As this year draws to a close, we pause to reflect on the love, justice, and care you have brought into the world. Your dedication and compassion have been a beacon of hope, and we are deeply grateful to be on this journey with you.
During this holiday season, may you find moments of rest and renewal. Whether you gather with loved ones, reflect in solitude, or engage in acts of kindness, may this time bring peace to your spirit and strength to your heart.
As we look ahead to 2025, we are excited to continue building a world rooted in love and justice. To grow our capacity for this work, we are thrilled to announce that Side With Love is searching for a Climate Justice Fellow! This temporary, part-time role (19 hours per week at $22-$26 per hour with benefits) will help deepen our Unitarian Universalist climate justice efforts through June 2025. If you or someone you know is passionate about faith-centered environmental stewardship, we encourage you to apply today.
While we continue this sacred work together, we invite you to take advantage of the resources we’ve created to support your journey. Our Community Resilience Hub offers tools to empower and equip your congregation or community in meaningful ways. Please also consider filling out our Community Skill and Asset Survey to help us map our collective strengths as the UUA community (email love@uua.org with your congregational affiliation to get the link to the survey.)
We’re also happy to offer two small gifts from the Side With Love Team to help you center yourself as we come to the end of a turbulent year. First, we invite you to listen to this Solstice Playlist cultivated by the SWL team, filled with songs to help you reflect and find inspiration in this season. We also have crafted this small Solstice Reflection Guide, offering you a few questions to sit with and reflect upon as we come to the end of 2024.
May this blessing from Rev. Kathleen McTigue, former minister of the Unitarian Society of New Haven, guide you in your walk and work in the days to come:
“May you be blessed with good companions on the journey Kindred spirits to uphold you in the face of challenges And to share in your joy. May you find in yourself the strength to rise above fear, A commitment to do justice, And the willingness to be enlarged by love.”
Let us carry this spirit into the year ahead, as we continue the sacred work of building the Beloved Community.
As we enter the season of reflection and intention, I’d like to share some exciting news and deep gratitude for this community. This year was a stretch! Together we reached towards the highest aspirations of our faith; modeling commitment, grace, partnership and adaptation to answer the call of love and justice.
Side With Love’s power comes from our collective commitment to rise to the challenge and beauty of building Beloved Community. Today, as the world around us continues to grapple with crises fueled by hatred and indifference, we have a moral mandate to embody the principles of justice and compassion in all that we do. Together, we can be the architects of a more just and equitable future. By rooting in our faith--embodying our values through care, political action, and deep learning--we can imagine a new world and call it into being.
Like you, the Side With Love team at the UUA is growing our capacities to support the work for this long haul and that means growing our team. I am overjoyed to announce two new additions to our team.
Image description: Blue background. At the top of the imagine, in white text, reads” “Welcome” with a triple line flourish around the words. Beneath, light blue text reads “to our new team members!” There are two round photographs, headshots of each staffer: Rev. Brandan Robertson, Senior Communications manager, who is standing against a beige background with short dark blond hair, smiling, wearing a denim shirt unbuttoned and an olive green t-shirt underneath. Next, is G Williams, Sepcial Projects Administrator. They are standing in front of greenery, wearing a black top and a white and pink jacket, their hands at their hips. They’re smiling and wearing red lipstick and thin wire frame glasses.
Welcome Rev. Brandan Robertson as the new Sr. Communications Manager! This role is designed to help us keep our communities connected and informed, tell the powerful stories of our work, and build faithful and libertory narratives of the world we are building. I am overjoyed that Rev. Brandan Robertson has joined the Side With Love team at the UUA as our new Sr.Communications Manager. Rev. Brandan brings a wealth of strategic communications and advocacy experience from United Methodist Church, Faith in Public Life, and his award-wining work and ministry of LGBTQ inclusion. We are excited for all that he brings to our team in helping us articulate and connect with our values in the world.
From Rev. Brandan:
As a progressive Christian pastor, activist, and organizer, I have long admired the work of Side With Love and the broader Unitarian Universalist Association. It is a true honor to now get the chance to partner with this incredible team to help share our vital work and message with the world in the days ahead. I look forward to all of the good work we will do together as we trouble the waters to bring healing, liberation, and justice to our world.
