resource document will be updated as new program guidance becomes available. 

IPL’s Cool Congregations Calculator 

Now is a great time to benchmark your buildings – line up 12 months of utility bills, find out the construction date of your building, track occupancy rates, and use IPL’s Cool Congregations Calculator to learn more about your congregation’s carbon footprint. 

November 2022

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. —Dorothy Day

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Our theme for the month of November is comunidad // community. In honor of that bilingual theme and the Spanish-speaking members of our CLF family, some parts of this issue of Quest are in both English and Spanish. Would you like to see more Spanish language content from the CLF? Please write to us with your thoughts, we would love to hear from you! As always, we’re so grateful to be in community with you.

Nuestro tema para el mes de noviembre es comunidad // community. En honor a este tema bilingüe y a los miembros de habla hispana de nuestra familia CLF, algunas partes de esta edición de Quest están en inglés y en español. ¿Les gustaría ver más contenido en español de CLF?  Escríbanos por favor con sus pensamientos, ¡nos encantaría saber de ustedes! Como siempre, estamos muy agradecidos de estar en comunidad con ustedes.

Our hearts break open for the pain of the world. For the pain of our planet, whose delicate balance has come undone, and for all her creatures. For mudslides and floods, for rising seas and melting ice, for storms and droughts.

Our hearts break open for the pain of nations. For the cries of war, for the brutality of despots and dictators. For bombs and guns, trained on enemies whose hearts beat the same as ours. For leaders whose greed goes unchecked while their people starve, whose anger defies reason and ignores compassion.

Our hearts break open for the pain of communities. For hatred that marches down the street, and for history that has not yet been relegated to the past. For acts of terror that leave blood in their wake, for cries for help that go unanswered, for every time those sworn to protect instead inflict harm, for the brutality of our carceral state.

Our hearts break open for the pain in our homes. For sickness and death, for abuse and its aftermath. For those we desperately want to help but cannot. For relationships that require constant work, and for the anger that erupts to signal yet more work is needed. For children who struggle to keep up, bodies that no longer do what we want them to, and siblings who lose sight of what is most precious. Our hearts break open for the everyday pain that being connected and vulnerable brings to us.

Our hearts break open for the pain in our hearts. For the mistakes we’re still beating ourselves up over. For the imperfections we have yet to embrace. For relationships we have lost and fear are irreconcilable, amends we have yet to make with those we have hurt, and the unfinished business of forgiving ourselves. Our hearts break open for life.

If you care about the world, your heart breaks open on a regular basis. If you care about another person, your heart breaks open on a regular basis. This business we call life, it breaks our hearts open wide. Again and again. And as our hearts break open, we have an opportunity to put them back together differently—to put them back together connected to one another.

Juana Bordas, in her book Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, challenges us to move from “I” to “we,” from the individualism rampant in modern-day European and Euro-American society to a collectivism found in Native American, Latino, African, and African-American communities. As Bordas writes from her own experience, “Latinos cherish belonging, group benefit, mutuality, and reciprocity. Interdependency, cooperation, and mutual assistance are the norm.”

Forming real relationships in community means engaging in the vulnerability of exposing our hearts to the world. And it means finding ways to engage in healing our hearts together—as one community, as a “we” instead of simply a collection of individuals. Forming real community means finding ways of mutuality and connection.

Beloved, you are not alone. You are part of a “we” that extends beyond your understanding. Let us knit our hearts together in community and commit ourselves to mutuality, curiosity, reciprocity, and cooperation.

//

Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor del mundo. Por el dolor de nuestro planeta, cuyo delicado equilibrio se ha roto, y por todas sus criaturas. Por avalanchas de barro e inundaciones, por el aumento del nivel del mar y el derretimiento del hielo, por tormentas y sequías.

Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor de las naciones. Por los gritos de guerra, por la brutalidad de déspotas y dictadores. Por bombas y cañones dirigidos a enemigos cuyos corazones laten igual que el nuestro. Por líderes cuya codicia crece incontrolable mientras su gente se muere de hambre, y cuya ira desafía la razón e ignora la compasión.

Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor de las comunidades. Por el odio que marcha calle abajo, y por la historia que aún no ha quedado relegada en el pasado. Por los actos de terror que dejan sangre a su paso, por los gritos de auxilio que quedan sin respuesta, por cada vez que los que juraron protegernos hacen daño, por la brutalidad de nuestro estado carcelario.

Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor en nuestros hogares. Por la enfermedad y la muerte, por el abuso y sus secuelas. Por aquellos que queremos ayudar desesperadamente pero no podemos. Por las relaciones que requieren un trabajo constante, y por la ira que estalla para indicar que se necesita más trabajo. Por los niños que luchan para no quedarse atrás, por los cuerpos que ya no hacen lo que queremos que hagan y por los hermanos que pierden de vista lo más preciado. Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor cotidiano que nos causa el estar conectados y vulnerables.

Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por el dolor en nuestros corazones. Por los errores por los que todavía nos estamos castigando. Por las imperfecciones que aún tenemos que aceptar. Por las relaciones que hemos perdido y que tememos son irreconciliables, por las enmiendas que aún tenemos que hacer con aquellos a quienes hemos lastimado y la tarea pendiente de perdonarnos a nosotros mismos. Nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren por la vida.

Si te preocupas por el mundo, tu corazón se rompe y se abre regularmente. Si te preocupas por otra persona, tu corazón se rompe y se abre regularmente. Este asunto que llamamos vida, nos rompe y abre el corazón de par en par. Una y otra vez. Y a medida que nuestros corazones se rompen y se abren, tenemos la oportunidad de volver a unirlos de manera diferente, de volver a unirlos conectados con otros corazones.

Juana Bordas, en su libro Salsa, Alma y Espíritu, nos desafía a pasar del “yo” al “nosotros,” del individualismo desenfrenado de la sociedad europea y euroamericana de hoy en día a un colectivismo que se encuentra en los nativos americanos, los latinos, las comunidades africanas y afroamericanas. Según escribe Bordas a partir de su propia experiencia, “los latinos valoran la pertenencia, el beneficio grupal, la colaboración y la reciprocidad. La interdependencia, la cooperación y la asistencia mutua son la norma.”

Formar relaciones reales en comunidad significa comprometerse con la vulnerabilidad de exponer nuestros corazones al mundo. Y significa encontrar formas de participar juntos en la sanación de nuestros corazones, como una comunidad, como un “nosotros”, en lugar de simplemente una colección de individuos. Formar una comunidad real significa encontrar formas de reciprocidad y conexión.

Amados, no están solos. Son parte de un “nosotros” que se extiende más allá de su comprensión. Unamos nuestros corazones en comunidad y comprometámonos con la colaboración, la curiosidad, la reciprocidad y la cooperación.

Who makes up your community? What role does community play in your life?

On Community

Talib (Anthony)
CLF Member, incarcerated in IL

My community consists of two parts: 1) my fellow prisoners, and 2) those who correspond, speak on the phone, or visit. Each plays a necessary role helping me to maintain some semblance of mental and physical stability.

I’ve been incarcerated for almost 17 years, and if it wasn’t for my community I don’t believe that I’d be here writing this for you. They have been there in my loneliest moments, my rock bottom, and have talked me back from the edge.

The first part of my community that I’d like to talk about is my fellow prisoners. There are guys who I’ve known for over a decade, living day-in and day-out with them; they know me better than my own family does. There is your cellmate: when you live in a bathroom with another person for years, you can’t help but develop a bond with them. You eat together, sleep around them, celebrate birthdays and holidays together, and when you’re going through hard times, that’s who you share them with. You are at your most vulnerable around them.

Beyond the cellmate, you also develop a familial bond with those around you. When you do so much time, you are living a life, and when you have people that do that much time with you, they become your family — you end up sharing big life moments together. When a brother of mine became a grandfather, he shared that with me. He got off the phone and called out to me, beaming, “Talib, my daughter just had a kid. I’m a grandpa!”

There were years that I went without anyone because my family and friends on the outside had abandoned me to live their own lives. I had nothing coming in, no one to help, and I had to rely only on my own devices. I had to build a community of people around me in here who helped when I needed it the most: they supported my business, they would cook and send me something to eat, and if I was in desperate need, all I had to do was ask them for help.

A quick anecdote that puts it into perspective: my last night in a maximum security prison, my property was packed up, so I had nothing, and the cellhouse had already gone to commissary that day. My friends and neighbors all contributed food items and snacks, and they cooked burritos to celebrate my transfer to a medium security prison. They even threw me a going away party.

Now, I’d like to speak on the second part of my community: those who correspond with me, speak on the phone, or visit from the outside. I’d like to speak directly to those who are reading this who write to individuals in prison — you are so important. You are our connection to a world outside of this one, and sometimes a connection to a community that some of us have never known.

I know that it may not always seem like it, or maybe you have a pen pal who asks for so much that it seems they are taking advantage of you, but remember that you may be the most important connection that person has. Imagine that you have been starving for years, barely surviving on scraps, and then someone comes to you with a plate of doughnuts. Are you going to take just one and nibble on it? No, you’re probably going to devour as many as you can before the plate gets taken away. As a pen pal on the outside, you may be the first person who’s cared about them in a long time.

Sending books, magazines, and anything else; taking the time to write or answer the phone; and caring about our wellbeing all goes a long way in making us feel connected to the outside world. We lean on you out there. We do not have the means to connect to the world, nor the resources to obtain the means — you are that.

Human beings are social in nature, and community is key to our survival. It is no different for those of us who are in prison. We lose so much when we’re incarcerated, so we turn to connection and community to survive, mentally and physically. My community has helped me to make it through.

I appreciate all those in my community, inside and out. You’re the reason that I’m able to write this.

Correctional Community

Gary
CLF member, incarcerated in SC

Prison is a microcosm of the larger society. You will find individuals from virtually every walk of life serving time. I have met former doctors, dentists, attorneys, police officers, airline pilots, business owners, ministers and people from all aspects of society. Just as in every community.

Rare, however, is that sense of community behind these walls. Prison often acts to separate and even isolate individuals in a “me versus the rest of the world” mentality. Feelings of having to constantly be “on guard” and being unable to extend trust and friendship for fear of being taken as “weak” is bred into the atmosphere.

The foundation of any community is trust. Attributes of community are a sense of responsibility and unity. Overcoming the despair and sense of isolation requires the willingness to step out in faith, extend oneself, and become vulnerable.

Here at MacDougall C.I. in South Carolina there exists this sense of community. The Men Achieving Character or MAC Unit is built upon the community mind orientation to foster a prosocial environment, accountability, spiritual growth, and responsibility to each other and ourselves. Acceptance, zero-tolerance for violence or conduct degrading to humanity for oneself is enforced.

This bond is unique. It acts to reverse all the negativity so often found behind the wire and replace it with a spirit of community. Built upon teamwork, a positive mental attitude, and social responsibility, one is typically greeted by others with a smile and “good morning”; there are random acts of kindness and generosity, and an environment that encourages development of skills leading to a successful transition back into the larger society.

Acceptance, tolerance, kindness, a spirit of unity: all these are vital components of my community here.

“Where two or more are gathered
There I am also…”
(Adapted from Matthew 18:20)

In a recent conversation with other religious professionals at Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) Fall Con—the annual conference for religious educators—Aisha Hauser, one of our CLF lead ministers,  invited us to name what gives us joy and what sustains us in these difficult times that feel like a slow-moving apocalypse. Some of us named family, and some of us named fun hobbies; what became clear in that conversation was that communal joy, and the sharing of it, was a key ingredient to gaining resilience in these challenging times. Community gives us strength and amplifies joy. Knowing that we are part of something larger than ourselves can be comforting, it can help us feel less buffeted by the challenges of our lives.

The Church of the Larger Fellowship is just that: a great community of communities made up of people connected and committed to reminding each other that we are more together, that we can take turns at the resistance, that cultivating and growing communal joy is part of what helps us stay stronger and focused on the collective liberation and transformation of all.

One of the tasks of the Nominating Committee is to help our community leadership stay fresh and strong. The Nom Com knows that the lead ministry team and staff of our church need the energy and joy and enthusiasm of leaders to co-create our future. Does CLF help you grow your joy and keep your eyes on the prize? Would you like to join leadership teams to continue to work for liberation and transformation at church?

Nominating is seeking individuals who are actively involved in our congregation to assist how we engage in ministry, leadership, and governance together. Specifically, we are looking for individuals to serve on Nominating who are committed to matching peoples’ gifts with opportunities to contribute and who understand the role of Nominating in widening the circle of care and leadership on Nominating and the Board.

We are also seeking individuals to serve on the Board who are deeply rooted in Unitarian Universalism. The Board and Nom Com are explicitly seeking ways to incorporate CLF members with personal or familial experience with incarceration, as we continue the journey of involving incarcerated and recently incarcerated members in leadership opportunities.

Please let us know if you or someone you know is interested in this way of investing in our community. Email nominating@clfuu.org with the subject “Board/Committee Interest” and let us know if you would like to learn more about leadership opportunities at CLF, or if you think someone in your circles would be an excellent person to recruit.  Thank you!

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En una conversación reciente con otros profesionales religiosos en la reunión anual de Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA)—la asociación de directores liberales de educación religiosa—Aisha Hauser, miembra del equipo líder de CLF, nos invitó a nombrar lo que nos da alegría y nos ayuda a sobrellevar estos tiempos tan difíciles. Algunos de nosotros nombramos actividades creativas, y otros nombramos la importancia de nuestras familias; lo que quedó muy claro en nuestra conversación es que la alegría comunal, y el poder compartirla, es un ingrediente fundamental para generar resiliencia en estos tiempos de apocalipsis lenta.

La Iglesia de la Gran Comunidad es exactamente eso: una gran comunidad compuesta de otras comunidades más pequeñas, todas con personas conectadas y comprometidas a recordarnos los unos a los otros que juntos somos más, que podemos tomar turnos en la resistencia, que al cultivar y crecer la alegría comunal estamos ayudándonos a mantener la fuerza y el enfoque hacia la liberación y la transformación de todas las personas y todas las instituciones.

Una de las tareas del Comité de Nombramiento es ayudar a mantener un liderazgo comunal que es fuerte y vital. El Com Nom (nuestra abreviación cariñosa) sabe que el equipo líder y el personal que trabaja en nuestra iglesia necesitan la alegría y la energía y el entusiasmo de nuestros muchos líderes en esta gran comunidad, para co-crear nuestro futuro. ¿Te ayuda esta Iglesia de la Gran Comunidad a crecer tu alegría y mantener tu compromiso a la liberación? ¿Te gustaría unirte a los equipos de liderazgo que también están comprometidos a este cambio?

El Comité de Nombramiento busca a individuos que ya son activos en nuestra gran comunidad y que quieren asistir en nuestros esfuerzos de ministerio, gobernancia y cambio. Específicamente, buscamos a gente que tiene la habilidad de aparear los dones naturales de las personas con oportunidades para contribuir, y que entienden que este comité juega un papel importante al crecer el círculo de cuidado y atención en nuestra comunidad.

También buscamos a individuos que les interesa ofrecer sus habilidades en la Junta Directiva, y que ya tienen una profunda conexión al Universalismo Unitario. La Junta Directiva y el Comité de Nombramiento están conduciendo una búsqueda explícita de miembros de la Iglesia de la Gran Comunidad que tienen experiencia directa (en persona o en familia cercana) con el sistema de encarcelamiento. Deseamos seguir explorando oportunidades de liderazgo en particular para esos miembros.

Déjenos saber si tú o algún conocido tiene/n interés en este tipo de contribución a nuestra comunidad. Manda un email a nominating@clfuu.org con el tema “Interés en la Junta Directiva/Comité” y haznos saber a quien debemos invitar, o si quieres recibir más información.  ¡Gracias!

The CLF Nominating Committee: Michele Grove, Gail Forsyth-Vail, Debra Gray Boyd, and Julica Hermann de la Fuente

This evening, we are still processing the mass murder at Club Q in Colorado Springs overnight even as we commemorate all the trans beloveds whose lives have been stolen on this Trans Day of Remembrance. Tonight, we are reminded yet again of the violence that lies at the core of white Christian nationalism, whether in the form of guns aimed at our queer and trans beloveds, or legislation designed to criminalize our very existence. We at Side With Love will continue to fight for a world in which all bodies are treated as sacred; to join our UPLIFT Action campaign for LGBTQ+, Gender & Reproductive Justice, click here. 

To our beloved trans and queer family,

If your heart is broken, we weep with you. 

May you sense how fiercely you are held in love.

If your fists are frozen in rage, we scream our fury alongside you. 

May you be warmed by the white-hot heat of our righteous solidarity.

If your stomach drops with terror, we tremble with you. 

May you feel the strength of the safety we wrap around one another.

If your bones are weary, we sink down next to you. 

May deep rest be the companion of your grief.

And, beloveds, remember:

All of us–

the high femmes, the faeries, the twinks, the gender transgressors, the panromantics,

the dykes, the bears, the studs, the butches, the homos, the androgynes, 

the aces, the demibois, the zaddies, the graysexuals, the baby queers – 

all the delicious, unexpected, gorgeously beloved incarnations of us – 

we are made from stardust and and leather and honey 

and Love.

Even on the todays, 

the mornings when mourning our dead and fearing for our lives 

is the metallic aftertaste on our tongues:

We still dance because the surging electric life force 

that loved us into being and that pulses through our veins 

is too powerful to stay inert and unmoving. 

How could we be still?

We still sing because the defiant hymns of our ancestors 

reverberate in the tiniest interstices between our cells. 

How can we keep from singing?

We still congregate because like root systems and constellations and watersheds,

the molecules of our being only make sense 

when we are intertwined and inseparable 

and powerfully free in our interdependence. 

How could we do other than to claim and choose each other, every day?

We dance our resistance.

We sing our belovedness.

We gather each other up 

and we do not let go.

As is our vow, today and all days:

we will mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.

And all the while, we will repeat this truth

Til it is lodged in our bones and

And undisputed anywhere:

We were meant for life, for abundance, for freedom.

We were made for joy.

In faith and solidarity,

Rev. Ashley Horan

Side With Love Organizing Strategy Director

Thank you so much for signing up for “Community Conversation”, the third and final workshop in our series on “Climate Resilience through Disaster Response & Community Care”. Whether you attended in real-time or plan to watch the recording later, we are grateful for your commitment to building communities of care in the face of climate disasters.

• View the recording

Recording and materials for Session 1

Recording and materials for Session 2

Next Steps

How can we continue to grow community around climate disaster preparedness and response?  What do UUs need to foster communities of care in the face of climate change?  How can we work together to cultivate thriving communities?  

Tell us what you need! 

Thank you for engaging in one or more of the workshops on Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care.  We’ve loved learning alongside UUs across the country on ways we can make our communities stronger and more resilient.  For our final workshop in the series, we want to hear from you! 

How can we support your Climate Disaster Response and Community Care initiatives?

Please let us know what you learned from the workshops, what challenges you're facing as you organize climate disaster response in your congregation, and - most importantly - how we can help!  The Side With Love Team is here for you.  Tell us what you need!

We have all sorts of ideas: We could host regional meetings!  We could organize gatherings around climate disaster topics like fire or floods!  We can put together more resources!  The possibilities are endless!  Tell us what would be most impactful to your work on these issues.  Help us build this work together!

Please let us know what you need by filling out this brief survey. 

When we launched UPLIFT Action, it was a sacred declaration that our bodies are worthy of protection and love.  We reminded ourselves that the movements for LGBTQ+ Justice, Gender Justice, and Reproductive Justice are all rooted in a deep reverence for every person’s right and access to bodily autonomy.  We celebrated that our communities are so much stronger and more joyous when we resist together, create for and with each other, and refuse to let anyone convince us that only one of us can win at a time.  

Tuesday night, we experienced the complex mix of joy, relief, and anguish that comes from faithfully upholding the truth that our liberation is necessarily collective.  Our bodies - our worth -  were on the ballot in several ways.  From statewide propositions preserving or denying the right to reproductive autonomy and freedom, to candidates who have openly declared their hatred for transgender and queer people, to ballot initiatives deciding whether or not slavery should still be allowed in prisons - this midterm election both buoyed and attacked our shared struggles for our bodies and lives.

We also know that this year is by no means the first time the sacred right to bodily autonomy, and the inherent right to be seen and treated as human, has been on the ballot.  What we are witnessing this year is inextricably tied to a centuries-long system and collection of structures designed explicitly to control and criminalize black and brown bodies, disabled bodies, bodies with addictions and mental illness, femme and female bodies - any bodies that do not “fit” into a colonialist, white supremacist, cisheteropatriarchal, and Christian supremacist definition of what is right or worthy.  Nor is this the first time our bodies - queer, transgender, and/or potentially capable of supporting pregnancy - have been reduced to the pawns of political manipulation and plays for power.

The reality we are surviving and persevering through is that our bodies have always been subject to literal, political, and spiritual policing.  The fullness of humanity has never been fully respected or revered by the laws and institutions we continue to challenge and reshape.  This year’s midterm elections include the latest efforts to deny the sacredness of communities and individuals who challenge a narrow, oppressive, and violently evil ideal of what is good.

But within our centuries-long struggle there is a genuine blessing - our growing presence and power.  As our movement consistently expands our understanding of who is being denied their humanity, we are also expanding our vision of what true bodily autonomy entails.  The collective liberation that our Unitarian Universalist faith tells us is not only possible but necessary offers a nourishing balm that continues to bring more hearts and souls to our movements.

This midterm election, we witnessed how our struggles and visions are capable of bringing us closer to that liberated world our bodies need.  Building on our summer victory in Kansas, pro-choice advocates won decisively in all five state initiatives on abortion.  Michigan, Vermont and California voters embedded reproductive freedom within their state constitutions, while the people of Montana and Kentucky defeated anti-choice measures.  These ongoing, democratically-shaped outcomes protecting the legality of abortion are an undeniable statement that bodily autonomy is majority value.  We as a people are growing in our recognition that the policing of our bodies is a violation of their worth, and are changing our laws and institutions as a result. 

We also witnessed that there is more struggling and visioning ahead.  We know that some of the candidates who have won their races are inciting and codifying violence against transgender and non-binary people, particularly among our youth.  We know that we will continue to face those values that are so counter to our understanding of welcome and care, and that it will at times be exhausting and terrifying.  But we also know that our shared struggle, our faithful vision, will continue to grow in power and numbers as it always has.

As my colleague, UU the Vote Campaign Manager JaZahn Hicks recently wrote: “As we have seen so clearly time and time again, there is value in the work of faithful organizing. We are not tied to a radical political ideology but an ideology of radical love and faith. [Our work] has always been prophetic and not partisan.”

Let’s bask in this radical love and faith, beloveds, so we are strengthened, supported, and inspired to remember that our – and every – body is sacred.

In faith and solidarity,

Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Justice Organizer

Side With Love

In order to achieve climate justice, we need significant policy shifts supported by powerful grassroots organizing. We must pressure governments for meaningful climate action, while advancing climate solutions in our communities to ensure that all people can thrive.  We also need time to regroup, unlearn, and learn anew.  With all of this in mind, we invite you to engage in one or all of the exciting climate justice opportunities this month.  You could start by joining the final workshop in our Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care series on Tuesday, November 15 at 7 ET, or zoom in to get the latest updates on COP 27 Activities with the UUMFE Daily Discussions on COP27.  Last, but not least, we invite you to Rethink Thanksgiving.

Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care:  Community Conversation

Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? This is the third workshop in our series which includes Assessing Climate Impacts & Making Connections, Mobilizing for Action, and finally, Community Conversation, which takes place on Tuesday, November 15 at 7ET.  Connect with other UUs to discuss the issues and identify opportunities for learning, reflection, and action with Side With Love. 

COP27

The Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a critical annual convening where the 198 Parties of the UN who signed the Convention on Climate Change meet to negotiate multilateral responses to climate change.  The UUA, UUSC, and UUMFE send delegates to COP to represent our UU values.  

COP27 will be held from 6-18 November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh.  The UUA is approved to send observers from civil society to COP 27 through the UU Service Committee (UUSC) and UUA at the UN Office and will elevate these key priorities:

1.  Ensure the active & meaningful participation of civil society from the global south.

2.  Protect the human rights of civil society and their freedom of expression

3.  Act swiftly to address the issue of climate-forced displacement (see the UU Joint Statement on Climate-forced Displacement, Human Rights, and Community Resilience).

     a.  Mitigation

     b.  Loss & Damage

     c.  Adaptation & Resilience

     d.  Climate Finance (see Take Action with UUSJ below)

For background, check out UUSC’s What is COP27 and Why Does It Matter?, watch COP 27 Events Live & On Demand via YouTube, or join UUMFE Daily Discussions on COP27 with Doris Marlin and Dr. Bill McPherson that will happen periodically through December 7.

Rethinking Thanksgiving

Indigenous solidarity is an essential part of the struggle for racial and environmental justice. It is critical that we deepen our commitment to Indigenous Sovereignty in ourselves and in our movements, take collective action towards land rematriation and support efforts to ensure a just and sustainable existence for all of our future generations.

Join American Indian Law Alliance, NDNCollective, Tonatierra, Sogorea Te Land Trust and the Indigenous Solidarity Network (made up of SURJ, Resource Generation and Catalyst Project) for “Rethinking Thanksgiving: From Land Acknowledgement to LANDBACK” on Sunday, November 20 at 1pm PT/4pm ET. This webinar is an invitation to interrogate so-called Thanksgiving, and move beyond the myths of America's history with Indigenous People on Turtle Island.

Register for the webinar here: bit.ly/rethinkingthanksgiving2022

From tar sands pipelines across Turtle Island to Arctic oil and gas drilling, Indigenous campaigns of resistance continue to lead the way in protecting future generations against the destruction of sacred lands and waterways.

Moving into a deeper understanding of how colonialism is embedded into our frameworks and systems builds our capacity to be better allies to Indigenous Peoples. In this webinar, we will hear from the frontlines of Indigenous efforts to resist violence and colonization fueled by the current extractive economic system and gather ways to further and deepen solidarity with Indigenous resistance including land rematriation.

Live Captioning, ASL and Spanish interpretation will be available on the call. Fill out this form https://forms.gle/zwK4cAsy3wYkBWvi8 for questions about accessibility.

Thank you so much for signing up for the “Mobilizing for Action,” the second workshop in our series on “Climate Resilience through Disaster Response & Community Care”.  Whether you were able to attend in real-time or plan to watch the recording later, we are grateful for your commitment to building communities of care in the face of climate disasters.   

Next steps:  

1. Make sure you RSVP for the third and final workshop in this series: Community Conversations on November 15.  We encourage you to invite 1 or 2 more people from your congregation to attend, so we can continue to grow our community of support!

2. Check out the  Climate Disaster Response for UUs Guide.  This guide is chock full of tools and resources to help individuals and congregations to Assess Climate Impacts and Mobilize for Action.  Every community is different, and climate impacts will vary at the hyper-local level.  Some neighborhoods may be devastated by a hurricane while others experience only minor impacts.  Adequate preparation and response for climate disasters must center the lived experiences and impacts of climate disasters on those most at risk.  We’ve paired tools for each section to help you think through every step of the process.

3. Join the conversation!  If you are looking for another place to connect with others working on climate justice, join us on the Side With Love Slack Channel.  You can join at this link:  http://bit.ly/SideWithLoveSlack. Check out the #climate-justice-general or #climate-justice-green-sanctuary channels to find your people! 

4. Tell us what you’re doing and what you need!  We’d love to hear how your congregation is preparing for climate disasters and how we can help!  Please email RMyslivy@UUA.org and let us know!

Resources & Materials from Session 2

Linked below are materials & resources from our October 25 session on “Mobilizing for Action.” These resources and more can be found in the UUA Climate Disaster Prep Google Drive Folder.

• Climate Disaster Preparedness Guide for UUs 

• Climate Disaster Response for UUs Materials & Resources

• Assessing Climate Impacts & Mobilizing for Action Worksheet - gdoc - doc - pdf

• Case Study-  gdoc - doc - pdf 

• Reflections: Case Study to Reality  - gdoc - doc - pdf

• Assessing Climate Impacts Graphic Worksheet - pdf

• Climate Disaster Congregational Asset Mapping Tool - pdf & gdoc

In addition, you can access a copy of the slides or watch the recordings from previous workshops at the links below:

September 27 slides - recording

October 25 slides - recording 

We invite you to share this recording and these resources with others in your congregation as you explore how to incorporate what was discussed into your own efforts to support your community through any experiences of climate disaster. Consider consulting with key congregational leadership to complete your Congregational Asset Map, or begin to identify who in your broader community has the most direct knowledge and experience of the climate threats in your area. 

If you have any other questions or ideas for how we can support your organizing for climate justice in the face of climate disasters, please email us at Environment@UUA.org. We want to hear from you about what kind of gatherings, workshops, or coaching will help you live your UU values to the fullest in community

 

We look forward to seeing you again on November 15!

 

In faith & justice, 

Rachel Myslivy Rev. Ranwa Hammamy

Climate Justice Organizer Congregational Justice Organizer

Side with Love Side With Love

If you pay attention to climate issues, you know that not a day goes by without at least one major headline, whether it's a hurricane, wildfire, political posturing, or new technology; climate is in the news. I'll tell you that my heart has been heavy this past week or so because of a headline I saw explaining that animal populations have declined almost 70% since 1970.

One of my mentors used to say that focusing on climate change is too small and sustainability isn’t enough.  We also have to think about species extinction, environmental justice, and the many other intersecting social and environmental justice issues.

As for sustainability not being enough: You don't want your marriage to be sustainable; you want it to flourish!

So even as I've been mourning the loss of all of the blessed, beautiful creatures, I've been holding in my mind and heart all of the blessed, beautiful creatures who remain, who make our world the beautiful, blessed place that it is. I’ve been trying to visualize the creatures I love flourishing - the manatees, blue whales, black-footed ferrets, wolves, American burying beetles (I have a soft spot for decomposers), Mead's Milkweed, California Redwoods, and all the others….flourishing. Our world, flourishing.

We know that we are losing so, so much, and so many precious beings, and we must balance that knowledge with a vision of a thriving, flourishing community filled with radical hope and grounded action. As Mariame Kaba said, “Hope is a Discipline.” We can do this together.  What is the creature, being, or place that you most want to save, that gives you hope when your heart is weary? What will you fight hardest to save?

I invite you to take a moment as you read this to think about the beings that you love, the places that make your heart sing, the things you will fight to save.  If you have time, check out this beautiful, challenging, and inspiring video of the UN Climate Summit Poem "Dear Matafele Peinem"  Every time I watch it, it fills me with wonder, fear,  joy, sadness, anger, and hope -  all of the emotions I need to commit again, every day, to climate action.  

In our hearts, all climate activists hold the goal of making the world a better place, making it different, and making it so we all thrive. David Graeber says, "The ultimate, hidden truth of the world, is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently."  How can we make our world differently, together, so all beings thrive?  

Here’s one idea:  VOTE FOR CLIMATE.  Did you know that people who prioritize climate tend to skip midterm elections?  There are millions of people who prioritize climate but don’t vote.  I know that many of us have been disappointed by the glacial pace of climate change policy.  I know we’ve been frustrated that politicians say they’ll act on climate, then we see little change.  I know it’s hard to keep trusting in a system that has not adequately responded to the crisis.  Believe me, I know.  AND STILL, we need to turn out every climate voter this November.   Let’s come together this fall to make our world differently, so all beings thrive.  

In community,

Rachel

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Rachel Myslivy is Side With Love’s Climate Justice Organizer. Get updates from Create Climate Justice by subscribing here.

October 2022

“When you go in search of honey, you must expect to be stung by bees.” -Joseph Joubert

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Down the cliffs to the black sand of the Pa’iloa beach, and right on the shore, was an opening. Not a comfortable one for me. It was just big enough to fit my body, but I had to bend down and contort myself a bit to make my way through it. Once inside and able to stand, I realized I was in a small lava tube that sat right at the shoreline of the beach. It was absolutely stunning. Black rocks wide enough to sit on and black sand everywhere, all as a result of lava flows hundreds of years before. An opening to the ocean let the Pacific in, waves crashing and settling right at my feet.

I won’t lie. It was scary. I’m not a swimmer. Those classes I took 30 years ago, without a lot of access to pools and large bodies of water in my everyday life, mean very little to me now. And so the idea that I was even in this tiny space with water coming in and out made me question myself. It was pretty and everything, but it seemed dangerous. A large swell could fill this little cave with water at any moment, and I’d be left with very few options to protect myself beyond trusting my body or mind to do what they need to do to get me out. Before I knew it, I was already in a space of worry and regret that I’d even bothered to go in.

But the word ‘trust’ stirred me in ways I wasn’t expecting. I was reminded of a book I’d been reading off an on over the last year called Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. In it, she offers these words about surrender:

And what happens if we just let go? Like dolphins who beach themselves on shore to eat, and trust the tide to bring them back into the water… What would it take to tune in with our environment enough to be in flow with the Earth, instead of in struggle against it.

As I began to reflect on the immediacy of my worry and lack of trust, and Alexis’ hopes for our surrender in her incredible book, I noticed my body start to settle into the moment. My breathing slowed. I started listening to the water and the sounds the waves made at different points of contact with the rocks and the walls of the lava tube I was finally able to sit down and rest in. I sat on one of those rocks for a long time, watching the water and feeling the waves as they ebbed and flowed. Truthfully, it was a lot to take in all at once. And it was okay that it turned out to be simultaneously tranquil and still a bit terrifying in the place where the waves and the land met.

Isn’t it not unlike the place where many of us find ourselves in our work of belonging and meaning-making?

Be well, dear ones.

What is the value of sacrifice? What are its downsides?

JASON
CLF Member, incarcerated in IL

Being in an institution, sacrifice takes on different meanings. Are you sacrificing time to help someone? Are you sacrificing your favorite food to save your money so that you can contribute to your religious service meal? Are you sacrificing your spot so someone else can experience something they haven’t, that you have?

Sacrifice becomes more personalized when you don’t have that much to begin with. So the value of sacrifice changes as well.

As an elder in the Wiccan service here, there have been times that guys from the service have called me out to the yard or out to a group room to have me help them. Knowing this is a possibility, I am happy to help, though not always right when I’m being asked. The sacrifice for me is knowing that there may be times I’ll be asked for help and even though I’m doing something else at the time, unless it’s something like legal work or something else equally serious, I will sacrifice what I’m doing to help my brethren.

Of course, the downside as shown above is the interruption of whatever I was doing. It can also mean loss of personal time that I might need to unwind from the stresses and pressures of being in an institution.

I used sacrificing a favorite food to save money to contribute to a service meal as an example. Some guys walk a delicate balance of what they buy off commissary and the very few things they eat from the dietary. So to have to sacrifice their commissary to contribute to a religious meal becomes a big deal. It then becomes a question of whether they are putting their health at risk just to contribute to a meal­—and for some that sacrifice is still worth it.

JOSEPH
CLF Member, incarcerated in NC

The value of sacrifice is relative. Without sacrifice, I would not be living life as I know it. If my mother hadn’t sacrificed her time and put her dreams on hold, then she wouldn’t have been able to raise me so lovingly. She was 20 years old when I was born, barely an adult, and I feel certain that I wasn’t planned. She probably held many other plans, like traveling and concentrating on school, before I came along. I thank my mother for her sacrifice — it was very valuable to me.

Some sacrifices seem small to us but can be very valuable to the recipient. Perhaps you sacrifice some time once a week to go visit a nursing home. If you have spare time, time you would normally spend watching TV or on the internet, you could make a sacrifice that is of little value to you, but could be of enormous value to the nursing home resident who has no family.

Our sacrifices are offerings to the group soul of humanity. No matter how small or large, if it does good for one, it is good for all. Depending on my commitment and intention, my sacrifice doesn’t have to be public. When things are done without my attachment to the result, they are more pure and powerful. Some sacrifice everything their whole lives so that others may live. Some make small sacrifices of their social awkwardness to share a kind word with a stranger. No matter how small a good thing is, it is still good.

LIAM
CLF Member, incarcerated in SC

For me, the act of sacrifice is allowing myself to feel the loss or absence of something that I took for granted. The immediate downside is that I no longer have the specific thing, but that feeling, like so many others, is temporary. The feeling that I get when I receive that missing thing is joy — pure, undiluted happiness. When I remember that cycle, I can learn to enjoy and cherish parts of my life more.

Most Sunday evenings, members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship with internet access gather for an online worship service. We are exploring ways to bring the spirit of those services to our many members who do not have regular internet access. The following is an abbreviated outline of a CLF worship service that can be read through or shared out loud in a gathering. Please feel free to make it your own, adding whatever music, ritual elements, and readings are most meaningful to you.

Opening Words & Chalice Lighting

We light our flaming chalice and enter into our worship service together with these words from CLF Learning Fellow, JeKaren Olaoya:

We light this chalice
As we come together
To center love
To create community
To honor the world we live in

Sharing of Joys & Sorrows

Every time we gather, we share what is most present in our lives. Whether you are arriving to this service full of excitement or with a heavy heart, take a moment to name that which you are carrying. You may write your joy or sorrow down, or share out loud with those in your gathering. We know that every joy shared is multiplied, and every sorrow shared is halved.

We hold these joys and sorrows with you, and say in response:

May we all be held in the heart of love

Sermon

Rev. Dr. Michael Tino; Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship

Sixteenth century Jewish mystic Isaac Luria told a story of creation in which God, in order to make room to create the world, stored divine light in earthen vessels. Some of these jars broke, and the light that they stored scattered with the broken pieces of clay.

In Luria’s account of creation, the goal of humankind was to gather the divinity scattered with these shards, and to separate this sacred light from the sharp, jagged pieces of brokenness. Luria named this goal tikkun olam, the repair of the world.

Over the years, this calling has evolved into an understanding that the sacredness of our world is broken—torn apart by violence, oppression, injustice, and hatred—and that it is up to humanity to fix that brokenness in order to live up to our covenant with God.

Our Unitarian Universalist forebears saw this brokenness as well, and through the years handed down to us a religion that calls upon us to participate in the healing of creation.

Many of our Unitarian, Universalist, and UU ancestors have written about the calling of our faith to participate in the healing of relationships, including our relationship with the ultimate, about our calling to participate in the creation of liberation and justice, about our calling to participate in dismantling systems of oppression that divide humanity in part by assigning power to identity.

I feel like that’s something you hear a lot from us, from me. And while I could go on at length about it, today I want to go in a slightly different direction for this month in which we are focusing on healing: you are part of the world. We are each part of the world.

If we are to understand ourselves as part of the world and simultaneously commit ourselves to healing the world, we must see healing ourselves and others as part of that process.

Jewish feminist new-age storyteller and cancer survivor Deena Metzger writes about this connection.  Metzger understands the healing of the self—be it from diseases of the body or wounds of the soul—as integrally connected to the healing of our society as a whole.  While Metzger’s writing is concerned primarily with the physical healing of the self, it also addresses wounds of the soul–wounds of the spirit. She writes:

In my mind, there is a direct relationship between the healing of my body and the healing of the world. Where healing and peacemaking are one, they are the bridge between individual healing and the healing of the community. I do not ask for my healing without committing entirely to the healing of the other as the small possibilities of the healing of the world are sacred gifts extended to me as well. The world’s body. My body. The same. This is the very nature of healing.

Our Unitarian Universalist faith asks us to heal the world. It asks us to attend to the brokenness in our systems and our society. And it asks us to attend to the brokenness in ourselves, and the brokenness in our midst.