Welcome G Williams as the Special Projects Administrator.
This is a part-time role that helps us respond to the emergent needs and opportunities of this moment. G will play a key role in supporting internal infrastructure building as well as rapid response work. G brings a variety of technical skills and organizing experience from their work at The Trevor Project and justice work in Unitarian Universalism. Most recently they have co-founded Camp Ground, a multi-religious adult summer camp that provides a retreat for folks who do the work of justice in their day to day lives. G Is a seminarian at Starr King School for the Ministry and a member of the Trans Seminarian Cohort with The National LGBTQ Task Force. They are currently working on our asset map survey which will serve to mobilize resources and activate leaders to support bodily autonomy, and immigrant and gender justice work in the coming months. If you haven’t completed it yet, please email love@uua.org to request the link.
From G:
I have spent my life in service to the communities that nourished me into being, working not just towards the absence of oppression but for the presence of justice and the hope for peace. It is both an honor and a blessing to continue that work with the incredible Side With Love team and the broader UUA. At a moment when I am certain what awaits us will bring many challenges, I take heart in knowing that we are a people whose faith calls us to action, and that when I wade into the deep to meet each challenge, I will not be alone in the water.
At the heart of our work lies the profound power of love. Love serves as both a catalyst for action and a source of solace for our communities in times of need. In these times where we are told the lie that our individual thriving requires someone else's suffering, love is the promise of Beloved Community, where all of us are whole and worthy.
Thank you for your support in the ever-evolving work and staffing of Side With Love.
Love and courage,
Nicole Pressley
Resources for continuing the work.
Partnership is critical to work. I want to lift up some opportunities and resources to help our communities remain resilient and get ready for the work ahead.
In these turbulent times, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the extraordinary efforts of UUs across the country who contributed to our UU the Vote work during this election season. No matter the results of the election, your commitment to justice and strengthening our democracy has made a real difference. Together, we mobilized, educated, and inspired thousands of people across key states, demonstrating the transformative power of our faith in action.
A few highlights from UU democracy organizing across the US:
Arizona: UU the Vote volunteers canvassed tirelessly, focusing on pivotal ballot initiatives, including Proposition 139 (expanding abortion care) and Proposition 314 (an anti-immigrant measure). Alongside local partners and out-of-state volunteers, we knocked on doors, educated voters, and grew relationships with grassroots partner organizations.
North Carolina: With legislative and judicial races on the line, UU volunteers and partners connected with over 12,000 voters, with a chorus that uplifted spirits at early voting sites, demonstrating that resilience and hope are powerful antidotes to intimidation and fear.
National Efforts: Phone-banking efforts in collaboration with State Action Networks in MI, NC, PA, and TX ensured voters were informed and empowered to make their voices heard. In Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Wisconsin, UU volunteers canvassed the weekend before Election Day.
Through every conversation, song, and step, you embodied our faith’s commitment to justice, love, and equity. Thank you.
As we reflect on these efforts, we also invite you to consider an essential question posed by UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt during a recent fireside chat with UUSC President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn: How do we make our interdependence faithful and value-driven? These two theologians and leaders discussed the UU theological grounding for climate justice, highlighting that interdependence is not always positive—someone upstream polluting has an interdependent relationship with those downstream. This question challenges us to align our interconnectedness with values of justice, compassion, and care.
You are invited to explore this conversation further by watching the UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice Fireside Chat, a 32-minute recording that includes reporting from small group discussions across the UUA.
3 Resources to Empower Your Community as We Move Forward
While the election is behind us, there is still much work left to be done. The challenges ahead demand that we remain resilient, adaptable, and deeply connected to one another. In response, we have three resources to empower your community as we move forward.
1) Tap into the Community Resilience Hub The election may be over, but the work continues! The Community Resilience Hub is your go-to destination for tools, resources, and inspiration to help your congregation and community stay organized, advocate for justice, and heal together. Dive into everything it offers to stay grounded and connected as you move forward.
2) Contribute to the Congregational Asset Map Survey Your congregation’s unique strengths matter! By filling out the Congregational Asset Map Survey, you’ll help us build a comprehensive view of our collective resources. Together, we can ensure that our movement remains strong and impactful in the years to come. (Email socialjustice at uua.org with your congregational affiliation to receive the link.)