We each, every one of us, know something of brokenness. We have experienced it ourselves, we have witnessed it in others. And every one of us, know something of healing, of wholeness, even if that knowledge is hidden deep within our hearts under layers of scar tissue. Each of us has received negative messages of some sort about ourselves. Messages that make us question our self-worth, our inherent dignity.

Some of these messages are in the form of abuse, and out of respect for the diverse trauma histories in our community I want to name that and create a space for you to do what you need to do in order to protect yourself from the re-emergence of your trauma.

It is a sad reality that too often our brokenness comes from people who were supposed to love us, who were supposed to care for us, who were supposed to protect us. Too often, our brokenness comes from institutions—especially religious institutions—that were supposed to heal us, and instead they hurt us deeply.

I received those messages as well—messages that I was not worthy of respect and love because of who I was. I am thankful that they didn’t come from those closest to me, but they were present all around me. I internalized them. They broke me.

As a teenager, I didn’t know how to deal with that brokenness. I tried pretending I was someone I was not—that didn’t work. Ultimately, I rejected religion categorically because so many of the messages about my sexuality came from religious figures. I convinced myself that I would never find wholeness in a religious community, that all religion had to be avoided.

That led to more brokenness—deep within, I had a yearning for spirituality. A yearning for connection to something greater than myself. I had a yearning for a communal expression of our call to love and liberation, for a theological grounding to my justice work.

It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I learned that there was a religious tradition that preached love and acceptance, a tradition that insisted on the inherent worth and dignity of every person, a tradition that encouraged spiritual journeys and didn’t insist on a narrow theology.

Unitarian Universalism helped me heal some of the broken places within me. It helped me overcome the negative messages I had received about myself by teaching me that I was beautiful, that I was loved, that I was a bearer of the divine within me just as all people are. Slowly, the people I met who lived these values in the world again and again helped me put back together the pieces of me that had been broken off and hidden out of self-protection.

Our Unitarian Universalist religious community can be a place of healing for you as well.

In the context of religious community, we can come to recognize and name our brokenness.  We can also come to recognize and name our inherent worth and dignity. We can create communities of love to work on our healing—together. We can begin the process of healing. We can put together our own pieces of the jar holding the divine light within us.

Here you are loved.
Here you are whole.
Here you are holy.
Here your worth is affirmed.
May the love you find in this
community be a healing balm
to your soul.

Closing Words & Chalice Extinguishing

We extinguish our flaming chalice and close our worship service with these words from CLF Learning Fellow, JeKaren Olaoya:

We extinguish this chalice
As we depart this space
But never in our hearts
We carry the flame within

We are so excited to organize with Unitarian Universalists like you who are committed to promoting LGBTQIA+, Gender, and Reproductive Justice.  With the sacred right to bodily autonomy being attacked on multiple fronts, our presence as people of faith is critical to lives all around the country.  Fueled by the joy that is this prophetic and powerful community, it’s time for all of us to take action together!  You can find more opportunities to learn & act together at the Side With Love Action Center, but here are some highlights from our launch party from October 13, 2022.

• View the webinar

• View the slides

Don’t forget to sign up for the UPLIFT Action Newsletter so you can continue to get more updates about ways to connect and take action together!

QUUer the Vote

With the 2022 Election season ending in 24 days, it is time for us to QUUer the Vote and make sure all of us have the right to say what happens to our own bodies.  With reproductive freedom on the ballot in multiple states, making sure people vote our values is crucial to our collective access to bodily autonomy. 

• Friday, October 14 Phonebank to Detroiters with MUUSJN & Michigan United to support the Reproductive Freedom for All Act

• Monday, October 24 SURJ Phonebank to Kentucky Voters to Prevent the Constitutional Abortion Ban

• Weekly Monday UU the Vote Text Banks to Michigan to support the Reproductive Freedom For All Act

Learn & Organize in Your Congregation for Reproductive Justice

The movement for reproductive justice is rooted in bodily autonomy for ANY BODY that can become pregnant and/or parent a child.  Abortion access is part of the work, but it’s not the only way our bodies and lives are being restricted in our reproductive journeys.  Learn more and mobilize within your congregation by participating in one or both of these upcoming trainings!

• SACReD Reproductive Dignity Curriculum Training for Congregations (10/23 or 11/9) 

• Congregational Reproductive Justice Training for Teams (Two-Part Series)

  • Part 1 (11/13)

  • Part 2 (12/4)

Phone Bank with the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey

In just a few days, the National Center for Transgender Equality, Trans Latin@ Coalition, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliancewill lauch the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey (USTS).  The USTS is the largest survey of trans people in the United States, collecting data that will inform media, educators, policymakers, and the general public, on issues critical to trans lives and experiences.  Help be part of this crucial project that covers topics such as health, employment, income, the criminal justice system and more. Learn more here and sign up to phone bank with the USTS starting October 19!

UPLIFT Monthly Trans/Non-Binary Gathering Space

Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings focused on trans, nonbinary, and other not (completely or at all) cis UUs.  Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary UUs and co-create support and community across our faith.  All you need to bring is yourself (and other trans/nonbinary friends, if you’d like)!  

These gatherings focus on getting to know each other and on sharing our collective dreams, ideas, and talents for this space.  Expansive definitions of trans, nonbinary, and UU all apply.  If you are interested in this space, and you aren’t cisgender, it’s a space for you.

NOTE: This space is intentionally multi-generational.  It is open to and welcoming of trans/nonbinary elders as well as children, youth, and young adults.  Standard UUA online safety measures apply to ensure all people under 18 are able to attend.  We're glad to have you here!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the amazing presentation on Engaging Marginalized Communities with Rev. Ranwa Hammamy at the last Green Sanctuary Team Meeting. If you missed it, you can watch the video of the meeting here and download the slides here.

Green Sanctuary Team Meetings

Come together for shared learning and mutual support with other UUs working on congregational transformation through climate justice on the third Wednesday of the month at 8PM ET. Each meeting includes a short presentation on a climate justice topic, followed by open discussion.

• 10/19/22 - Congregational Engagement on Climate Justice with Michael Hughes, UU Fellowship of Corvallis, OR

• 11/16/22 -  Blueprint for Climate Action Teams - Mary Rodgers, Phil Webster, & Kenneth Crandell, UU Congregation of Columbia

• No meeting in December

Earlier this month, Side With Love Congregational Justice Organizer Rev. Ranwa Hammamy wrote: “When our congregations are truly rooted in our Unitarian Universalist values, the work of collective liberation naturally follows. We know that as spiritual leaders and ministers within our congregations, you are shaping communities that, each and every day, strive to deepen their commitment to our faith’s values and calls.”

This ministry has never been more crucial, and we are grateful to be partners with you in this work. In service of justice and liberation, we share some upcoming events we hope will fortify, inspire, and encourage you and your community to live into the hope and courage of our faith.

UPLIFT Action Launch Party: Every Body Is Sacred!

October 13 at 5pm PT / 6pm MT / 7pm CT / 8pm ET

Join Side With Love for the official launch of our latest organizing campaign, UPLIFT Action! This new campaign focuses on reproductive, gender, and LGBTQIA+ justice. Together we'll honor the sacred importance of bodily autonomy with several of our partners and UUs from around the country who are faithfully organizing for every sacred body. Register at bit.ly/UpliftActionLaunchParty. 

Meeting the Moment Political Education Series

October 9, October 23, and November 6 at 4:30pm ET

We are in a critical moment in our country and in our democracy and we’re fulfilling an essential role as trusted messengers to voters all across the country about all things voting.

Not feeling well-versed in electoral matters, though? Introducing Meeting the Moment, a political education series! Join UU the Vote for in-depth conversations on civics, faith-based organizing, and getting out the vote in a fun and engaging way! UU the Vote Campaign Manager JaZahn Hicks will be leading these interactive learning experiences for anyone who wants to be able to talk about the importance of voting, how to discuss ballots and voter guides, and what the various terms related to democracy and voting are. Register for one or all the sessions here.

• Sunday, October 9: Civics 101

• Sunday, October 23: Faith as an Organizing Tool, with special guest Rev. Ashley Horan, UUA Side With Love Organizing Strategy Director

• Sunday, November 6: Getting out the Vote, with special guest Angela Miller, Executive Director of Center for Common Ground

Climate Disaster Preparedness for UUs

October 25 and November 15 at 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET

Over the next three months, we will be holding a Climate Disaster Response series geared towards congregations committed to responding to the needs of their broader communities in times of crisis and disaster. Our approach with this series is honest and full of care: we know that climate disaster impacts all of us in different ways, so how can we face that reality with a prepared understanding of our relationship, responsibility, and power to support those who are most impacted? 

From grounding ourselves in the climate risks most prevalent in our communities, to developing plans of action, to staying in conversation with our faith peers, this series turns the overwhelming nature of climate disaster into a better known and collectively addressable entity. Rooted in the belief that shared knowledge and faith are essential to Beloved Community, this series will provide the climate activists and teams in your congregation with essential tools to build a climate disaster preparedness plan that lifts up the best of Unitarian Universalism in your community. 

If you missed our first session, you can watch it and start the homework before joining us for the next session:

• Tuesday, October 25: Mobilizing for Action (7pm ET / 6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT)

• Tuesday, November 15: Community conversation (7pm ET / 6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT)

Thank you so much for signing up for the first webinar of our “Climate Resilience through Disaster Response & Community Care” series at Side With Love. Whether you were able to attend in real-time or plan to watch the recording later, we are grateful for your commitment to building communities of care in the face of climate disasters. 

Resources & Materials from Session 1

Linked below are materials & resources from our September 27 session on “Assessing Climate Impacts & Making Connections.” Please note that most of these can be found in the UUA Climate Disaster Prep Google Drive Folder, in both PDF & Google Doc formats.

• Climate Disaster Preparedness Guide for UUs 

• Climate Disaster Response for UUs Materials & Resources

• Climate Disaster Congregational Asset Mapping Tool - pdf & gdoc

• Case Study (Part 1) - pdf & gdoc

• Assessing Climate Impacts Worksheet - pdf & gdoc

• Assessing Climate Impacts Graphic Worksheet - pdf

• Climate Disaster Response Reflections Worksheet - pdf & gdoc

In addition, you can access a copy of the slide presentation from our September 27 webinar/workshop here, and watch the recording of the entire workshop here. 

Next Steps

We invite you to share this recording and these resources with others in your congregation as you explore how to incorporate what was discussed into your own efforts to support your community through any experiences of climate disaster. Consider consulting with key congregational leadership to complete your Congregational Asset Map, or begin to identify who in your broader community has the most direct knowledge and experience of the climate threats in your area. 

We also encourage you to share your reflections on your process with us, by sharing your copy of the “CDR/Climate Disaster Response Reflections” worksheet that you may have begun working in during the September 27 webinar. Sharing or emailing a copy to Rachel Myslivy at RMyslivy@uua.org will help us understand & better meet your needs, both as an attendee and as a climate organizer in your congregation. 

We also want to remind you to register for the second part of this series, Mobilizing for Action, which will be held on Tuesday, October 25 at 7pm ET/  6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT. We encourage you to invite 1 or 2 more people from your congregation to attend, so we can continue to grow our community of support!

And if you are looking for for another place to connect with others working on climate justice, join us on the the Side With Love Slack Channel.  You can join at this link:  http://bit.ly/SideWithLoveSlack. Check out the #climate-justice-general or #climate-justice-green-sanctuary channels to find your people! 

If you have any other questions or ideas for how we can support your organizing for climate justice in the face of climate disasters, please email us at Environment@UUA.org. We want to hear from you about what kind of gatherings, workshops, or coaching will help you live your UU values to the fullest in community

We look forward to seeing you again on October 25 & November 15!

In faith & justice, 

Rachel Myslivy Rev. Ranwa Hammamy

Climate Justice Organizer Congregational Justice Organizer

Side with Love Side With Love

Every Body Is Sacred!

Join Side With Love for the official launch of our latest organizing campaign, UPLIFT Action! This virtual event will be held on Thursday, October 13th at 5pm PT / 6pm MT / 7pm CT / 8pm MT.

Register at https://bit.ly/UpliftActionLaunchParty.

We'll be honoring the sacred importance of bodily autonomy with several of our partners and Unitarian Universalists from around the country who are faithfully organizing for LGBTQIA+, Gender, and Reproductive Justice. Come be a part of this special event where we proclaim "Every Body is Sacred!" and celebrate the inherent worth and dignity of every person and launch ourselves into action!

Redlined communities or “sacrifice zones” also bear the highest energy burdens in the country, with low-income communities spending three times more of their income on energy costs. I’m sure these percentages are much higher now as energy costs have skyrocketed in the past year.

Urban heat islands plus high energy burdens plus poor air quality combine to increase incidents of violence and mental health crises in redlined communities, which leads to increased incarceration and criminalization of people of color. In short, it's impossible to separate struggles for climate justice and racial justice, because they are so deeply intertwined both here in the US and across the globe.

As part of the deal to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Senators Manchin and Schumer have introduced a separate piece of legislation that would fast-track permit approvals for dangerous fossil fuel projects in September. Thursday was a huge day in the fight against the dirty pipeline deal being pushed by Senator Manchin. This bill would force approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, fast-track other fossil fuel projects, and undermine environmental protections and community review.

Will you join us in taking action to Stop Manchin’s Dirty Deal?

We need to be as loud as possible over the next four days and demand that every member of Congress oppose this dirty deal.

Please take 60 seconds right now and call your U.S. Senator! Dial 888-997-5380 and tell them to oppose Manchin's pipeline deal.

The People vs. Fossil Fuels Coalition has released a toolkit to #BlockTheDeal, including supported actions to call or send a letter to your member of Congress and amplify this Toolkit for action.

Workshop: Engaging Marginalized Communities

Thanks to Rev. Ranwa Hammamy for their presentation on Engaging Marginalized Communities in the Green Sanctuary Team Meeting. If you missed it, you can watch the video of the meeting here!

Take (and share!) the Climate Justice Voter Pledge!

Confronting climate change requires electing officials and enacting policies at every level, which means everyone who cares deeply about climate and environmental justice must turn out to the polls. To respond to the climate crisis we must take individual and community action! Share the UU Climate Justice Voter Pledge: https://SideWithLove.org/ClimateJusticeVoterPledge

Tell Congress to Pass The Environmental Justice For All Act

The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a significant step toward greater investment in clean energy. Unfortunately, some provisions of the IRA may stimulate fossil fuel production and worsen pollution in areas already saturated by heavy industry. As part of the compromise that allowed the bill to go forward, Senator Manchin is now proposing loosening procedural protections around energy projects, making it even harder for affected communities to have a voice in approving these projects, many of which inflict environmental harm on communities of color. It is, therefore, more necessary than ever for Congress to pass the Environmental Justice for All Act, introduced in both the Senate and House and recently passed by the House Natural Resources Committee. Email congress: Environmental Justice for All!

Join the Side With Love Slack community!

Connect with others working on climate justice through the Side With Love Slack Channel. You can join at this link. Check out the #climate-justice-general or #climate-justice-green-sanctuary to find your people!

Upcoming Events

Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care

Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this series of workshops with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood.

This workshop is part of a series. Sessions: All sessions are 90 minutes long and begin at 7pm ET/ 6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT

• 9/27/2022 - Assessing climate impacts and making connections

• 10/25/2022 - Mobilizing for action

• 11/15/2022 - Community conversation

Green Sanctuary Team Meetings

Come together for shared learning and mutual support with other UUs working on congregational transformation through climate justice on the third Wednesday of the month at 8PM ET. Each meeting includes a short presentation on a climate justice topic, followed by open discussion.

• 10/19/22 - Congregational Engagement on Climate Justice with Michael Hughes, UU Fellowship of Corvallis, OR

• 11/16/22 - Blueprint for Climate Action Teams - Mary Rodgers, Phil Webster, & Kenneth Crandell, UU Congregation of Columbia

• No meeting in December

Green Sanctuary Orientation & Office Hours

Interested in transforming your congregation through climate justice? Join this orientation to get a better understanding of the Green Sanctuary program and learn how your congregation can engage. Office hours are held on the first Wednesday of the month from 7-8PM Eastern Time.

• No meeting in October

• 11/2/22 - Green Sanctuary Orientation & Office Hours

All Climate Events can be found at sidewithlove.org/climatejustice

The following sermon was originally given at the service to formally install our Lead Ministry Team in their role as ministers of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, which took place on June 25, 2022, during UUA General Assembly in Portland, OR. 

Hello beloveds! What a joy to be here with you all this morning, celebrating the installation of the Lead Ministry Team of the Church of the Larger Fellowship! And what an honor to be asked to share a reflection with you all on this joyful occasion.

I have served on the Board of the Church of the Larger Fellowship for the past 4 years. I served as the Board liaison to the nominating committee, and on the search committee, and am now the President of the Board. And yet: when I was asked by the nominating committee if I would consider joining the Board, I was pretty sure I was going to say no.

I didn’t know much about the CLF at the time, and I didn’t think that I had the time or energy to serve on the Board. I was already feeling a little overwhelmed by all of my other commitments, and I had never served on a Board before, and I just didn’t think it was for me. I knew I would have to give something else up to do this work fully, that I didn’t want to say yes and then only serve half-heartedly. And so, I went into the conversation ready to say no.

I am so grateful that instead, I said yes.

I said yes because I learned what the CLF has been, is now, and can be. I said yes because my wildest dreams for Unitarian Universalism, my deepest hopes of what is possible for this faith, seemed possible because of the CLF. I said yes because I believe that the Church of the Larger Fellowship can help lead us to liberation. It is already doing so. I said yes because the CLF says yes — to justice, to radical welcome, to liberation. I said yes because there was really no other answer.

The Church of the Larger Fellowship has always held space in our denomination for folks on the margins— from our beginnings as a “correspondence church” for geographically isolated Unitarians to today, when over half our membership is incarcerated Unitarian Universalists, and many religious professionals, BIPOC UUs, and geographically- or otherwise-isolated UUs find their spiritual home here. The CLF has been, and continues to be, a place of radical welcome, a congregation that believes in the power of liberation and the potential of Unitarian Universalism to forge a way to that liberation. The CLF is a congregation that continually draws the margins toward the center, that invites us all to think about what is possible and how we might make it come true. The CLF is a place for big dreams and for trying new things, a place where there is so much space and excitement for innovation and experimentation.

The CLF has proclaimed, over and over, that the way we’ve always done things need not be the only way, and then forged ahead to make it so. Can we serve incarcerated Unitarian Universalists with love and dignity, in a system and a world that tries to convince them they have and deserve neither? Yes. Can we engage UUism and the questions of the moment through an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural lens? Yes. Can we call as the leadership of the largest UU congregation a collaborative team of religious professionals that break expectations? Yes. Can we do difficult, sometimes uncomfortable work with love, knowing that liberation is possible and that we can help make it so? Yes. Yes we can.

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet who created the “Black Liturgies” project on Instagram. In her recent book This Here Flesh, Arthur Riley uses stories from her life to reflect on questions of spirituality and liberation. In a chapter entitled “Dignity,” she writes the following:

Our liberation begins with the irrevocable belief that we are worthy to be liberated, that we are worthy of a life that does not degrade us but honors our whole selves. When you believe in your dignity, or at least someone else does, it becomes more difficult to remain content with the bondage with which you have become so acquainted. You begin to wonder what you were meant for.

So, beloveds: what were we meant for? The wildest dreams of our spiritual ancestors could not have brought us here, and our wildest dreams may never take us where we need to be, but we are going to keep dreaming anyway, keep growing and shifting and trying again. We have a theological mandate for liberation, for worthiness, for honoring our true selves. We believe in our own dignity, and the dignity of others.

We are meant for liberation, for joy, for celebration. We are meant for justice, for compassion, for community. We—Unitarian Universalists, the Church of the Larger Fellowship, our free world and incarcerated and global members—we are meant for all of this, and more. So let us live into it, let us make these moves, let us believe deeply in liberation and act as though we do.

Aisha, Christina, Michael: the search committee chose you, the Board affirmed you, and today the members of the CLF install you, as our Lead Ministry Team, all because we trust your dreams for the future of this congregation and this denomination. This is a time for big dreams, for throwing open our arms and saying come, you have a place here.

But we cannot simply celebrate your dreams and leave you to fulfill them. We will follow your lead, yes, but we — members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, and Unitarian Universalists throughout the denomination — we are also going to do this work alongside you. We must — that is the only way it can get done. Not because we don’t trust you to get it done — if I trusted any three people to make it happen, it surely would be the three of you — but because the work of liberation is collaborative, and is going to take all of us to fulfill it. Liberation is the work of community, of relationship, of coming together.

So beloveds — lead ministry team, CLF members, Unitarian Universalists — this is our time. Let us meet this moment, collaborate, and take a giant leap into together the belief that liberation is necessary, and possible, and that we all have a role to play.

Let’s create a world of justice and liberation now, together.

May it be so.

How do you cultivate awe and wonder in your life?

JOSEPH
CLF Member, incarcerated in NC

How do I cultivate awe and wonder in my life? These are actually byproducts of daily observations of my surroundings, and doing a mental or physical gratitude checklist. If I remain mindful of the many blessings and miracles of seemingly ordinary life, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

For instance, every person, animal, insect, plant, mineral, atom, and subatomic particle has a purpose. That is an awesome wonder. Also, looking into the daytime sky, one sees the clouds floating by on the sun, giving life and warmth. And at night, we see the stars and the moon, luna in all her glory. How can we view these things without being awestruck? Even though at the moment I am deprived of these experiences, I still have the vivid memories that can not be taken away, and they will suffice until I am released and able to soak in the day and night sky without restriction.

Think about the human body and all its functions. The breath, the heartbeat, the blood stream. What a truly awesome, wondrous creation. Think about the miracle of the moment, right now, breathing, blood flow, consciousness, the mind, thoughts, memories, life. The knower that witnesses these things. The awesome power of love and compassion that can destroy hate and violence.

When I mentally or physically write a gratitude list, I feel wonder that I am even still alive to write it. I am in awe and wonder that I received this chance to start over, and enjoy the things in life that I had forgotten I enjoyed.

I pray that I will continue to be content with what I have right now, and have the desire and enthusiasm to keep doing the next right thing, making the next right choice.

ULTRA-Violet
CLF Member, incarcerated in FL

Awe here goes. How do I cultivate it? To prepare land for the praising of crops. To not only prepare the land that is my soul, for the production, experience and recurrence of awe, but to also both improve upon and develop by careful attention, training and study, a life which is awestruck.

Hmm… That’s an awesome question. An awfully intriguing notion; I find myself compelled to contemplation, of which I shall here expound upon. Awe here goes.

Homage, spectacular wonder and a smidge of fear, simultaneously felt in one moment or experience. That’s awe.

I think back to when I was a child. When this kaleidoscope of an emotion was more frequent, more common, yet no less powerful, yet no less enchanting.

We grow up and lose something, don’t we? We forget how to play with reckless abandon. Our imaginations lose their zeal. Our sense of wonder abates.

Why?? How??

Questions I pray liberate your mind and soul, should you find your answers.

As a child I knew. The world (contemporary society) tried to teach me otherwise, but I refused. My spirit rebuked their soul siphoning psychologically crippling delusional doctrine.

As an adult, my path of enlightenment which taught me to “empty thy cup,” has only strengthened my resolve. Preserving the purity, in which awe has so firmly taken its roots.

I still play in the mound of snow left by the plow trucks on the side of the road like a 5-year-old child (pretend bad guy sound effects and all).

After much theological, theoretical and politically correct intellectual discourse, I still imagine what could be, with awe for its potential fruition.

I daydream absurdities, fantasies and abstractions. So vividly creating alternate dimensions, to which I teleport often.

My cup ever empty, I wonder still of aliens, of outer space, of why they say animals don’t have free will. I wonder how orangutans figured out how to make boats and go fishing (yes! Orangutans make boats and go fishing). Did they learn from us or did we learn from them? I wonder how scientists and zoologists figured out that dolphins recognize their reflection.

I ponder why in this age of scientific advancements, where astrophysicists and astronomers can tell us of distant galaxies, suns and planets; their orbit, chemical and elemental composition, temperature and weather conditions and every minute details literally down to the core.

But I can’t go online or to the library and get a surface picture of the terrain of a single planet in this solar system (and I don’t mean the computer generated photos NASA loves to so factitiously parade). Yes, how could one not wonder…

Thus I prepare the land that is my soul for the resurrection of awe. To both improve upon and diligently develop, an existence which is auspiciously awestruck.

With homage, spectacular wonder and a smidge of fear, I stand at the cusp of a rabbit hold called life. And with honor strong, un-defiled amazement and a bit of fright, I smile like a child and dive headlong, awe here goes awe right.

One of the spiritual joys a religious professional receives is their installation to the congregation to which they’ve been called. Michael, Aisha, and I were called to be your Lead Ministry Team in 2020 and immediately knew that we wanted our installation to be at General Assembly (GA), not just because it is one of the only opportunities for CLF members to be together in person, but also to be able to share the spirit of our collaborative ministry leadership. Happily, June 2022 saw us with the first fully hybrid virtual/in-person GA in Portland.

We invited a team of worship leaders to dream with us about an installation around the topic of “A Theological Mandate of Liberation.” Saying yes to our invitation were:

Sermon: Rev. Aisha Ansano, CLF Board Chair

Music Director: Francisco Ruiz, Director of Music UU Long Beach

Chalice Lighting: CLF Board of Directors

Embodied Movement: Rev. Jessica Star Rockers, former CLF Learning Fellow

Voices of the Congregation: Lecretia Williams, Rev. Erien Babcock, and Rev. Dr. Althea Smith, CLF Learning Fellows reading the words of incarcerated UUs

Presentation of Stoles: Julica Hermann de la Fuente, CLF Board member

For those who have internet access, a video recording of the installation can be found here. We were moved to laughter and tears throughout the service. We appreciated how every celebrant wove our unique religious professional identities throughout the service. The embodied ritual gave us roots and wings and the music was FIRE!

 

 

An installation gives the called religious community an opportunity to reflect on itself and its future. We hope this installation gives you a sense of our shared calling to ministry and our shared Theological Mandate of Liberation. To quote our sermonator Rev. Ansano quoting Cole Arthur Riley, writer and poet:

Our liberation begins with the irrevocable belief that we are worthy to be liberated, that we are worthy of a life that does not degrade us but honors our whole selves. When you believe in your dignity, or at least someone else does, it becomes more difficult to remain content with the bondage with which you have become so acquainted. You begin to wonder what you were meant for.

 

 

Timothy
CLF member, incarcerated in NY

I was walking in the yard.
He looked like a mob enforcer — probably because he was.
I’d seen him often, fierce and intimidating. We never spoke.
He was looking up. I turned to see a rainbow.
“You have to search for beauty. There is none here in prison.”
“Is that a double rainbow forming?”
“Yes, they are rare.”
“Gorgeous.”
We watched with reverence. It faded away too soon.
“As a kid I’d run out after a rain to look for a rainbow.”
“Did you find many?”
“No. Almost never. But I kept trying.”
“Looking for beauty is always worthwhile.”
We continued talking.
Sharing awe made us humble,
dissolving barriers,
allowing us to act like old friends.
It was beautiful.

September 2022

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” -W.B. Yeats

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Mobilizing UUs in solidarity with Indigenous front-line communities is a critical part of our climate justice work. Communities where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color live are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change and the pollution that causes it. Our climate advocacy must center the lived experiences and knowledge of these frontline communities.

UUs Beth Ogilvie with Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church and Colleen Cabot with First Unitarian Church of San Jose reached out to Side With Love to share an important call to action from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to the Protect Juristac Advocacy Partners Coalition. Please read their update, take the actions they share, and consider what climate justice looks like in your community? Who is most impacted, how, and where? How can you work in solidarity with the people most impacted?  

With deep appreciation for UUs doing the good work,

Rachel Myslivy, UUA Climate Justice Organizer

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The climate crisis is caused by taking – from the earth and from other beings, human and otherwise – exploiting, extracting, consuming, destroying – without regard to the consequences. Those who have more power take from those who have less, and the taking continues unabated. This system is built on injustice and cannot function without it.

An example of this injustice is unfolding in a place called Juristac, the most sacred grounds of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. A development company wants to construct a massive open pit gravel mine that would destroy this sacred ground for all time, and with it the spiritual and cultural heart of Mutsun life. It would also block a vital wildlife corridor connecting 3 mountain ranges. Wildlife cannot speak for themselves at Planning Commission hearings, or submit comments on the Environmental Impact Report, but the tribe can, and is, and we are supporting them. Please join us in helping prevent this irreversible injustice, this human rights tragedy. There are other sources of sand and gravel. There is only one Juristac. This 4-minute video tells the story.

What you can do:    

• Sign the petition to protect Juristac. 

• Submit a comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) by Sept 26. The DEIR states that the mine will have “significant impact on the Juristac Tribal Cultural Landscape.” No kidding! Tell the Planning Commission why this is morally unacceptable and the permit must be denied. 

• If you’re in Northern California, attend the rally in San Jose Sept 10. Details will be on ProtectJuristac.org/deir.

• Follow the tribe on Instagram and Facebook.

As members of the Protect Juristac Advocacy Partners Coalition, both our churches have passed resolutions supporting the tribe and opposing the mine. We have been taking the Juristac story to churches and other faith communities to raise awareness and enlist support.

We are doing this work as UUs committed to justice and healing, which includes:

• Raising awareness of the true history of colonization and conquest and genocide, of extraction and exploitation, and how these patterns continue to this day.

• Marshaling support among UUs and other faith communities to support the Amah Mutsun in protecting their most sacred grounds from permanent desecration, and in regaining access so they can restore their culture and their spiritual practices.

• Promoting the understanding that Indigenous spirituality is equal to other religions and has a lot to teach about stewardship and reciprocity. 

Thank you for your commitment to climate justice through Indigenous solidarity,

Beth Ogilvie with Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church

Colleen Cabot with First Unitarian Church of San Jose

Climate change is a complex problem. There are no easy answers and often more questions. Holding complexity is part of the work we must do to realize a healthy and resilient future where all can thrive.

The Inflation Reduction Act puts forth the most ambitious climate action to ever pass US Congress. With significant investments in clean energy, transportation, and environmental justice, the IRA is projected to reduce emissions 40% by 2030. It’s historic. It’s exciting. It’s getting us closer to our climate goals. YES!

This legislation will have wide scale and lasting impacts for generations to come. Sadly, those impacts are not all positive or just. The Inflation Reduction Act is an example of the ways advocates and legislators neglect and exploit communities in the search for a win, instead of in search of justice. The IRA sacrifices communities already bearing the burden of climate change. NO!

The People Vs. Fossil Fuels Coalition calls out the IRA’s “poison pills” that will disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, family farming, people of the global majority and working-class communities, including major handouts to Big Oil, like requiring new oil & gas leasing on 620 million acres of public lands and waters, and permitting for new oil & gas pipelines while supporting false solutions like carbon capture, nuclear, hydrogen, biofuels and carbon trading. NO!

So, while many are celebrating wholeheartedly, I’m conflicted. I’m melancholy. I’m torn. I wonder: is it really a win, if it’s not a win for all of us? NO!

Still, it also has historic investments in clean energy, transportation, environmental justice, and more that we desperately need. Plus, there are lots of other benefits like lowering Medicare prescription drug costs, extending the Affordable Care Act coverage for 13 million Americans, and instituting a 15% minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations. YES!

Like our friends at UUSJ say, the Inflation Reduction Act is a Mixed Bag.

Although the Inflation Reduction Act is the result of years of organizing from environmental justice organizations, climate organizations, and frontline communities, it muffles the concerns of people fighting on the front lines. Those in power continue to ignore, neglect, and actively harm those most impacted by climate change and the pollution that causes it. The IRA sacrifices frontline communities already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. This is not climate justice.

No, the Inflation Reduction Act is not enough. Yes, we still need it. Hold this complexity, then let’s get to work.

In solidarity,

Rachel Myslivy

Climate Organizer for Side with Love

Next Steps:

• As part of the deal to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Senators Manchin and Schumer are introducing legislation to fast-track permit approvals for fossil fuel projects. Write your members of Congress to pledge right now to block fossil fuel handouts.

• Tell Biden: Choose People over Fossil Fuels. This fact sheet outlines the importance of Biden declaring a national climate emergency.

• Encourage your congregation to Tell Congress: Reject Manchin + Schumer’s dirty “side deal” with the fossil fuel industry

Frontline organizations’ responses to the IRA

• Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition: Congress, Appalachia is not your sacrifice Zone

• Indigenous Environmental Network: The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is not a Climate Bill

• Greater Chaco Coalition and allies: “We Can’t Frack Our Way to a Safe Climate”: Frontline Groups Slam Inflation Reduction Act

• The Climate Justice Alliance, UPROSE, and the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition: Inflation Reduction Act: Environmental and Climate Justice Factsheet

• National “People vs. Fossil Fuels” Coalition Responds to Inflation Reduction Act; Demands Congress Strike Down Manchin’s Permitting Deal and Biden Take Executive Action

One of the many reasons I choose Unitarian Universalism as my faith is that I don’t believe in saviors. When I say I don’t believe in saviors, I’m really serious. I don’t find that having famous prophets has consistently served humanity. We can’t seem to put into context the fact that those revered and held up as messengers of the holy are simply human beings. Humans who have made enough of an impact on those around them that their stories live on for millenia. Their stories become embellished and larger than life. I love stories and learning lessons from them, but whether or not some of these stories are “true” sometimes get in the way of how we are called to be in community.

The life and experiences of Jesus of Nazareth changed the course of human history. He is credited with being the catalyst for starting a new religion, Christianity. The fact is, he never wanted to start a new religion. By all accounts, he wanted people to become better Jews, not leave the Jewish faith altogether. He preached love, compassion and pointed out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time.

He didn’t claim to be God, he wanted those in power to stop abusing their power and offer care and mercy to those with no power.

Each of us has agency to affirm each other in the fullness of our humanity. We hold the spark of the divine, and we are connected to each other through that spark.

We cause pain and horror when we forget this connection to each other. History has shown us that time and time and time again, when the masses succeed in dehumanizing whoever is deemed the “other,” this has resulted in horrors perpetrated to those who are oppressed.

The United States, since the arrival of colonizers, has been in the business of dehumanizing entire populations in order to steal land and steal labor. It is the only way violent extractive capitalism flourishes.

Black and Indigenous people have borne the brunt of the dehumanization and now white women, with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, are facing a renewed understanding of what it means to not be viewed as fully human, and how one cannot rely on a system created out of cruelty and oppression.

Black and Indigenous populations have been sounding the alarm and trying to scream from the rafters what has been the core truth of this country, that in order for those in power to thrive under capitalism, there are those that must be subjugated. As time went on and this country grew,  the list of who became dehumanized grew and grew. Now we have the highest population of incarcerated humans of any industrialized nation on earth, we have caged children whose only crime was to be traveling with their parents in search of a better life. It is all so overwhelming, I sometimes want the story of a savior to be true, I mean now would be a great time for Black Jesus to come back and save us, but the truth—as I believe it—is that no one is coming to save us, we must work together and affirm each other to transform this country.

I believe it is possible when we do what we can from where we are. I am clear in my support and affirmation of those with targeted identities, descendants of enslaved Africans, indigenous people, immigrants, those with seen and unseen disabilities, people in the LGBTQI+ communities and anyone else targeted, I am at the ready to fight for and affirm them. The ones I have trouble maintaining their humanity are those who are in power and the oppressors. I have had to remind myself that I do not condone (to put it mildly) oppression and I combat oppression in the ways I am able, and I also need to maintain that even those people who I distrust and abhor are still human. I do not want to fall into the trap of dehumanizing anyone.

I do have boundaries that I maintain, I do not pretend the world is not a scary and cruel place. I do not “agree to disagree” about the humanity of others. I do try to refrain from holding hate in my heart. I focus on liberation, rather than bitterness. It’s not easy; it is a spiritual practice for sure.

Yes, we must fight systems of oppression in all the ways available to us. AND we must remember that each day we can affirm each other and show up in love and with care.

It is this love, care and compassion that affirms community. Amen, Ashe and Blessed Be.

What does compassion feel like to you? What does healing feel like?

JASON
CLF Member, incarcerated in IL

For me, growing up in the nightmare of my childhood and the abuses I suffered, compassion was an unknown word and concept. It wasn’t until I was in a Department of Children and Family Services funded youth facility that I learned about compassion.

I learned from my therapist and his wife, who both worked there. They saw how messed up I was and how much I distrusted everyone and everything. So they both went above and beyond their responsibilities to show me how to trust, how a normal family is together (loving, supportive, caring). They showed me that it’s okay to make mistakes and that I shouldn’t have to fear severe reprisals, and how to actually start to live and not just exist. They showed me how to be human and in doing so, they taught me the meaning of compassion.

You ask what does healing feel like? As my therapist and his wife showed me their home and family life, and taught me what it means to actually live and know what a normal, loving family is supposed to be, the pain that I experienced in learning those lessons was unlike any I have experienced before or after.

I felt as if something vast and dark that had been slowly crushing and killing me was torn off by their compassion and kindness, leaving me crying with the pain of the realization of what I had been missing and what I had been so desperately searching for. It left behind a hollowness within me. Though I had been warmed by their compassion, at that time I still did not know what it meant to feel loved.

Healing, for me, has always been a painful experience. The hurts of my mind and soul have far outweighed those of my body. And for me, though it has been painful each time I have gone through a healing experience, I have come out of it wiser and more human. So, although I do not look forward to the pain it brings, I am always looking for ways to heal the scars and pains of the past.

BRANDON
CLF Member, incarcerated in ID

In October of 2020, I suffered a week of torment within which I was repeatedly beaten, extorted of property and medication, and sexually abused by a cellmate. What’s worse is that the correctional officer who put me in that cell had prior knowledge that the scenario might occur. The inmate I was housed with had not only been incarcerated for that sort of behavior focused toward women in his life, but also had prior instances of doing such to his previous gay cellmates. I tried to get staff’s attention without just telling, because I was already being beaten and had been threatened worse if I told.

I have spent twelve years in here (ten at that time), and in situations like this, I know that could have been in bad enough shape to be hospitalized by the time an officer would respond. Staff ignored me. After being moved I did not make an official report right away because I had attempted to poison my abuser by drugging him with atropine, the deadly poison found in atropa belladonna, a plant like deadly nightshade (I am prescribed medication that contains atropine).

Later, when I did make the “official” report, the C.O. I unofficially reported the situation to did not step up and say anything about my confessions to him. The investigation staff did not interview any of the witnesses who knew it was happening when it was happening. They found the report unsubstantiated the same day that it was opened, without notifying the police. They confiscated much of the paperwork that I had been filing, and warned me that if I continued with the paperwork, they would further separate me and another inmate to whom I was handfasted (married). They said they were giving me and him more freedoms than they’d typically give two inmates in romantic relationships. They went so far as to tell me that I was unable to use the grievance system on an issue that occurred over 30 days prior, but when I kept up the fight, they said they’d try to get an exception, though that was after I submitted forms to retrieve the confiscated documents for “legal reasons,” that prove neglectful behavior on their part.