3) Share Your Insights in the UUA Community Care and Resilience Survey Let your voice shape the future! TheUUA Community Care and Resilience Survey is an opportunity to share your perspectives and help us strategically address challenges and opportunities ahead. Don’t miss your chance to contribute before the end of the year! (Email socialjustice at uua.org with your congregational affiliation to receive the link.)
As we move forward, we will continue to provide you with information, updates, and resources to empower you to be a witness for love and justice in your communities and beyond. But until then, may this blessing ignite a spark within your soul that empowers you to press onward with faith and hope:
May the love that binds us together bring the healing we seek.
May the hope that ignites our souls keep our eyes fixed on the prize of collective liberation.
May the peace that comes from knowing we are each other's strengthen our resolve.
May the joy inspired by the vision of a more just world propel us into the work ahead.
May the faith that sustains us guide our path with courage and grace.
Thank you for your unwavering commitment to our collective liberation. Your efforts are a testament to the transformative power of our faith and the boundless possibilities of what we can achieve together.
In gratitude and solidarity,
your Side With Love team
2024 UUA Social Justice Award Nominations Wanted!
Bennett Award for Congregational Action on Human Justice and Social Action
The Bennett Award for Congregational Action on Human Justice and Social Action honors a Unitarian Universalist congregation that has done exemplary work in social justice and is accompanied by a $1,000 cash award.
Submissions must be received by April 25, 2025.
Submissions consist of a short description form, and if applicable, a testimonial from a partner organization or community group, and any relevant media about the congregation's justice ministry, including news articles or photos. Learn more and submit your nomination.
Skinner Sermon Award
The Skinner Sermon Award honors Clarence Skinner, the late dean of the Tufts College School of Religion in Medford, MA. and a major voice of prophetic religious liberalism, and is presented annually to the preacher of the sermon best expressing Unitarian Universalism's social principles. It comes with a $500 honorarium.
We particularly encourage and invite sermons that speak to one of our four intersectional justice priorities (bodily autonomy inclusive of reproductive justice and trans liberation; decriminalization; democracy and electoral justice; and climate justice).
Submissions must be received by April 25, 2025.
Submissions may be offered as a document of the sermon text and/or as a video recording of it being offered. Please be sure to include the author's name, address, church affiliation, phone number, email address, and indication of when and where the sermon was delivered in your email submission. Learn more and submit your sermon.
Reflecting on 2024 & 3 Resources to Empower Your Community as We Move Forward
On November 21, Side With Love, BLUU, and DRUUMM hosted Tools for Tending: Post-Election Spiritual Care Space. This 2-hour special event was designed to help tend our spirits through somatic practices, spiritual grounding, and small group connection. Combining structured elements, reflection time, music, facilitated caucus spaces, and visioning exercises, we hope participants felt grounded, strengthened, and held. Watch the recording here.
With over 375 UU Congregations hosting the UU Climate Justice Revival and 125 ACTIVE Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregations, UUs are mobilizing for Climate Justice...but how?
As climate disasters become more commonplace, we need stronger networks of community care. Whether you want to convene a regional Revival, work on disaster response, collaborate on statewide advocacy, or just learn how others are approaching their climate justice work, working together with other UUs can be a powerful response to the problems of our times.
After this year’s election, we must come together to nourish our spirits and move in our collective power. This is about more than one election; it is about grounding ourselves in the values and communities that drive our fight for justice. No matter your issue — climate justice, democracy, gender justice, or decriminalization — we are in this work together.
This final session included an invitation for congregations to do the preparatory groundwork for meeting this moment as well as analysis from UUs in organizing who shared what they see as immediate needs for UU response.
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
The results of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election have been devastating for many of us. The election of Donald Trump to a second term as President is more than worrying for all of us grounded in a commitment to love and liberation — we know that his fascist and authoritarian agenda threatens the lives and well-being of many of us and our beloveds. The following message was shared online by Rev. Dr. Michael Tino on the day after the election.
November 6, 2024
Beloveds,
I am trembling today with grief and fear. I am finding it hard to breathe, even as I force myself to focus on ways of breathing meant to calm my body. I hugged my child extra long this morning as she left for school—it was all I could do at that moment.