Before that October, I would have seen compassion and healing in the achieving of a sound mind and heart from a past of broken and failed relationships. I would have seen it as smiling and my ability to be happy at last with the man I had chosen to marry. But after that October, even the happiness he had brought to my life was not enough to heal the nightmares and anxiety attacks that, like COVID, had become the new normal. I sought out the help of clinicians to help with talking about the rape and the relationship issues with my husband, but they only tole me to do the same things I have always done, like to count and breathe if I felt a panic attack coming on. And then they told me to think “happy thoughts,” as if I were Robin Williams being taught to fly by Julia Roberts in the movie Hook, after the children were abducted. However, unlike Robin Williams, that was “professional” advice that I would not accept. If I could just think happy thoughts… don’t you think I would be doing so?

It is now 2022, I am single and I have healed a lot from last year’s devastation of my severance ritual from my husband. It’s been a long journey, but the week in October 2020 still haunts me. I brought it up in a mental health evaluation that the prison’s medical contractor conducted. The psychiatric doctor responded coldly, saying “still?”, which elicited a cold response of my own: “yeah, still.” Today, I reflect on that appointment and I also ask myself, “still?”

The people I’ve reached out to for support have told me that things will get better in time, but the effects of the trauma that I’ve experienced may last forever. Where is the healing in that?

I had made a promise back then that was holding me back from the kind of self-protection that I would have normally engaged in. Yes, I was poisoning him — but the doses were low and would only cause drowsiness at that level; it was the justification I told myself as I risked his life. But after time moved on, I made myself a promise that if I had to, I’d engage in the defense needed. But the question is, what does healing and compassion look like to me now?

I am looking for the voices of compassion and of justice to stand against those in places of power that abuse that power, who don’t use their power to enact a compassionate justice. Healing looks like change. Reckoning those powers and replacing them with those who would protect others from suffering what myself and many others have experienced. The justice system as long been flawed and it punished consenting partners while ignoring a lot violence and rape. It also is a breeding ground of hate, not love. People in here do not always take an opportunity for rehabilitation and instead, the harsh environment makes us harder. And many leave as harder criminals than when they came in.

Compassion would mean reaching out to inmates, especially the LGBT communities within the prisons, and learning about the condition they live in. Joining groups that act against injustice in the justice system. Voting on laws that would help inmates, not harm them. And healing would mean change.

I hope that if you’ve suffered the same sort of experience, and you’re reading this now, that you take some comfort in knowing that you are not alone. This is a common problem and there are people, like us, who will fight the system until change occurs. And there are people outside of prison who are compassionate and will help people like us. We cannot give up, we will win. Blessed be.

Religious scholar Karen Armstrong has studied the teachings of religions large and small all around the world. And she has, as we all have, witnessed the strife in our world: the pain, the isolation, the injustice, the inequality.

And yet, she realized, no religion teaches that those things are acceptable.  All of the world’s religions, in fact, teach compassion.  They use different words and different concepts to talk about it, but all of them teach their followers to treat other people with kindness and respect.  All of them teach their followers that moral, good people help others.

In her book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Armstrong asks us first to learn about compassion.  What do the religions of the world say about it? What have we been taught about compassion—from our heritage, from our families, from our experiences? And most importantly, what does Unitarian Universalism teach about compassion?

We’ve got a principle about it, certainly.  We covenant to affirm and promote, among other things, “justice, equity and compassion in human relationships.” And yet, how often does our practice of this principle stop with promoting justice?

What does it mean to promote compassion in human relationships?

How would our society be different if we made it the norm that we try to feel one another’s pain—that we suffer with one another instead of watching one another suffer. Justice and equity only require the latter—it’s compassion that requires the with.

Our Universalist heritage also encourages us to compassion. The promise of universal salvation, at its most basic, is that all of us are going to end up in the same place when we die (we can disagree about where and what that place is). I don’t think of heaven as a realm for the soul that is outside of what we know—I think of it as right here, in the midst of the world that we know.

Your being, mine, and everyone’s—all part of one, interconnected, closed system.  I am regularly stopped in my tracks by the unfathomable beauty of this notion that we are inextricably bound to one another. The promise of our connectedness requires us to realize our unity with all of creation.

In his 1945 work A Religion For Greatness, Universalist minister and theologian Clarence Skinner emphasized our religious call to work toward the unity of all beings, which he defined as “the coherence of what may seem to be separate, into a oneness. Unity,” he wrote, “means an operative harmony, a functional relationship which belongs to all the parts of a whole.”

Later in this work, Skinner also wrote, “This great religious experience of the unities and the universals, however, tends to direct [humanity] outward toward what is greater than the atomistic human.”

Clarence Skinner pushed to expand the notion of Universalism that his spiritual ancestors had developed.  He called us to a “cosmic mind-set” in which we all realized our connection with—indeed our unity with—everything that is, everything that has been, and everything that ever will be.

We are one with the stars.  With the planets.  With the oceans and mountains and ice caps.  With the forests and the deserts and the fauna running through them.  We are also one with one another.

This unity of existence has profound implications for how we live.

This unity of existence calls us to suffer with those who suffer, because we are they and they are we.

This unity of existence calls us to practice compassion. Our faith teaches us we must.

The CLF held its Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday June 5, 2022. Anyone who could not attend the meeting was invited to vote by mail ahead of the meeting. We received over 300 votes via mail. 32 members voted in person at the meeting.

CLF members voted for the slate of nominations presented by the nominating committee (318 yes, 0 no, 12  abstain) as follows:

• Rev Jessica James for Board of Directors for a three year term
• Darbi Lockridge for Board of Directors for a three year term
• Mandy Neff for Board of Directors for a three year term
• Rev Dr JJ Flag for Board of Directors for one year (to complete an unfinished term)
• Darbi Lockridge for Treasurer for a one year term
• Mandy Neff for Clerk for a one year term
• Michele Grove for Nominating Committee for a three year term

CLF members also voted to ordain Dr. Althea Smith, a CLF Learning Fellow, as a Unitarian Universalist minister (320 yes, 0 no, 16 abstain). Althea was recommended for ministry by the UUA Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee. Althea’s ordination was on June 18, 2022. She is now Rev. Dr Althea Smith!

In July 2022, Side With Love hosted the Climate Disaster Response Workshop for individuals interested in organizing in their communities to respond to climate disasters, led by Rachel Myslivy, Climate Justice Organizer, and Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Justice Organizer.

What now?

• Watch the recording of the Climate Disaster Response Workshop

• View the presentation slides (Slides) (PDF)

• View the Climate Disaster Preparedness for UUs Guide

• Continue the conversation: join the #issue-climate-justice Slack channel

Come together for shared learning and mutual support with other UUs working on congregational transformation through climate justice. We invite you to join our Green Sanctuary Team Meetings, which take place virtually on every third Wednesday of the month at 5PT - 6MT - 7CT - 8ET. These community conversations are open to anyone who is interested in transforming their congregation through climate justice. Sign up here.

Additionally, we are offering this series again this fall. Join this series of workshops with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood.

Sessions: Sept 29: Assessing climate impacts & making connections; Oct 6: Mobilizing for action; Oct 13: Community conversation. All sessions are 2 hours long and begin at 7ET - 6CT - 5MT - 4PT.

We also invite you to sign the Climate Justice Voter Pledge. Join us in creating a groundswell of politically active climate voters to build the power to change policy and build resilient communities.

When we think of climate disasters, we usually think about wildfires, floods, or hurricanes. Extreme heat may not be the first thing to come to mind, but it is one of the most dangerous of all climate impacts, especially with urban heat islands common in historically segregated communities. Extreme heat kills hundreds of Americans each year and causes many more to be seriously ill.

News of record-breaking heat is everywhere right now–you may be feeling the effects in your hometown. While some media outlets say, “everyone loves the summer heat!” with fun pictures of children playing in pools, the reality is that many of our friends and loved ones are profoundly suffering in this heat. This is not about discomfort. This about the safety, health, and sustaining quality of life that affirms the inherent worth and dignity of all. Our bodies and our infrastructure are not designed for these more frequent extreme heat events. This is why we fight for just policy and take action to care for and build resilient communities. 

RSVP for our Climate Disaster Response workshop. Make a plan. Protect your community. 

Sunday, July 31, 2022 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET (Note the Time Zone!)

Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this hands-on workshop with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk, and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood. This workshop is a follow up to "Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care'. Attendees are encouraged to watch the video of that training in advance of this workshop. Invite your congregation to watch with you!

How can we center the inherent worth and dignity of every person in this extreme heat? 

We can use our gifts to offer love, to work for justice, to heal injury, to create pleasure for ourselves and others. We can recognize our mutual independence with all life. We can take actions that are grounded in justice, guided by wisdom, and sustained with hope. We can learn, act, and reflect to cultivate the beloved community.

LEARN who is at risk and how.

• The EPA outlines key factors that put some at higher risk than others:

• Exposure affects people who work outdoors, in buildings with no air conditioning, the unhoused members of our communities, and people who live in inefficient housing or without air conditioning.

• Sensitivity to heat makes the very young, elderly, pregnant people, and folks with some health conditions more at risk. 

• The Ability to Respond makes it difficult for some to respond and prepare to avoid the heat. This includes our neighbors who cannot afford air conditioning or the electricity to use it because of high electricity burdens; people whose mobility issues make it difficult to access health care or get to a cooling center; and those who are exposed to extreme heat through work or lack of housing. 

Extreme heat can cause heat-related illness and death, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disorders, kidney disorders, and cerebrovascular disease. Increased ground level ozone can cause asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. In extreme heat, we see increased numbers of workplace injuries, increased violence, and mental health problems. It’s hard on all of us, but some are more impacted than others.

ACT NOW and plan for the long-haul.

Things you can do today:

• Offer your building as a cooling center to provide sanctuary from the extreme heat.

• If your congregation is in an area with heavy foot traffic, set out bottles of sunscreen and a cooler with paper cups for passersby to hydrate.

• Set up calling trees to check on elderly or sick members of your congregation every day until the heat subsides. Ask each person you call if they’re concerned about anyone else; add those people to your calling tree. 

• Know the signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Share this information with your community. (CDC or Weather.gov)

• RSVP for our Climate Disaster Response workshop. Make a plan; protect your community. 

Community actions to consider:

• Work with a neighborhood association or other local organization to weatherize low-income homes in your community. Weatherization can reduce energy burdens by 25%.

• Partner with frontline leadership to reduce the impacts of heat islands by planting locally-appropriate trees, community gardens, or other green spaces. 

• Encourage your local government to install public drinking fountains or splash pads in areas with urban heat islands.

• Commit to cultivating relationships with frontline communities in your area. Ask how you can help; don’t tell your neighbors what to do.

Congregational opportunities for solidarity:

• Make the changes necessary to offer your buildings as cooling or warming stations in extreme weather.

• Determine ways to reorganize your facilities to be able to provide emergency shelter after climate disasters, then make the changes. 

• Install a back-up generator so your building can provide sanctuary to your neighbors during blackouts or power outages. 

• Provide solar-powered charging stations to serve your community when the power goes out. 

Build power for the long haul:

• Advocate for local climate action. 

• Ask every elected official or candidate what they will do about climate change and extreme heat in your community. Make it local. Make it relevant. Make it urgent. . 

• Organize a campaign to press your local utility to adopt a hot-weather rule to ensure that no one has their power turned off for failure to pay during extreme heat. 

• Call on local officials and businesses to adopt standards to protect workers. Follow progress on the Biden Administration’s efforts to protect workers and communities from extreme heat. 

• Advocate for effective energy efficiency programs that prioritize lower- and middle-income residents. 

• Work for the equitable transition to a clean energy future through energy democracy and energy justice. The people most impacted by energy decisions should have the greatest say in shaping them. 

• Make sure that justice is at the core of your climate action. Update your understanding of climate action to center the experience of those most impacted by climate change. We must work together for the liberation of all. No excuses. 

REFLECT.

• Meditate on the ways love in action can transform our world. Breathe in love, breathe out justice. 

• Come together in community to create compassionate spaces for collective grief and community healing to ground and sustain our work. 

• Practice grace and compassion in your every interaction; consider the burdens we all carry, and be kind. 

• Celebrate the beauty and wonder of all creation. Seek restoration and healing in nature and in community with others. 

• Cultivate balance. 

• Prayerfully consider what radical acts of faith you can commit to personally, and how you will help lead in your congregation.

This work is hard, but we can do all of these things and more if we work together. As always, please reach out if you have ideas, need help, or want to talk through your plans. When you take action, tell us all about it. Every action counts. Thank you for your work.

In solidarity,

Rachel Myslivy

Climate Organizer for Side with Love

On July 18, Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Side With Love, & the UU Service Committee offered "Heal Not Harm: Restore Asylum Now" webinar and teach-in.

As shared by our speakers who offered their lived experiences, Title 42 is an inhumane and racist policy that violates the inherent worth and dignity of asylum seekers attempting to find safety within the borders of the United States. From blatant anti-blackness, to shackled dehumanization in front of their families, their stories remind us that what is happening is not theoretical but happening every day to real people. And their call to end the atrocities they and others have faced is one we cannot ignore.

As people of faith we must not only listen to and learn from the real people who are impacted by this deadly policy, we must follow their prophetic lead and take action to Restore Asylum NOW!

We know that the fight to end Title 42 & restore humane asylum policies has been a long and difficult one. And as people of faith, we have not only a moral obligation to challenge violently racist border policies, but also a resilient belief that another world is possible if we choose to make it so. Together we can take action, claim our collective power, and bend the moral arc of the universe to the justice & love we know is all of ours to manifest.

Recordings & Resources from the Heal Not Harm Webinar

"Heal Not Harm: Restore Asylum Now!" Webinar Recording

• "End Title 42: First Hand Accounts from Black Immigrants & Advocates on the Frontlines" (Facebook Livestream)

• "Holy Voices from the Border: Restore Asylum Now" (Facebook Livestream)

• "Title 42 Must End Now!" IIC Toolkit

• Send a message to President Biden & your members of Congress

• PCUSA & Disciples Action Hour (July 26 @ 9am PT/12pm ET)

• PCUSA August Recess Toolkit for Meetings with Members of Congress

• August Recess Refugee Advocacy Days with We Are All America

Take Action

Join the interfaith community that is taking action July 18-29 by demanding that our elected leaders end Title 42. You can help restore asylum by taking these three actions:

• Call your elected Members of Congress

Use this "click-to-call" tool to be automatically connected to your elected leaders with a personalizable script explaining why an end to Title 42 is essential.

• Send an email to your Congress & President Biden

Send a personalizable message to your Members of Congress & President Biden explaining how your faith demands an end to Title 42 & the restoration of asylum.

• Post on social media & tag your elected leaders

Use or personalize one of these tweets from the "Title 42 Must End NOW!" Toolkit to let your elected leaders know the only moral choice is to end Title 42.

Last month, we learned about the tragic loss of 53 lives in San Antonio. Migrants were trapped in the back of a truck: parents, children, siblings, human beings who were desperate for an opportunity to find and create a better life for themselves and their loved ones. As the Somali poet Warsan Shire reminds us in her poem “Home,”

“no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles traveled
means something more than journey.”

Leaders on both sides of the aisle continue to use fear, scarcity, and bigotry to shape critical asylum policies. As people of faith, we know another way is not only possible but essential. Not every tragedy caused by injustice makes national news, but each matter because their lives and their communities matter. We know that these deaths could have been prevented if our asylum policies were designed to heal, not harm, seekers of safety & community. We need to tell our leaders that each day that we continue with Title 42 is a moral failure.

Join Love Resists for the interfaith #HealNotHarm Days of Action to restore asylum next week!

Months after most COVID-19 public health restrictions in the US have been lifted, our government is still using the pandemic as justification for refusing, detaining, and expelling asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the CDC’s Title 42 program, almost all asylum-seeking families and individuals are being denied their human and legal right to seek safety. The CDC has already acted to revoke Title 42 because it is not contributing to public health, but a conservative judge has kept it in place through a legal battle. Now, anti-immigrant political leaders want to ensure Title 42 continues to control migration and restrict asylum at the border, and are pushing amendments on Title 42 through Congress.

Join Side with Love, UUSC, & the Interfaith Immigration Coalition for our #HealNotHarm Teach-In on Monday, July 18 at 4pm ET

Many migrants have died from being denied access to asylum at the border where ports of entry have remained closed more than two years ago. Like most efforts historically to control cross-border migration, Title 42 does not deter those seeking safety in the US, but pushes them into more dangerous circumstances while trying to get here. The reality is that the horrific tragedy of 53 lives lost while migrants were trapped in the back of a tractor trailer in San Antonio, TX, is only the most visible tip of the iceberg. Thousands of people stuck in dangerous border cities in Mexico have been kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and forced into labor, while others have died from lack of medical care. Black asylum-seekers, especially Haitians, have been disproportionately impacted by Title 42. There is no way of tracking how many others have lost their lives after being forcibly expelled back to dangerous conditions in their countries of origin without screening for whether they feared for their lives if returned.

It is simply untrue that US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) does not have the capacity to process asylum-seekers in a safe and orderly manner at the border. We have seen how it is possible when the political will is there, such as when Ukranians were exempted from Title 42.

The courts are already preventing the end of Title 42, and now Members of Congress are trying to make this deadly policy permanent by attaching amendments to maintain Title 42 into as many bills as they can manage, including critical budget bills. So far, in the House, both the Labor and Health and Human Services and the Homeland Security budget drafts include an extension of Title 42 until 60 days after the pandemic is declared over. Additionally, a desperately needed COVID relief bill is being held up in part due to conflicts about including Title 42. We cannot meet the very real needs of our communities impacted by COVID by denying asylum-seekers their lives and safety!

Will you join me and other people of faith committed to restoring asylum at our #HealNotHarm Teach-in on July 18 at 4pm ET? Together we will learn about the many tactics we can take to bring an end to Title 42 and begin to move towards life-affirming asylum policies in the US. And we’ll prepare to participate in our own UU-sponsored National Call-in Day to demand an end to Title 42 on July 19!

As people of faith, we know that another world is possible, and together, it is ours to create. Bringing an end to Title 42 is one of the many necessary steps towards creating a world that no longer inflicts deadly harm, but offers liberatory healing and welcome to all.

In faith & justice,

Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Justice Organizer

Last week the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to address emissions that cause climate change, compromising half a century of health, environmental, and climate justice advocacy. The decision in West Virginia v. EPA significantly limits the EPA’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants using the Clean Air Act. The Court’s ruling will disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities. These populations are more likely to live near power plants, experience higher rates of pollution, are most affected by the public health impacts of climate and are more likely to experience climate-forced displacement.

• Tell Biden: Choose People over Fossil Fuels. Sign on to a list of executive actions that Biden must take right away to protect and invest in BIPOC and working-class communities impacted first and worst by pollution and climate disaster, stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure and declare climate change a national emergency

• Join with UUs demanding climate action. Tell your Senators and Representative that the Supreme Court’s recent climate decision requires urgent legislative action to invest in climate action.

• Call Your Senators NOW to express outrage at this decision and demand they do everything they can to stop climate change and protect our communities from air pollution and climate disasters.

• Take distributed action! Commit to getting 75% of your congregation to take one or all of these actions! Please fill out the Action Center Story & Report form to share your work with us.

This ruling adds to the pain and anger for those of us already mourning the devastating reversal of Roe v. Wade, the elimination of local gun controls, and the undermining of indigenous sovereignty – all while we face another summer of extreme heat with rising energy costs; and climate disasters like wildfires and floods displacing thousands of people. We must acknowledge our friends and neighbors who will now be denied bodily autonomy and be burdened by the financial cost and danger of trying to access care are the same people who continue to face the worst of the climate crisis.

As we wrote in May, “Our Unitarian Universalist faith affirms that all of our bodies are sacred, and that we are each endowed with the twin gifts of agency and conscience. . . . When disparities in resources or freedoms make it more difficult for certain groups of people to exercise autonomy over their own bodies, our faith compels us to take liberatory action.” This bodily autonomy applies as much to our right to choose as it does our right to clean air and clean water. We encourage you to discern where you feel called to be, and we send you our gratitude and blessings for showing up for justice.