I am reminded again and again of my relative privilege right now. My BIPOC friends remind me that this is exactly who the United States has always been. It doesn’t make it easier. I am mourning a nation that has never really existed, and knowing that doesn’t make the grief less.
Perhaps you are feeling some of this, too. Please know that you are not alone.
At some point, we will figure out what we need to do next to protect those who are most vulnerable right now. At some point, we will be part of a movement to save the lives of those who are threatened by the fascist agenda that won the day in yesterday’s US elections. That doesn’t need to be today (even if we know it’s coming).
Right now, I am reminding myself that I am part of a faith grounded in love. A faith that always has been and always will be profoundly counter-cultural. I am leaning on my faith ancestors to guide me, and I am trusting that my faith community will rise to the challenge presented to us.
I invite you to pray with me (or center yourself, or meditate):
O love that will not let us go, remind us of your presence now. Remind us of your power now. Remind us of your tenacity now. Fill us with your strength that we might know ourselves connected to a love greater than we can imagine. For we will need that love as we move forward together. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino The results of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election have been devastating for many of us. The election of Donald Trump to a second term as President is more than worrying for all of us grounded in a commitment to love and liberation — we know that his fascist and authoritarian agenda threatens the lives and ...Read more »
Christina Rivera Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
Family is one of those topics that can be both celebrated and filled with tension. Sometimes at the same time! It can bring to mind images of parents, children, siblings—those bound by blood or marriage. And within a liberatory theology, family is something more. It can be a chosen, dynamic, and inclusive concept that welcomes all, just as we are. When we speak of family as Unitarian Universalists, we are called to expand our definition beyond the typical Western idea of family. We are called to understand that family is not something we have but something we build, together.
Western culture is generally considered to be an “I” culture. These cultures have characteristics in which the person is the center and include the idealized version of the nuclear family: mother, father, children. However, if we just scratch the surface of Western culture, we find the vast influences of the global Southern majority and our “We” cultures, in which the community is the center. A “We” culture includes chosen family, identity families, and community family. And while “We” culture is not as widely acknowledged; it is more widely practiced.
From the Article II Study Commission Report: a visualization of the new proposed language for Article II, defining six Unitarian Universalist Values, with the value of Love at the center. Design by Tanya Webster (chalicedays.org)
The exciting news is that our newly affirmed UU values centering Love, Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity can help us in our framing of family. Family doesn’t have to be confined to those who share our DNA but rather, it can embrace those who share in the journey of life with us. In this sense, family is a covenant of love and support, a relationship defined by care, mutual respect, and shared commitment.
And in thinking about that covenant of love and looking at the “I” culture of family, we can see how it can feel limiting and sometimes even harmful. We must ask ourselves: what about those who don’t fit that mold? What about those who find their deepest sense of belonging in friendships, in chosen family, in their communities? What about family who have hurt us?
I think some of those questions can be answered if we look to the lessons from “We” culture. A culture in which family can be the person who sits beside you during difficult times, the neighbor who cares for your children when you’re in need, or the community that rallies around you in times of celebration or sorrow. These relationships are just as sacred, just as valuable, as those bound by biology.
In fact, they may be more intentional and powerful precisely because they are chosen. And they have the added benefit of being able to ask harmful people to move away from community for the time it takes for them to heal and take responsibility for actions. This isn’t a shunning, but rather in the best practice of family, accompanied by non-affected individuals, the person doing harm can have support while they seek to address the issues which led them to harm.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that “We” cultures have it all figured out and that everything is perfect and rosy. Harm still happens, conflict still exists. But still — no one is thrown away. No one is beyond the hope of God’s love. We simply understand that we don’t need to participate in harm by saying, “oh, that person is family so that’s why they get to keep doing what they do and hurting people.” Rather we say, “you need some time out of community with some folks who can help you heal so that you don’t continue to harm others.” It doesn’t always work, and that is the beauty of our UU commitment to covenant. We can keep practicing so that we do better the next time.