How can we respond with love and justice at the core of our intentions and actions? What liberatory action can we take now?

Organize. Your. Congregation.

• Make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood. Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this hands-on workshop with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk, and how your community will be impacted. Register for the Climate Disaster Response Workshop - July 31, 2022 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET.

• Advance Energy Justice through weatherization. Weatherization can reduce energy bills by up to 25% while improving community health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving air quality, but utility programs are often inaccessible to our lower-income neighbors. Join the next Green Sanctuary Team Meeting to learn how your congregation can engage in community weatherization efforts.

• Commit to action on climate forced displacement. Join the UU Ministry for Earth, UUs for a Just Economic Community, UUA, UUA Office at the United Nations, UUs for Social Justice, and the UU Service Committee in a joint UU Statement of Commitment in Response to Climate-Forced Displacement. It’s an historic moment of UU collaboration at a time when we’re seeing unprecedented climate-forced migration all over the globe - even right here in our communities. Sign on to respond to Climate-Forced Displacement.

• Get ready to vote on climate. UU the Vote is partnering with the Environmental Voter Project to turn out millions of non-voting environmentalists this November. Stay tuned.

• Connect with people organizing for Environmental and Climate Justice in your community, state, or region. Ask them how you and your congregation can help (don’t tell them what to do!). Centering values and lived experience is critical to achieving energy and climate justice. The 4th Arm - Partnership for Southern Equity demonstrates that when BIPOC communities are authentically and thoughtfully engaged in organizing, we can win on climate and create systemic change.

• Prepare yourself for the long haul journey to climate justice. Take a deep breath. Connect with your friends. Hydrate. Smile at a child. Sing a song. Center love.

We can do this.

Rachel Myslivy

Climate Justice Organizer

Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson case. The final opinion effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated federal protections for abortion. Each state will now be able to independently regulate abortion, with at least 26 states poised to entirely ban abortion care beginning immediately. 

We weep for the millions of people and families that will be harmed–physically, spiritually, financially, and emotionally–because of this decision. We mourn that this ruling rolls back many decades of advances for reproductive health, rights, and justice. And we sit with the numbness, despair, and anger we feel knowing that white Christian nationalist misogyny has won the day. 

Whenever our movements experience a major defeat, we take a beat to discern what our next moves will be. We all have the right to grieve, to rage, to mourn when we lose – it’s what keeps us human, and reminds us why we keep fighting. (Sometimes this can look like mass protest, when we gather in the streets as a community together. Many communities are planning decision day #BansOffOurBodies marches or protests; find yours here.)

Then, when we’re ready to move back into action after a loss, we have to choose how to allocate our energy. In the weeks and months ahead, as we calibrate to the realities of living in a post-Roe United States, there will be concrete ways for our congregations to take on both harm reduction and liberatory imagination. Here are three things you can do right now to support both today:

• Donate to your local abortion fund, and/or the National Network of Abortion Funds. Abortion has never been universally accessible to people in the US, but the National Network of Abortion Funds and their local affiliates have been supporting those seeking abortion care for decades. From making clinic referrals to providing financial support for medical costs, travel, childcare, and more, we need robust abortion funds more than ever. 

• Make a plan to host a(nother) Reproductive Justice Sunday in your congregation. Worship can be both a way of ministering to people’s hearts, and a component in mobilizing our communities for action. Click the link above to see the rich compendium of resources you can use for services in your congregation. 

• Join Side With Love’s UPLIFT Action campaign for our upcoming three-part Reproductive Justice Congregational Organizing series. In congregational cohorts and a large group, we will explore the role of congregations in a post-Roe world (Session 1), spend time discerning risk and accessing courage (Session 2), and make an organizing plan (Session 3). 

Whether you are in a state where abortion will be criminalized, or a state to which people will come seeking abortion care, there is a role for all of us–and all our congregations–to play, starting right now. The fight is far from over, but we’re grateful to be in it for the long haul with you.

In faith and solidarity,

The Side With Love Team 

Climate forced displacement is on the news every day.  Most recently, the fires in New Mexico have displaced up to 18,000 people in the largest wildfire in the state’s history.  The Hermit’s Peak and Canyon Calf fires are only about 65% contained; the true impacts are hard to gauge, and it will take years to recover.   

Climate disasters will challenge every community.  How can UUs prepare?  How can we center justice in our response?  How can our congregations be beacons of hope in these trying times?  

Here are two things you can do right now:  

1. Check out the recording of Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care, featuring Rev. Karen Hutt from the UU Trauma Response Ministry; Halcyon Westall with the UUA Disaster Relief Fund and Faithify; Rachel Myslivy, Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer; and Rev. Cynthia Cain, retired UU minister.  

2. RSVP for the follow up Climate Disaster Response Workshop - July 31, 2022 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET.  Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this hands-on workshop with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk, and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood. This workshop is a follow up to "Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care'. Attendees are encouraged to watch the video of that training in advance of this workshop. Invite your congregation to watch with you!

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Aly Tharp- Farewell and Forward Together!

Aly Tharp has served as a leader in the Unitarian Universalist Climate Justice movement since 2014 will be transitioning from Co-Director of UU Ministry for Earth to a new organizing role at Green Faith, a multi-faith climate organization. Aly writes: 

“It has been a great honor and privilege to serve UU Young Adults for Climate Justice, UU Ministry for Earth and the entire UU faith community over the last eight years.

I am so proud of the work we’ve done together — the many national and global mobilizations; being an executive producer and screening partner of The Condor & The Eagle documentary; organizing congregations to create eco-artwork for the 2017, 2019 and 2022 General Assemblies; the hundreds of webinars and networking calls to strengthen the UU climate and environmental justice movement… It has been hard, beautiful, meaningful work. Thank you for your faith, support, and collaboration over the years…

Given that the UU Ministry for Earth, Side With Love, and hundreds of UU congregations are active in the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition — and given how many UUs are engaged in grassroots multi-faith action for climate justice generally — I have no doubt that this transition is not truly a goodbye! Our paths will continue to intersect and unite often, as we do the sacred and important work of showing up for Life, Love and Justice.”

Read Aly’s complete letter of hopes and well wishes here. 

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Climate Justice at General Assembly

The Unitarian Universalist General Assembly will be in Portland, OR, June 21st – 26th, and we hope to connect with you there in person or virtually. There are several excellent presentations on climate justice at this year’s General Assembly.  

Public Witness: “Fund Futures, not Freeways!”,  Friday, June 24 at 5:30 pm PT - 6:15pm PT

When we gather in-person at #UUAGA, we make a commitment to leveraging our UU power in support of locally-led movements for justice through a Public Witness in whatever city we are in. This year, local UU climate justice activists have asked us to join them in their support of youth-led climate justice work in partnership with Sunrise PDX, a chapter of the national Sunrise Movement.

Join Side With Love, UU Ministry for Earth, and our UU youth and young adults for this short action to support Sunrise PDX's Youth vs. ODOT campaign in demanding that the Oregon Department of Transportation "Fund Futures, not Freeways!" We will process from the Synergy worship to right outside the convention center, where we will hear from youth leaders and local activists about the need to imagine a decarbonized transportation infrastructure for the future of the planet and all species. People of all ages and abilities are invited to join the Procession of Species, and lift our voices together in song and chant at this brief, uplifting youth-led rally.

Below are a few highlights:

• LREDA Fahs Lecture- Ancestral Wisdom and Climate Justice with Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt - Thursday 1:45-3:15

• Creating Climate Justice on an International Stage - Friday 1:45-3:45

• The Power of Climate Justice - Saturday 1:45 PM-3:15 PM

• Learn to UU the Vote in 2022 - Friday 1:45-3:15

On Demand programming: 

• Organize with the Side With Love Action Center

• Blueprint for Successful Climate & Justice Teams

• Climate-Justice-Inequality: Can Business be the Agent of Change?

Check out UU Ministry for Earth’s guide to workshops and activities at General Assembly 2022!  

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Green Climate Fund Advocacy Needed

Do you agree the U.S. is responsible for a huge share of emissions causing the climate crisis and should do its fair share to support mitigation and resilience development? Will you support UU advocacy for the Green Climate Fund (GCF)? 

Are you a constituent in AR, CT, KS, KY, MD, MO, NH, TN, and VT? Your Senators are on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. If so, fill out this form so that UUSJ can pursue meetings with your Senators on the GCF.

In May 2022, the UUs for Social Justice (UUSJ) Environmental Action Team (EAT) did structured meetings with select targets on funding the GFC, a vital international effort to assist poorer countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help their people adapt to the worst effects of climate change. This effort was endorsed by UUMFE and UUJEC. We sought to learn why the GCF fell out of the FY-2022 budget and what can be done for the FY-2023 cycle. We heard about a political circumstance where faith voices are needed to press the Subcommittee to fund the GCF for both moral and policy reasons. Will you support this work?

Learn and act:

• Online letter writing portal https://bit.ly/UUSJ-GreenClimateFund (with UUMFE & UUJEC)

• Issue handout 

• Expert Opinion Briefing (video) https://bit.ly/UUSJ-GCF-Video

June 2022

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself. –Andre Gide

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Integrity is not a trait that can exist on its own. The word is a noun that refers to an entity, quality, state, action, or concept. Whether describing a trait of character or expressing a property of strength, integrity is always related to something else. However it is used, an essential quality of integrity is its role in describing completeness and soundness for what it refers to.

As applied to people, integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong principles. By extension, integrity implies that any organization of persons is more vital when honesty and a striving towards principles promulgated for the good of the whole. These attributes are a source of pride for Americans. We like to believe we define our character as rugged individuals who, by sheer will of force, carve out for ourselves and our families a superior way of life that attracts other such people to form a “more perfect union” governed by fairly applied laws.

James Burke wrote a book in 1985 called The Day the Universe Changed. In the book, Burke describes how seemingly small random events, or isolated moments, can radically change our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

I believe such a moment occurred on July 27, 2016 after the Republican National Convention concluded.

My wife and I watched an interview with former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. We were horrified to hear Gingrich explain what we now all understand as “alternative truth.” When confronted with the fact that crime in the United States had decreased, he insisted that facts don’t matter as much as feelings about crime. He said, “The current view is that liberals have a whole set of statistics which theoretically may be right, but it’s not where human beings are. People are frightened… As a political candidate, I’ll go with how people feel, and I’ll let you go with the theoreticians.”

I believe that was the instant that heralded the death of truth and the political weaponization of fear in our country. It is when temptation overtook our national ethos. We succumbed to fear and ran willingly into the darkness of disenfranchisement, supremacy, and othering. We have been damaged by the false narrative of “exceptionalism” that denies our actual past and obscures our present. Our nation is imperiled because many of us are willing to sacrifice integrity and the rule of law for authoritarian power.

Democracies operate on fact, science, and objectivity, along with law. When there is no basis for action, save feelings, there is no democracy. We knew that, but we abandoned our highest path because a messy democracy became too complicated for some to bear. Newt Gingrich and his ilk smashed our Achilles heel to herd us into temptation and usher us into an era of darkness.

The events of January 6, 2021, may have sealed our fate.

What does integrity mean to you?

Michael
CLF Member, incarcerated in TX

Integrity, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary, is, “completeness; unimpaired condition; soundness; honesty, sincerity, etc.” Some of the synonyms in Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus are “honor, uprightness, goodness, principle, probity, purity, righteousness, virtue, simplicity, stability and unity.”

To me, integrity means being true to oneself, with actions of uprightness and goodness towards others. By being true to yourself you remain the same when you’re alone as with others. There is a saying: “who are you when no one is looking?” The “you” that your family, friends, classmates, co-workers see — is it the same “you” as when you are by yourself, or are you a different person altogether in both worlds?

By letting your actions be upright and good towards others, family or friend, stranger or foe, it makes no difference, for those actions show the world who you really are, the character that is built in you and the love that engulfs your heart. “Actions speak louder than words” has always been a true statement.

Some people are born with integrity, others have to work to integrate and cultivate it into their lives. Some have to work harder than others. Nevertheless, it’s a virtue and principle that everybody can have and should want to have. Everybody, I believe, should practice having one percent more integrity with every new dawn and day we wake up to. It could make a difference.

Christian
CLF Member, incarcerated in IL

Integrity to me means standing solid and firm in one’s own beliefs. Exhibiting good faith in a certain set of morals, principles, and values.

I hear that the pen is mightier than the sword; the tongue has been known to dismantle empires. The quality of a person’s integrity can only be measured through the weight of that individual’s actions. Though we are all animals at the end of the day, language and our intentions are two of the most fundamental elements in which the value of integrity is allowed to manifest itself within the physical realm.

The ability to connect and communicate with all, in pure harmony, in my opinion represents integrity in its highest form.

RANDE
CLF member, incarcerated in CA

A building or any such structure having integrity means that it is not only whole but sound. For a person, integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral values. These definitions are closer than they appear. Let me tell you how.

Integrity, to me, is not only recognizing the wholeness of oneness of everything, but realizing that I am in unity with that oneness. And therefore, everyone is unified with that oneness.

This reminds me of one of Buddha’s revelations: that if we have lived many, like hundreds of thousands of incarnations, then it could be very likely that anyone you meet could have been your mother, in a previous incarnation. In addition, Jesus stated that he came to give one commandment: to love the oneness and each other as the oneness.

How are we treating each other? Is it even close to how you would treat your mother? Integrity is like that. When we treat each other with love, respect, and we “do no harm,” we would not be lying, stealing and all the other “thou shalt nots.” Integrity is not being divided or separated from anyone else. Recognizing blood color before skin color, the color of their flag, or the shape of their wholeness. Use unity as the basis of integrity and all the rest will take care of itself.

Ultra Vylet
CLF Member, incarcerated in FL

They wouldn’t show me the path in which to walk
Only the roads sidelined, with bodies in chalk
Vague directions and a god that refuses to be known
Look for me in darkness, the heartless child’s foster home

And so I cut my own path
Became my own god
Created my own ceremonies
Ordained my own laws

Instituted my own rituals
And sent my demons to hell
From the darkness I came
Illuminating myself

I created the light
And saw that it was good, you see
For no guru
Would show their wizen face
to me

And so my own master
No generic I’ve become
A unique soul
The esoteric sun

Whatever comes,
I will not be disrupted; the essence
My solar-systems spun
Spins spirit relentless

Energy vampires un-repented
Eternally burn on my contrite cross
For blood is an illusion
A conundrum delusion wrought
So look for my blood, if you
so choose
That which you seek your own you shall lose
Lost in confusion are all my foes
Bound by habit circled in woes

That’s a stick of dynamite
Not a candle they’re holding
But what’s a spiritual truth
To a creation so soulless

Pastors packing pulpit power
In their proverbial pipes
Puff puff; boom, plume!!
Eradication of life

On a nimbus cloud, I span the skys
The earth my love, the rain and I
Does everything natural not love the storm
Water is life, is light, is lore

When Aisha, Michael, and I were called as your Lead Ministry Team in 2020 we were excited to learn all the behind-the-scenes workings of CLF. All of us had been affiliated with CLF in one way or another over the years, be it as members, co-hosts of the VUU, and/or CLF programs.  We were and remain energized about the potential for CLF global ministry. We see the hunger for UU Faith Development offerings, Prison Ministry/Abolition programs, and of course the deep community building that happens during weekly worship service and covenant groups.

One aspect of CLF life which emerged into clearer focus for us were the ways in which CLF operates both as a church and a non-profit:

• Sunday/Monday Worship – Church
• Staff Structure – non-profit
• Pastoral Care – Church
• Membership Structure – non-profit

As we began interviewing staff, lay leaders, and members it became clear that there is a deep desire to build the CLF as a congregational community. The reasons we gather as a spiritual community are vast but they are always centered on building beloved community.… a spiritual community, a faith, a Unitarian Universalist home.

Michael, Aisha, and I, with the support of the CLF Board, set about realigning the staff and resources to more fully embrace a structure and culture of faith. In 2021 we underwent a wildly successful staff realignment which saw staff embrace those areas of their expertise and creative expression. Today our staff continue to report how excited and fulfilled they are working in this collaborative environment. And it shows because you, our members, are showing up to worship, covenant groups, and faith development offerings in droves. Our incarcerated UUs are finding us and flocking to our prison ministry.

So now we turn our attention to our membership structure. And friends let me tell you, the CLF is in full non-profit mode when it comes to membership! To join the church all one had to do is pay $50 and bam! you were a CLF Unitarian Universalist. Incarcerated UUs joined via membership form and then attended a ‘New UU” correspondence course in order to participate in our Pen Pal program.

But what Aisha, Michael and I asked is this question “who are the stewards of CLF Unitarian Universalism?” because in a faith community we are not just members but stewards. Our incarcerated UUs are stewards of our faith by their frequent contributions to Quest and sharing the good news of Unitarian Universalism within their incarcerated community.  Our free-world members tend towards the non-profit designation of member by paying a yearly membership fee. This isn’t to say that we don’t have self-identified stewards of CLF, we do. It’s to say that the way that we as the institution of CLF has positioned membership leads to a transactional nature rather than one of stewardship.

So we are excited to announce that beginning this summer we will launch a “From Membership to Stewardship” campaign. We will be asking folks to consider their “membership” in CLF from a stewardship perspective. We will be doing this in a variety of channels including mail, email, website, worship announcements, and faith development offerings.

We will be asking for you to think about your time, treasure, and talents as community offerings to stewarding Unitarian Universalism via the Church of the Larger Fellowship. And we will be creating opportunities to talk about stewardship, practice stewardship, and gain deeper understandings of just what being a steward of Unitarian Universalism is all about. We are soooo excited to be on this journey with you and look forward to exploring with you this upcoming season of “From Membership to Stewardship” at the CLF.

YoUUrs in faith,

Christina Rivera
Co-Lead Ministry Team

During General Assembly 2022 — the annual gathering of the Unitarian Universalist Association — Side With Love will have a range of programming and activities for participants in person in Portland, OR as well as online! Unless otherwise noted, all events and activities are open to the public.

Side With Love Networking Room

Join us in-person in Portland at our networking space in the Willamette 1 at the Hyatt Regency (across the street from the convention center). The space will be open to anyone registered for GA during these times:

• Wednesday: 12pm - 1:30pm PT

• Thursday - Sunday: 9am - 1:30pm PT

Come by to get your #JusticeBingo card, find spiritual respite at our altar space, make signs for Friday’s public witness, write letters to voters, meet with Side With Love staff and volunteers, and enjoy our many informal and formal events and gatherings!

#SideWithLove #JusticeBingo

Download our Side With Love #JusticeBingo or pick up a card at our Side With Love Network Room (Willamette 1 at the Hyatt Regency) and make a BINGO (complete 5 squares in any direction!). Once you get a BINGO, you get a raffle ticket for a prize. Complete the whole BINGO card and get 15 tickets! Submit proof of BINGO by going to the Side With Love Networking Room or email love@uua.org. Learn about the individual activities!

Prizes:

• Side With Love sweatshirt (3 winners)

• Side With Love swag box, valued at $100 (2 winners)

• Side With Love swag box, valued at $100, plus $100 gift certificate to InSpirit Bookstore (1 winner)

See our General Assembly Activities by Day See our General Assembly Activities by Issue See Our General Assembly Activities by Type

In May 2022, we hosted the webinar Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care. 

Special thanks to Rev. Karen Hutt, Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry; Halcyon Westall with the UUA Disaster Relief Fund and Faithify; and Rev. Cynthia Cain for helping us all reflect on how to cultivate community care in response to climate disasters.

What now?

• You can view the recording here.  Share it with your congregation to start a conversation on climate resilience and disaster preparedness!  

• Review the resources shared, including Rev. Cynthia Cain’s Climate Response Challenges & Suggestions, Rachel Myslivy and Rev. Ranwa Hammamy’s presentations on Climate Response and the Side With Love Action Center, and Halcyon Westall’s presentation on the Disaster Relief Fund & Faithify. 

• Sign up to attend the Climate Disaster Response Workshop

Climate Disaster Response Workshop

July 10, 2022 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET

Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this hands-on workshop with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk, and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood. This workshop is a follow up to "Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care'. Attendees are encouraged to watch the video of that training in advance of this workshop. Invite your congregation to watch with you! Sunday, July 10 - 4ET - 3CT - 2MT - 1PT

On May 17th, Side With Love hosted the National Network of Abortion Funds for a political education webinar for Unitarian Universalists and other people of faith and conscience to support abortion and take action in a post-Roe world. We’re especially grateful to Amanda Pretlow and Adaku Utah for their expertise, love, and invitational challenge at this event.

• View the webinar

• View the presentation

We heard about the importance of strengthening our muscles to have deep, connective conversations with people in our communities about abortion (and other issues!). NNAF’s Heart-to-Heart framework is an incredible resource to use for both relational organizing (1:1 values-based conversations with people in our own networks) and community organizing (within our congregations and with other faith communities). You can check out the whole array of Heart-to-Heart resources on the NNAF website, or you can jump right to specific tools:

• Heart-to-Heart toolkits: small group and individual

• Heart-to-Heart placemat and menu

• Heart-to-Heart virtual card selector

• The #AbortionWithinReach Campaign demands & resources

Toward the end of the webinar, we offered three specific calls to action:

1. Become an individual member of NNAF, and organize your congregation to make an offering to your local abortion fund.

2. Plan a set of small-group Heart-to-Heart conversations either within your own congregation, or in partnership with other local progressive congregations – remember that the work of building alignment, shared values, and relationships is an essential precursor to building power and capacity!

3. If your congregation is ready to begin organizing right now for concrete action working for abortion access and reproductive justice in your community, join us for Side With Love’s three-session Congregational Reproductive Justice Organizing Series, happening later this summer! (Please note that in order to join this cohort, we require at least two people from your congregation to commit to participating).

We’re so grateful that so many UUs are ready to meet the needs of this moment, and to continue to grow our relationships with organizations who have been leading this struggle for years.

Blessings,

Rev. Ashley Horan

Organizing Strategy Director, Side With Love - UUA

On Saturday, an 18-year-old white supremacist carried out a premeditated fatal attack on a Black community in Buffalo, killing ten and injuring many more. Today, we mourn the ten unique and precious lives of the people murdered in Buffalo – church elders, civil rights activists, grandmothers, parents of small children. We grieve with this community as they reel from this violence and collective trauma.

Tops supermarket is more than a grocery store – it is a space that the community created to meet essential needs. The shooter’s plan was specifically designed to target the beating heart of the Black community, taking aim at a nexus of community care, resources, and resiliency. This is the essence of white supremacist ideology – the elimination of not only BIPOC people as individuals, but entire communities and cultures.

Given the persistent white supremacist attacks in our nation’s history, it is dishonest and irresponsible to call these “isolated incidents.” We will not cause further harm by calling this a mental health issue. We must refuse the complacency of accepting that this is simply a gun reform issue. This is the expected consequence of a nation that has yet to confront an ideology that proclaims whiteness is superior and treats blackness as less valuable or a threat. Shootings like these are not an affront to America’s deepest values; they are the embodiment of them.

In all too familiar moments, we recall these words from the song “Tell It Like It Is” by Tracy Chapman:

Say you'll never close your eyes, or pretend that it's a rosy world.

Say you'll never try to paint what is rotten with a sugarcoat.

Say you'll talk about the horrors you've seen and the torment you know,

And tell it like it is.

This latest attack is the result of a society that is rooted in white supremacy. This violence begins with people aligning themselves with white supremacy, however, it shows up in our lives. It shows up with believing that white lives should be protected over Black lives–knowing that Black children playing on playgrounds or sleeping in their homes are killed by police without hesitation, while white assailants are taken safely into custody. It shows up with packaging genocidal movements in language like “Replacement Theory.” It shows up when the media calls Mike Brown an “18-year-old man” and the Buffalo shooter a ”white teenager.” Whether it is the lie of a stolen election or calling a deadly insurrection “legitimate political discourse,” we must remember that “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” White supremacy, in all its expressions, is violence. And until we collectively commit to eradicating that root structure, this violence will continue.

We must keep telling the truth, keep fighting, keep building a shared story and collective power because in our bones–we know another world is possible. As Black movement builder and Director of the Working Families Party Moe Mitchell said this morning, “If you don’t think change is possible, organizing is not your ministry.” We begin with truth-telling and moving together in that truth. Another world is possible if we build it together.

In Photo:

Top row, from left to right: Rachel Myslivy, Susan Leslie, Nicole Pressley, Audra Friend, Rev. Ashley Horan, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy

Bottom row, from left to right: Rev. Michael Crumpler, Jeff Milchen, Rev. Cathy Rion Starr

In faith and solidarity,

The Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team:

Adrian Ballou, Rev. Michael Crumpler, Audra Friend, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, JaZahn Hicks, Rev. Ashley Horan, Susan Leslie, Jeff Milchen, Rachel Myslivy, Nicole Pressley, & Rev. Cathy Rion Starr

Can We Transform a Gruesome Milestone Into a Positive Turning Point?

By Jeff Milchen

As we approach the dismal milestone of one million people killed by COVID in the U.S., I’m reminded of words originally penned by German writer Kurt Tucholsky, “The death of one man: this is a catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of deaths: that is a statistic!”

Our hearts simply cannot absorb the enormity of the loss of so many dead.

Statistics alone lack power to inspire the empathy, consideration, inclusion, and—above all—policy shifts we desperately need to protect our most vulnerable citizens. So how can we prevent such overwhelming numbers from demoralizing us and instead reach people in ways that inspire work to build the more equitable and compassionate system our Unitarian Universalist faith demands?

We’re at a crucial moment, as recent changes trend even further toward extreme individualism in lieu of compassion and community. In April, a federal judge declared the Center for Disease Control (CDC) lacked authority to control disease via mask mandates, so it’s now often a personal choice whether we protect ourselves and others around us. Whatever our personal risk comfort level may be, let’s set an example of defending vulnerable people who can’t ignore COVID’s deadly threat and advocate policies that defend them.

Media reports on the mask ruling focused overwhelmingly on airline passengers and industry personnel. Yet ridership on buses, trains, and subways exceeds air travel tenfold. And millions of people who might never board a plane rely on public transit to get to work, school, and obtain (or provide) essential goods and services. 

While some mass transit systems employed federal relief funds through the CARES Act to install air filtration systems, an operable window is the best hope for many bus and subway commuters. Those passengers skew toward low-income, disabled, and people of color, and often have no alternative means for essential travel. They include many of the 7 million Americans who are immunocompromised at moderate to severe levels.

Many immunocompromised people go unrecognized by people around them because they don’t appear sick and choose increased risk rather than publicizing their vulnerability or secluding themselves. Yet their lives are endangered by COVID as protective measures are weakened.

Many immunocompromised people aren’t recognized as such by friends and acquaintances because they don’t appear sick and choose increased risk rather than seclusion. Yet their lives are at risk from COVID as protective measures are weakened.

About 13 percent of adult Americans are diabetic, but they comprise 30 to 40 percent of all COVID deaths. Numerous factors contribute to diabetes rates for Blacks, Latinos, and the poor greatly exceeding rates among white and non-poor individuals. And by almost any measure, health outcomes for people of color in the U.S. are worse than those for white people. Those disparities persist across socioeconomic status, education, and geography. 

The COVID pandemic amplifies multiple existing inequities, from historic redlining that segregated people into neighborhoods that lack clean air and access to healthy food, to people in marginalized communities more often lacking health insurance and experiencing inferior treatment by health care professionals.

Suspending public safety precautions also will worsen existing inequities of race, health and wealth. The poorest U.S. counties suffered 4.5 times more deaths than the wealthiest during the worst COVID waves. 

Many precautionary actions by governments and businesses early in the pandemic inspired a combination of hope and frustration among the immunocompromised. Masking requirements, physical barriers to protect workers, and opportunities for many more people to work from home all inspired hope that society might evolve to accommodate their disabilities. 

At the same time, countless people who’d been denied the opportunity to compete for jobs based on their need to work remotely were frustrated by the sudden shift, as corporations recognized remote work is totally viable. As disability activist Imani Barbarin says, “now that a pandemic has forced nondisabled workers to isolate, accessibility is everywhere.” How can we ensure these gains for vulnerable people endure?

So can we use the milestone of one million deaths to drive positive change? If the current situation feels dispiriting, consider the progress won by folks with more visible physical disabilities in recent decades. Organizers steadily shifted public perception of disabilities from an individual problem into binding societal commitments that accommodate people of all abilities. That progress was rooted in cultural shifts advancing the first Unitarian Universalist principle: the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Since immune system vulnerabilities are rarely visible, we all can help increase the awareness and empathy that must precede substantive change by speaking out to support measures defending and protecting the more vulnerable among us. As we advocate for immediate measures within our sphere of influence, like enabling remote work or participation in events, masking, and physical distancing, let’s also imagine the trail we need to blaze to health equity.

Just as investing in greater equity for folks with physical disabilities yields a bounty of benefits to everyone, designing for people with health vulnerabilities via reforms like improved building ventilation, paid sick days, and ultimately, universal health care, will improve the quality of life for all of us.

The Washington State Education Ombuds office compiled a fine collection of COVID-19 and Disability Justice Resources (pdf). Jeff Milchen is the UUA Justice Communications Associate and a Side With Love team member.

Beloved, 

Are you tired? I am. Are you mad as hell? Me too. Are you figuring out how to get out of bed, go to work, and carry on while day after day you are stunned by the cruelty of our leaders and our laws? If I am honest, I too have chosen a nap instead of a meeting. I have reached out to connect with friends, instead of taking every action that falls into my inbox. 

And that’s ok. We are a movement, not a machine. Caring for ourselves, our communities, and our spirits are essential to sustaining our movements. 

Our work is as complex as our movements. But there is nothing complicated about injustice. We are clear that Christian nationalism, white supremacy, and extractive capitalism are the forces that threaten our democracy, our bodily autonomy, our climate, and our lives. 

The truth is, we know that we as individuals and our communities are impacted differently. But, I believe James Baldwin when he wrote, “if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.” If we have learned anything from this decades-long campaign of right-wing authoritarianism, let us learn that when power and profit are the singular goal, no person, no community is safe. Privilege is a thin and flimsy shield. Solidarity and collective struggle is the moral choice that we must make if we are to dismantle these systems of oppression and create the beloved community that we seek. 

Beloveds, we must be in this work together. 

So I offer you this; a place to come when you are ready to take action, when you are fired with righteous rage or heavy grief, and when you are yearning for understanding about what this means and how we move through. Your community is here. Together, we learn, act, and grow our spirits and our movements toward justice, equity, and liberation. 

Here’s what I will be doing to take care and take action.  

• Join us for music, grounding and connection at Write to Vote. Come dance, sing, and listen with Emma’s Revolution and Vote Forward. We’ll have time to connect with one another, write letters to voters, and learn how each of us are taking shifts to UU to Vote in the midterm election. Bring a friend. Bring a neighbor. And bring your pen. Monday, May 9, 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT

• Join us at our Fun and Spiritual Nourishment Squad training. Come together to learn ways we care for our communities and fill our cups on the long journey for justice. Our volunteers host spiritual gatherings and integrate practices of care and grounding in our national event. Wednesday, May 11, 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT

• Join us for Heart to Heart Abortion Conversations and Action for a post-Roe World with our partners National Network of Abortion Fund. As the Supreme Court looks likely to overturn or critically undermine Roe v. Wade, it seems more and more likely that access to safe and legal abortions will be even further diminished everywhere. This 90-minute event will be a learning and practice space for supporters to engage with the Heart-to-Heart campaign materials in community and interact with NNAF and other participants in compassionate abortion conversations. May, 17, 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT

• Join us for Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care. Rachel Myslivy, Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer as well as UU leaders such as Rev. Karen Hutt, Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry; Halcyon Westall with the UUA Disaster Relief Fund and Faithify; and Rev. Cynthia Cain. From wildfires to floods, climate disasters impact our communities. How do we cultivate community care in response to climate disasters? With this event, we hope to better understand the threats to your community and the resources available to help UUs show up for their communities. Thursday, May 19 at 6pm ET/ 3pm PT.

In faith and solidarity,

Nicole Pressley 

Field and Programs Director

May 2022

Where there is love there is life. –Mahatma Gandhi

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Love.

Just four letters.

Inspiration for artists and musicians, poets and dancers, an elusive, harkening, echoing, beckoning promise of what is and might be, no multi syllabic synonyms are needed to evoke Love’s deep complexities.  A foundational influence from the time we are born, if we are lucky to have it, binding us to its mysteries and intricacies, some might even think of Love as God.

Minstrels and sonnet writers praise its wonders. “All you need is love,” sang The Beatles. “Love is all you need.”

Some spend an entire lifetime unraveling the enigma — is love a social construct or something that is hardwired into our physiology? Does it belong in the spiritual realm? Whatever form or shape it takes, one can be certain that an examination of love is not likely to make an appearance on a standardized test. Many of us devote decades to exploring Love’s many facets through the prism of our own understanding and experience.

For me, love means commitment and consistency, devotion and dedication. Love is present in the joy that results when understanding and transformation occur. Love is at its best when it gives rise to that other four letter, equally powerful word that makes us or another say: “Free.” And when it does not, we can know that Love is being mis-used.

For me love takes the form of sexuality education; offered freely, offered with commitment and consistency, devotion and dedication. For me sexuality education is offered through Our Whole Lives (OWL), a comprehensive values based sexuality education program developed by two religious groups, the UUA and the UCC (and yet completely secular).

Sexuality education is much more than learning about sexual intercourse and all it’s inherent dangers; it is about body image, self esteem, friendships, intimacy, whom we chose to love, how we see ourselves, within or beyond gender binaries, how we consent to love and  loving; it is an exploration of what makes us who we are, the most fundamental of human questing.

I’ve been an OWL facilitator for almost two decades — and I have to ask, “Am I getting complacent?” What if I were asked to double down on love? What would that look like for me and how I offer sexuality education?

I know that I have work to do in widening the circle to include people beyond those who “find themselves in our group.” I am called to engage the large community, whether through schools, neighborhood programs, adult schools, justice systems, or families. I need to work more intentionally with communities of the global majority whose access to and engagement with sexuality education might be compromised.

What of you, Beloved? What if you were asked to double down on love? What would you do differently?

With blessings for each of your journeys of exploration and discovery, deepening, questing, and questioning,

— Tuli

What does love look/feel/sound like to you?

Jason
CLF Member, incarcerated in IL

That has always been a difficult question for me. As a kid, when I was being abused, I was told it was for my own good and because my dad loved me. My mother told me she loved me, then ran away to the other side of the country. As a teenager, my stepmother said that she loved me, then cut all contact with me for fear my father would find her after he got out of prison.

The only person who has told me that loved me and not abandoned or abused me is my aunt. Through all of the institutions and all of the trials and pain I have had to deal with, my aunt has supported me. Though she didn’t and doesn’t condone the behaviors that got me institutionalized, she has stood behind me. That, to me, is love.

I have never had a girlfriend and never had a date, so I don’t know what that kind of love is like. I have experienced the love of a pet. I had a dog as a child named Alfred. He made the nightmare of my childhood a little less dark. He could always make me smile and even make me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry.

Once I began to walk the pagan path and began to understand who and what I truly am, I have felt a serene love when communing with nature, and an unconditional love from my brethren in the pagan services here.

Now, as for loving myself: that has also been a difficult road. As a child, I was made to believe that I was nothing, that I was worth nothing, that I would never amount to anything. It has been very difficult for me to overcome that. It has taken years, a number of people helping me, and a lot of self-reflection and growth for me to get to where I can love myself and accept myself. As it  has been said over and over, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

So love to me is supporting someone when they need it most, even if you don’t like what they did. It is making someone feel better, making them smile or laugh when they are hurting. Love is accepting someone for who they are, without judgment or reservations. Love is casting away negative external and internal perceptions and truly figuring out who you are and accepting that person.

What is Love?

Ryan
CLF Member, incarcerated in FL

L-O-V-E. Probably one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. Mostly due to the fact we only have one word for it. The Greeks however have multiple words to describe different types of love. Here are four of them:

Eros, the easiest, is physical love. This is where we get words like erotic. It’s the love of how things look/feel/smell/taste or any other physical property. This might be an initial feeling towards someone we’re attracted to.

Philia is brotherly love. Think of philanthropy, coming together to raise money for a cause. This describes the love towards friends, co-workers and even humanity as a whole.

Storge is familial love. Not a common root word in the English language, but this is the love one typically feels towards parents, children, siblings or cousins.

The most powerful form of love is agape, or unconditional love that continues despite and perhaps even due to our flaws.

This is sometimes the hardest to achieve because as humans we put conditions on so much, usually unconsciously. This is what we as UUs strive for, especially in our acceptance of the LGBTQ+ and incarcerated members. This is the love to strive for.

What about your love?

 

Donald
CLF member, incarcerated in CO

Love is a simple yet complex emotion for us to truly describe. However, we seem to know it when we feel it. Problems arise when we grasp at, try to control or desire love. Problems also happen when we reject or do not reciprocate love.

Love is at its best when we just allow it to be, and in turn, when we just “be” in it. Love exists outside of us, sometimes with, sometimes without us. We are not necessary for love, but love is a necessity for us.

 

Robert
CLF Member, incarcerated in MA

To put into words that which transcends words is something the greatest poets all throughout time have tried to do (with varying success). Since I consider myself to be a bit of an amateur poet and writer, this is something that I have thought on many times.

An over-simplification is that love is just a basic chemical reaction, impulses that are instinctive. Perhaps you can say that of lust, but not love, for love is not a physical reaction, but a social construct, a characteristic of thinking beyond the self.

When I think on love, an old Greek story comes to mind. There was a creature that walked the Earth that was so powerful, it could overthrow the Gods themselves. It had four arms, four legs, and two heads. Zeus, being fearful of what these creatures could do, rendered them in half; to this day, these now split creatures look for their other half, so that they may once again be as one.

What this story is talking about is humans and the concept of soulmates. I always liked the idea that when you are with your soulmate, that the love you have, is the greatest power in all the world.

Another way of looking at it is a puzzle, composed of two pieces. On their own, you have a slight understanding of the image. Maybe two pieces that are not truly matching can be put together, but the story told is disjointed, and doesn’t make much sense. But when they match up, a story for the ages is told.

Nearly 20 years ago, I found that one, the missing piece, my missing half. With her, I felt at peace. The best way I can describe that feeling is with a smile. It’s a special smile, one that only came across my face when I looked at her. It drove her crazy, because one could consider it a “I have a secret” smile.

In a way, I did, and I’ll let you in on it. Now come close, for not everyone can handle this, so they shouldn’t hear it: my love for my wife is the power that makes the Gods themselves tremble. Forever & Always.