At its heart, family—whether born or chosen—is a covenant. It is a promise to care for one another, to show up when it’s hard, to forgive, and to grow together. As a UU community, we strive to model this kind of covenant at the CLF. We strive to be aplace where individuals find the family they may not have experienced in their own lives. It is within these sacred spaces that we nurture one another, celebrate milestones, and bear witness to life’s sorrows and challenges. Our Unitarian Universalist values challenge us to constantly examine and dismantle systems of oppression that prevent people from forming families in ways that reflect their truth. Whether it’s advocating for marriage equality, defending reproductive rights, naming the ongoing genocide in Gaza, or ensuring access to healthcare and childcare, we are called to create a world where every family can thrive. We must continually ask ourselves: Who is the “We” we are talking about and centering? Who is being left out? How can we do better?
In my own life, I have found that family is not something that has stayed exactly the same from season to season. It is one that changes and requires constant attention, love, and patience. We never get it 100% right, we are always asking for grace.
In the end, family, like justice, is love made visible. It is the place where we practice our Unitarian Universalist values, where we learn what it means to live in covenant with one another. Whether through birth, choice, or circumstance, we are all called to create and nurture families that reflect the beauty of our shared humanity. And in doing so, we honor that divine spark of the holy which is within each of us and live into the beloved community that is at the heart of our faith. So say we all and amen.
After this year’s election, it is critical that we come together to nourish our spirits and move in our collective power. This is about more than one election; it is about grounding ourselves in the values and communities that drive our fight for justice. No matter your issue; climate justice, democracy, gender justice, or criminalization, we are in this work together. That’s why we are excited to invite you to join us for Forward Together: Anchoring in Community Post Election, a virtual series designed to offer space for reflection, spiritual grounding, and practical organizing in response to the evolving political landscape.
Tonight, the final votes will be cast in this election. As we await the results, many of us feel the weight of uncertainty. This moment brings tension but also invites us to lean into the steady presence our faith calls us to embody. Now, more than ever, your strength and leadership in your communities are essential. Together, we can be a grounding presence, steady and unwavering, whatever may come.
While the outcomes of key races are yet to be decided, we remain united by a shared commitment to our core values—values held by communities of all backgrounds, rooted in the freedom to shape our futures, protect our communities, and make our voices heard. In this moment, let us stay steadfast in our commitment to one another and to the common good, keeping our eyes on our ultimate goal: the collective liberation of all people.
As we move through this day, may this blessing spark hope within you:
On this Election Day, One of us will joyfully cast a vote, hoping we are moving closer to a just world— This act renews our inner strength, Challenges closed minds, And lifts our spirit with hope.
On this Election Day, One of us will serve as a poll worker— Guardians of democracy who show up with patience and courage, Ensuring every vote is counted and every voice is heard. A sacred act of love for every person in our country.
On this Election Day, One of us will vote with our focus on communities in need, Disrupting cycles of oppression, Loving our neighbors as ourselves, And seeking to bring peace to a world marked by division.
On this Election Day, One of us will vote with righteous anger aflame within, Encountering barriers to our right to be heard, To share our sacred stories, And feel the sting of ignorance working against our dignity.
On this Election Day, One of us will show up as our fullest self, without fear, demanding recognition and affirmation— Trusting in the power of “we the people,” Believing anew in the promise of democracy, And finding courage birthed within us once again.
As we embark on this sacred work today, Let us release that which has made us afraid, Hold close what stirs our spirit, And renew our faith in the strength of the Beloved Community. For as we bless the world with our voices and votes, we, too, are blessed in return.
As we continue forward together, here are essential actions that can support your communities during this time.
Embrace Connectedness: Remain closely connected to your faith community, using this moment to check in on one another and nurture the deep relationships we’ve formed. Whether through emails, phone calls, virtual gatherings, or in-person meetings, ensure that no one in your community feels isolated during this time.
Prepare for a Range of Outcomes: While we all hope to see a peaceful transition of power, it’s important to be ready for any unrest that may arise or the spread of misinformation. Utilize the resources we’ve developed to encourage calm and critical thinking in the days ahead.
Support Our Community: We must prioritize care for those most at risk in our communities—migrants, trans and nonbinary individuals, queer communities, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Take time to reach out to trusted local coalitions and offer support where possible.
Mobilize When Necessary: Whether through public demonstrations or behind-the-scenes support, remain flexible and discerning in the days ahead. Keep our organizing and accountability networks active for a coordinated, compassionate response should it become necessary. Resources on risk discernment, safety at protests and more can be found on the Community Resilience Hub.
The Unitarian Universalist Association, along with our Side With Love and Congregational Life teams, is here with you through this time of unknowns. We’ve developed a broad range of tools, resources, and events to help us move forward together, and we will continue to provide thoughtful updates and support in the days ahead with a steady commitment to our shared values.
In times like these, it is natural to feel overwhelmed. Yet we’ve prepared for this. With courage, clarity, and deep love, we will navigate this journey together—whatever the outcome.
In faith and solidarity,
Nicole, Amanda, Amarin, Audra, Brandan, Cathy, G., Jeff, Nora, Ranwa, and Rachel the Side With Love staff Team
Together, we can be a grounding presence, whatever may come
by Rev. Brandan Robertson, Senior Communications Manager, Side With Love
On this Election Day,
One of us will joyfully cast our vote
in hopes that we are moving closer
to a just world—
This act renews our inner strength,
Challenges a closed mind,
And causes our spirit to leap with hope.
On this Election Day,
One of us will serve as a poll worker
and watcher—
Guardians of democracy who show up with patience and courage,
Ensuring every vote is counted
and every voice is heard.
A sacred act of love
for every person in our country.
On this Election Day,
One of us will cast a vote
with our focus set
on a community in need,
Disrupting cycles of oppression,
Loving our neighbors
as we love ourselves,
And seeking to bring peace
to a world marked by division.
On this Election Day,
One of us will vote with holy
and righteous anger aflame within,
As we encounter barriers to the right to have our voices heard,
Barriers to sharing our sacred stories,
Or feel the sting of ignorance working against our dignity.
On this Election Day,
One of us will show up as our fullest self, without fear, demanding to be recognition and affirmation—
Trusting in the power of “we the people,”
Believing again in the
promise of democracy,
And finding courage birthed within us once again.
As we set out in this
most sacred of work today,
Let us release that which has
made us afraid,
Hold close to that which stirs our spirit,
Renew our faith in the strength of the Beloved Community,
For when we bless the world
with our voice and our vote,
we, too, are blessed in return.
Image 1: “Election Day Blessing, Brandan Robertson” and the Side With Love logo with a rainbow heart on a light gray square with rounded corners, in front of a yellow background with red, white, and blue “I Voted” stickers.
Image 3: White paper on a bright green background, with black text that reads, “On this Election Day, / One of us will serve as a poll worker and watcher— / Guardians of democracy who show up with patience and courage, / Ensuring every vote is counted and every voice is heard. / A sacred act of love for every person in our country.” Red and blue name tags are in the top right and bottom left corners, and a dark blue arrow to swipe is in the bottom right corner.
Image 5: White paper on a light yellow-green background, with black text that reads, “On this Election Day, / One of us will vote with holy and righteous anger aflame within, / As we encounter barriers to the right to have our voices heard, / Barriers to sharing our sacred stories, / Or feel the sting of ignorance working against our dignity.” A brown envelope is behind the paper in the background, and a dark blue arrow to swipe is in the bottom right corner.
Image 7: White paper on a yellow background, with black text that reads “As we set out in this most sacred of work today, / Let us release that which has made us afraid, / Hold close to that which stirs our spirit, / Renew our faith in the strength of the Beloved Community, / For when we bless the world with our voice and our vote, we, too, are blessed in return.” Red, white, and blue stickers that say “I Voted” are scattered around the paper.
Image 2: White paper on a bright blue background, with black text that reads, “On this Election Day, / One of us will joyfully cast our vote in hopes that we are moving closer to a just world— / This act renews our inner strength, / Challenges a closed mind, / And causes our spirit to leap with hope.” A dark blue pen is pointing toward the text, and a dark blue arrow to swipe is in the bottom right corner.
Image 4: White paper on a bright pink background, with black text that reads, “On this Election Day, / One of us will cast a vote with our focus set on a community in need, / Disrupting cycles of oppression, / Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, / And seeking to bring peace to a world marked by division.” A bright blue flip phone is open to the right of the text, and a dark blue arrow to swipe is in the bottom right corner.