 

In the beginning
it was all darkness and fear
I saw no way out
no end to my anguish
a place that conveys death
yet, can offer life?
to become new
I entered into this cocoon,
a target of transformation,
the time out in darkness
becomes a metamorphosis
death and life working together
to bring about a transformation
from the ruins of the old
like a butterfly, to emerge
forever changed
a person I have never been,
but the world, this life
isn’t all rainbows and butterflies,
for you can’t change the mind
if you have not touched the heart

(an intermission of love’s omissions)

Chase Cole
CLF member, incarcerated in MA

this memory unfolds
spilling over my shoulder
with Hyacinth coolness
shades of hair
spiral downward
rose and sweet a meadow’s breath
—lingering—
tickles my tongue
tingling red wine kisses
little sips of you

pale fingers caress shadows
cinders spear lambent gazes
never wandering eyes
tease my vibe
you are the bee
who robs my hive
unfolding myself beside you
will this last?

you ask
shivering autumnal sun
folded legs tucked under mine
petals of fallen white
holding me
shaping your outline
a nimbus of startling height
passes above us
our love
falls before us

we are a tangle of consciousness
steep and wild
merging rivers crashing together
hidden in veils of light
small wild fruit grows upon your
banks
stop and speak
to me
your silk-blue eyes
purple crescent skies
plum blossoms inhale you
I steal your smiles
cup them inside my heart
trap them inside your warmth
hold me lovely tell me I’m yours

you will come dazzling beside me
risen from jelly shaking your soul
I calm your tremors
kissing you lightly on night’s wind
this world hints of you
your rise and fall
inhaling a life we built together
exhaling empires we destroyed
forever promises eternity
love demands it
—we rise mountains
smooth summits—
sail thermals
energy

Since well before Roe v. Wade, Unitarian Universalists have declared unequivocally that we support every person’s right to make decisions about their own bodies and reproductive health, including the choice to seek abortion care. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, UUs have supported movements working to make abortion accessible and affordable and to destigmatize abortion within our society. Given that legacy, today is a heartbreaking day for all of us who believe that our bodies, and the choices we make about them, are sacred. 

Yesterday afternoon, Politico broke the news that through an unprecedented breach in Supreme Court security, they had obtained an early draft of the SCOTUS majority opinion in Dobbs v Jackson–a case in which the Court’s new conservative supermajority has the opportunity to overturn Roe and revert the country to an era in which abortion rights are determined on a state-by-state basis. In the leaked draft opinion, Justice Alito speaks for the majority in declaring, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and goes on, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.” In effect, unless the final version of this ruling is dramatically different than this draft, abortion will no longer be a federally protected right, with “trigger laws” criminalizing abortion care going into effect immediately.

To be clear: The conservative supermajority–enabled by a majority of justices appointed by Presidents that did not win the popular vote–is suggesting they will renege on their confirmation reassurances that Roe was the settled law of the land. Should this decision be finalized, it will be an intentional choice to side with white supremacy and Christian nationalism, and it will be an attack on all people with uteruses, particularly and especially BIPOC, poor, rural, and disabled people. It will have immediate and deadly consequences for millions of people. 

And still: pregnant people have been seeking and providing abortion care for hundreds and thousands of years. As so many have said, banning abortion will simply make it more difficult for people–especially poor, rural, and BIPOC people–to obtain surgical abortions safely and legally. To those of you who are in need of an abortion: your fear is valid, your body is sacred, and a wide network of people who acknowledge these truths are ready to help you access the abortion care you need. And, abortion is still legal right now. To get connected with medical providers and logistical and financial support, go to ineedana.com or abortionfinder.org to find the clinic nearest you.

The truth is that the conversation about abortion and reproductive rights has always been about Christian nationalism, misogyny, and white supremacy. Under the guises of “religious liberty” and “states’ rights,” the white, owning-class Christian right has been working since the end of the Civil War to subjugate and criminalize Black and brown bodies, maintain power, and hoard wealth. In the post-Roe era, with the rise of the Evangelical right, politicians quickly discovered that abortion was a highly motivating electoral issue to their base, and have been waging culture wars ever since. Meanwhile, the Christian right has ensured that unless you are urban, white, and middle class, you likely face significant barriers to obtaining an abortion even if it is technically legal.

For those of us who have poured our hearts into Reproductive Justice work, the likely overruling of Roe is heartbreaking. Many of us are terrified not only of what this will mean for people seeking abortions and other reproductive care, but for the precedent this ruling could set for bodily autonomy and privacy in countless other arenas. 

Our Unitarian Universalist faith affirms that all of our bodies are sacred, and that we are each endowed with the twin gifts of agency and conscience. Each of us should have the power to decide what does and doesn’t happen to our bodies at every moment of our lives because consent and bodily autonomy are holy. And when disparities in resources or freedoms make it more difficult for certain groups of people to exercise autonomy over their own bodies, our faith compels us to take liberatory action. 

As a people of faith, Unitarian Universalists have committed to working together for Reproductive Justice, following the lead of movement partners who have been in the struggle and on the frontlines for years. Here are six things you can do today to take action:  

1. Turn out tonight wherever you are to answer the Women’s March’s call to Rally for Roe.

2. Join Side With Love and the National Network of Abortion Funds for our upcoming political education event, Heart-to-Heart: Abortion Conversations & Action for a Post-Roe World, Tuesday, May 17 at 8pm ET/5pm PT.

3. Support local organizing for abortion access and Reproductive Justice. Form a congregational team, educate yourselves, join with other progressive people of faith, follow the lead of your local Reproductive Justice organization.

4. Donate to your local abortion fund to ensure that everyone who needs an abortion can afford one.

5. Get involved with SACReD, the Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity, which is building a multi-racial, multi-faith movement of congregations across the country that publicly proclaim their support for reproductive dignity. It’s so new that it doesn’t have a full website, but you can sign up for future communications here.

6. Get involved with the work of the Liberate Abortion Coalition, and consider participating in the upcoming Abortion Crisis Caravan this June.

The fight is far from over, beloveds. Every popular poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans support the right to safe and legal abortion, and the Reproductive Justice movement is powerful and mobilized. As Renee Bracey Sherman, Executive Director of We Testify, recently noted, “Abortion is not a divisive issue, it’s a gerrymandered issue.” So we take a deep breath together, and prepare to carry on the work of those who have gone before and to follow those already leading us into the future. In the words of SisterSong, “ABORTION IS STILL LEGAL and we will always fight to keep it that way, but our work and our liberation has always been bigger than laws. It is also about culture change and mutual aid and US SHOWING UP FOR US.”

 Blessings and love to all as we show up together.

In faith and solidarity,

The Side With Love Team

To all members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist:

Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 49th Annual Meeting will be held via video/telephone conference call and screen sharing on Sunday, June 5, 2021 at 7:00PM EDT.

To join the meeting, click here.

We will be distributing materials electronically to all CLF members for whom we have a current email address, and posting the documents to our website (www.clfuu.org/annualmeeting). All incarcerated members will automatically receive paper copies of the materials along with postage-paid ballots to return. Others may request hard copies mailed to you by sending back the form on the final page of this issue of Quest, or calling the CLF office at 617-948-6150.

All those who have access to the Internet or phone are encouraged to join our meeting via Zoom and participate in the discussion. Meeting materials will include absentee ballots for those unable to attend in person.

The purpose of the meeting is to:

• Report on highlights of CLF activities and finances
• Vote for the following leadership positions (see nominations from

Nominating Committee in the packet):

• Elect three members to 3-year terms on the board of directors,
• Elect one members to 1-year term on the board of directors to fill a term vacated before the term was finished,
• Elect one member to a 3-year term on the nominating committee,
• Elect a clerk and treasurer for one year

We will elect a moderator from among members present to preside at the meeting.

Aisha Ansano, Board Chair

A phrase landed in me during the week that my mother was dying, as I grasped at any words I could find to make sense of the enormous shift in front of me.

The shape of every memory is changing.

I was seeing with painful clarity what anyone who has experienced big loss knows: I would now have two lives. The first life was the previous 26 years in which I was lucky enough to have my beloved mother with me in life, and the second, however much time I have in front of me, in which I would have to hold her close as a beloved ancestor. And every memory from that first life was now changing, shaped by the reality of this sudden ending.

My mother was a constant in all of the life I’d already known. Her steady presence, her love and care, was a backdrop to all things — a backdrop so fundamental to my experience of life that it was hard to see it clearly at times. Her love had always been at the center of my life, but I wouldn’t have named it as such until I realized I would have to live without her living presence reinforcing it. Perhaps that’s just the way of everything that is fundamental. We assume there will always be air to breathe, until there isn’t; we assume the sun will rise every day, until it doesn’t.

Now, the backdrop of my every memory was suddenly shifting into focus. Now, in the constant foreground: the gift of having had my mother for any time at all, my gratitude for any moment we spent together in life. The shape of every memory had changed.

So many other things have come into clearer focus along with that shift. There is painful truth to the cliche that major loss makes you realize what’s most important. I’ve moved through the past year with much more clarity about how I want to use my time and energy, letting go of past insecurities and narratives that no longer serve me. With my mother’s love at the center, I understand the sacredness of my life more fully. The shape of my every memory has changed, and with it, the shape and direction of my life.

Memory is not static, an unchanging account of events and relationships and facts. It is the source of our meaning-making, a collection of threads from which we weave the narrative that holds our life. The shape and texture of our memories change along with us, as we need them to, to make sense of the ever-changing reality we are faced with.

Letting the shape of my memories change to foreground my mother’s love is one of the things that has saved me, that has made surviving this first year without her possible. How we remember matters — and the shape of our memories can shape our lives as we move through them.

May you each find a shape to your memories that allow you to move through loss and change with more ease. May you know, always, that you are loved, and let that holding shape all of your life to come.

When we organize, we build power in our communities for justice, accountability, and healing. In the last two years, UU the Vote has built new networks of spiritual and political communities to #VoteLove and #DefeatHate. We know what's at stake; LGBTQ rights, abortion access, voting rights and democracy itself are all on ballots all over the country

 With UU the Vote 2022 we’re organizing on the state and local levels to fight for fair elections, advance voting rights, protect abortion access, and resist the targeting and criminalization of Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. 

 Last weekend, we officially launched UU the Vote 2022 and you're invited to join us!

• Watch and share the recording of UU the Vote 2022 Launch

• Download the new 2022 UU the Vote Launch Guide

• Download the slides from the event

UU the Vote Campaign Manager JaZahn Hicks shares his two asks now that we've launched:

“I know the amazing work that you all did in 2020, and hearing from you at the launch, I can see how you did it. You are all dedicated, passionate, fired up about justice and grounded in your faith and principles. We lift up and are truly thankful for those of you who have already started the hard work in your congregations and communities, and we want to hear about it!”

1) Get counted! We know many of you are already acting in primary elections, voter registration drives, and much more. Share your work in the Story and Report form and give your work counted in our national goals.

2) No good campaign can exist without a good volunteer base. Volunteers are the backbone of every movement and ours is no different. We need YOU! We need phonebankers, canvassers, tech and data specialists, trainers, volunteer coordinators and so much more if we are going to be successful in 2022. Be a part of that.

Find a role that works for you at our Volunteer Activation Huddle, Apr 21, 2022, 7:30pm-8:30pm EST! Sign up and share the link to 5 of your friends.

This campaign is only going to work when we all get involved. We have opportunities all over the country and priorities we need to address and we can’t do it alone. We have to join together and fight for our beliefs, our values and our democracy. Take that next step with us on April 21st at 730pm EST. I hope to see you all there."

April 2022

One lives in the hope
of becoming a memory.
–Antonio Porchia

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I am terrible at remembering names. I have tried all of the tricks to be able to do that, but nope, not for me. Thank goodness for name tags!

But I remember so many details about so many people, even if I have forgotten their names. I could list them all, but one stands out — the nurse’s aide who held my hand in the emergency room after I was in a terrible car accident when I was 19.

Is it necessary for me to remember this? What if I forgot? Would it matter?

Thinking about memory suddenly became important when my

husband, Sky, was diagnosed with dementia in 2016. I had known something wasn’t quite right with him for a few years. He denied anything was wrong, but eventually agreed to be tested: probable early stage Alzheimer’s. We were stunned.

As we processed this devastating news, Sky said he assumed he would eventually forget his family, but he was mostly afraid that he would forget his Self.

So we read books about memory. It turns out that there are several kinds of memory — ranging from memories of how to do things (ride a bike, tie our shoes) to memories of things that happened to us (however incomplete those memories are) to memories of factual information (Where is the bathroom? What is the capitol of Mali?).

Then Sky wrote:

As the attacks on our intellects and memory continue, we feared changing into people neither we nor our loved ones would value spending time with.  What is left for us if the glue of memory no longer holds our selves together?

As time went on, Sky gradually lost the ability— the memory — of how to do many things. What clothes to wear. How to button buttons or zip zippers. How to read. How to get into bed. How to pull up the covers.

Did he still know his Self?

Sky spent his last year in a memory care facility. He walked the corridors, interacting with other residents and the staff, singing songs, making jokes. Sky was one of those people that had a song lyric for every occasion. Me? I can’t remember song lyrics, never mind who starred in what movie.

When he was dying, he was still singing, and he seemed happy. He told me I was beautiful, and he told me the end was near.

He may not have remembered his Self, but I sure did. It was all there, in its blazing glory.

Is it only memory that is the glue that holds our selves together?

I think there is a fourth kind of memory — emotional memory. We all have negative emotional memories, but we all have positive emotional memories as well.

I was so, so grateful for the nurse’s aide who soothed me, scared and in pain, as I waited in a cold, stark ER. I can still feel her love and care fifty years later.

And when I remember Sky these days, a year after his death, of course I remember all the things we did together.  But mostly I remember the love we shared.

And what could be more important?

What about you? What memories are important for you to remember? Are they factual? Emotional? How would it feel to not remember?

How do you honor memory in your life?

 

JOHN
CLF Member, incarcerated in TX

I feel like I am going to take this topic in a direction most are not expecting. The way I honor memory in my life is by trying to remember it. I know that may sound strange, but allow me to explain. Due to a past of very heavy drug use, I have done some pretty severe damage to my brain. My thoughts are slow, my ADHD is harder to keep in check (and yes, I actually have ADHD, unlike the massive numbers of people who have been falsely diagnosed). I will lose my train of thought, and if I don’t have a good reminder it stays lost, no matter how much I rack my brain to retrieve it.

When I think of things I need to get done, I either have to do them right then and there, or I have to make a note of it, or it won’t get done until something reminds me to do it. When I pick up a book I’m reading at the time, I have to skim the last page or two to remember what happened before I put it down. When I write a long letter, I periodically have to reread the letter to remember what I have already written (I’ve already done it once with this essay). I used to be quite skilled at mathematical calculations in my head, but that’s impossible now, I have to do it on paper.

I have been sober going on two years now, and unlike all the other times I quit using, I honestly have no desire to use anymore. Yes, on occasion I feel a slight urge, but it’s so fleeting that I have already decided I don’t want to before the thought is even finished. I know from experience that if I indulge in any kind of intoxicant, even slightly, it’s a full on cannonball into the pool. I’m that kind of addict. I know this about myself. Ten years of experience taught me, so I stay away from everything.

Since I’m sober, the ongoing damaging of my brain has stopped. I was told by a highly intelligent friend of mine that my brain can slowly heal the damage that I have done to it, and omega-3 fish oils will help. So I take two 1000mg gel tablets a day. He also told me that exercising my memory by memorizing things helps. I memorize song lyrics. I’m also trying to teach myself to speak Russian and read and write Cyrillic. Tackling a new language at thirty with a brain that drugs have turned into oatmeal is difficult, but I persevere.

I’m doing my best to honor my memory. I really hope that I can bounce back from my poor decisions. But if I can’t accept the consequences of my bad choices, I really have no choice, right?

 

ROBERT
CLF Member, incarcerated in MA

Memory can be a fickle thing, especially with me. “You have autism, so you must have a photographic memory!” Well, a) it’s technically called idyllic memory, and b) I don’t have it either way. My memory just functions differently than the norm; some things are just easier for me to recall, and others less so.

Pretty much anything that involves static events and not people, I can recall, even if I can’t recall them that quickly. When people become involved, even in those life-changing, life-affirming events, I struggle to remember. I may know that something happened, the “wide-strokes” if you will, but the nitty-gritty details can escape me.

But not always. Not in the sense that when I was younger I could and that as I got older the ability lessened, but that there was a time for me when I could recall all memories with the same level of clarity.

The time is simple to define: it was when I was able to be with, be near, my one and only, my Forever & Always. When in her presence, I could bring to mind all those things that mattered so much. When I first met her and when our daughter was born, everything, good and bad, felt as if it just happened. (Though mind you, the bad wasn’t really that bad, for it was always a learning experience, and something greater always came out of it.)

Then with the separation, brought about from me being charged and incarcerated, things started to slip. Now it’s a struggle to hold onto any little detail, every smile, every hiccup, fading away to nothing.

What hurts even more is that I know that there’s a hole there, a missing spot within my memory, like an empty folder in a filing cabinet. Something important was there, I just don’t know what it was.

Nowadays, people bemoan social media and living your life online, taking needless pictures, posting irrelevant information that only matters to them. But that’s the thing: all of that matters to them. It’s a digital record, a “backup” of your memories, that allows one to easily go back and relive those memories. I find the expression of the self and the sharing of it to be a wonderful thing. Through that, one can live true to themselves, and remember all they were, are, and can be.

 

DONALD
CLF Member, incarcerated in CO

When I reflected on this question I realized I don’t really honor the memories in my life. What I do is long for them, grieve for them, reminisce, and become nostalgic. Memories come all the time, triggered by sights, smells, sounds, and stimuli that I can’t always put my finger on.

When these memories arise now and flood me with emotion, I will pause and rest in whatever it is I am feeling. I give that memory the proper place it deserves, and give myself the extension of that time and place. This will give that memory the honor and respect it deserves — good or bad, there is always a knowledge and understanding to be grasped.

Hours before the close of the 2022 legislative session, the Alabama state senate introduced some of the most harmful, comprehensive anti-trans legislation that has been proposed anywhere in the nation. If AL SB184 passes today, it will include a “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” provision, forced outing of LGBTQIA+ students, a bathroom ban, and the most extreme healthcare ban in the US, which could send doctors who provide gender-affirming healthcare to trans youth to prison for 10 years. 

Let us be clear: our faith unequivocally, fiercely, and unapologetically affirms that trans people are a divine and a beloved part of the human family. There is no law, no political rhetoric, that can diminish the inherent worth and dignity of trans and nonbinary people – that is endowed from the moment of birth, and can never be taken away. 

And, precisely because of this truth, our faith compels us to fight like hell against any law that would deprive trans and nonbinary people of  the basic human and civil rights that are necessary for human flourishing. Please, join us in taking action right now and demand Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon vote no on SB184. Wherever you live, help make it clear that all eyes are on Alabama, and we’re ready to fight back against this cowardly, repressive legislation. Click here to call. 

Unfortunately, AL SB184 is just the latest in a national surge of anti-trans bills that are being used by the radical right to disseminate disinformation and whip up emotions (and votes) from the most regressive parts of their base. As we grow closer and closer to the midterm elections, we know we will see more of these cynical ploys by politicians – and we must respond by both fighting these insidious laws, and doing everything we can to reduce the harm they will inevitably cause to the trans and nonbinary beloveds in our communities. 

Trans beloveds, if you are struggling today, please know that you are not alone. If you need help, please connect with some of these affirming resources now:

• Trans Lifeline for any trans/nonbinary+ person in need of support: US (877) 565-8860;  Canada (877) 330-6366

• Trevor Project Hotline/Chat Line/Text Line (For LGBTQIA+ youth ages 13-24): 

• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor

• Join us for our next UPLIFT Transgender / Non-Binary Monthly Gathering, scheduled for April 26 @ 8pm ET/5pm PT

We’re with you in the struggle, dear ones, and ready to fight for a world in which every single one of us is safe and thriving. Thank you for working toward that future with us. 

In faith and solidarity, 

Rev. Ashley Horan, Organizing Strategy Director

Side With Love

p.s.) What is happening in Alabama today is directly tied to attacks across the country on democracy, voting rights, reproductive freedom, and more. We will be joining our movement partners working on the 2022 elections to resist this oppressive wave of policy disasters and the politicians behind them, and to fight for a more affirming and democratic society. Join us THIS SUNDAY for our 2022 UU the Vote Launch to find your role in this work. 

p.p.s.) Want to know more about the wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping the country, and what you can do about it? Watch our recent Anti-Trans Legislation 101 and Speaking Up for Trans Lives Spokesperson Training webinars today.