Image 6: White paper on a dark blue background, with black text that reads, “On this Election Day, / One of us will show up as our fullest self, without fear, demanding to be recognition and affirmation— / Trusting in the power of “we the people,” / Believing again in the promise of democracy, / And finding courage birthed within us once again.” A light blue pen is pointing toward the paper, and a dark blue arrow to swipe is in the bottom right corner.
In these challenging times, we draw strength from the sacred truth that people of faith and conscience have been essential to every justice movement in our nation’s history. We are called to be faithful witnesses, to live our values through action and care. This has been true of Unitarian Universalism, from standing for abolition to advancing civil rights and marriage equality. This is our truth. And this is our time.
Let our history of prophetic witness guide us now, so that we may rise to meet every challenge and a commitment to building the Beloved Community. We recognize the sacred work many of you are doing—taking action, providing care and bearing witness within your communities. Though the path ahead may be uncertain, our faith calls us to move forward with clarity and courage, trusting in our shared power to shape a more just and compassionate world.
As we approach November 5th, be aware of the rising disinformation and increasing political violence. While Unitarian Universalist congregations may not be primary targets, we have a moral obligation to be in solidarity with our neighbors—particularly migrants, trans and nonbinary people, queer individuals, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. In these times, we have the opportunity to embody the highest aspirations of our faith. Together, through our care and preparedness, we can take faithful action to respond to the threats facing democracy and our communities. Our connections and shared values are boundless resources. Let us draw deeply from this well in this important moment of our history.
Here are a few ways we can move forward together in this moment:
Check in and Communicate: Regularly connect with your communities. Draw on lessons from the pandemic to ensure you have effective communication systems and nimble decision-making strategies for uncertain times.
Focus on Safety and Security: Be mindful of who enters and exits your building when your community gathers. Utilize de-escalation tools and other resources to ensure the safety and security of your congregation.
Connect with Local Leaders: Ensure you are in touch with regional UUA staff, local congregations, and organizers in your area. The leadership and experience of those accustomed to working in coalition and responding under pressure will be invaluable. Now is the time to decide whose leadership you will follow in moments of potential post-election instability.6
We at the UUA are committed to staying in close communication with you during this time. Our Side With Love and Congregational Life staff teams are gathering resources to help congregations navigate these uncertain times. Please keep an eye on your inbox, as well as our social media channels and other platforms, where we will share this information.
Throughout this election cycle, we will face many decisions about how best to uphold our values. Some situations will require bold, public action, while others may call for quieter, steadfast support for those who have been targeted by political violence. We must rely on the relationships within our congregations and communities to meet these challenges with wisdom and courage.
Thank you for everything you do in the name of love, justice, and democracy.
As we approach Election Day, it is critical that we come together to nourish our spirits and move in our collective power. This is about more than one election; it is about grounding ourselves in the values and communities that drive our fight for justice. No matter your issue; climate justice, democracy, gender justice, or criminalization, we are in this work together. That’s why we are excited to invite you to join us for Forward Together: Anchoring in Community Post Election, a virtual series designed to offer space for reflection, spiritual grounding, and practical organizing in response to the evolving political landscape.
A time for spiritual tending, regional connections, and holding space for emotional responses.
Forward Together: Meaning Making & Immediate Action
Date & Time: TBD (The day the election is called), 8-9 PM ET
A focus on immediate action steps, regional assessments, and spiritual nourishment.
Forward Together: The Way Forward
Date & Time: Tues, Nov 19, 8-9 PM ET
An opportunity to make political and organizing assessments and care for those navigating post-election challenges.
Our Commitment to the Long Haul
For more than a decade, Side With Love has brought people of faith together to harness the power of love to overcome fear and oppression and build a world where all people are free and thriving. In 2024, our work through UU the Vote takes up that work in a critical election where our collective action can protect and expand democracy, advance voting rights, and support climate justice, racial justice, and bodily autonomy.
Faith calls us to the promise and the practice transformation. Forward Together is a part of this long-term strategy. Through this series, we’ll gather to reflect on our faith, values, and next steps as a community committed to justice and love.
Explore the UU Community Resilience Hub
As part of our commitment to building resilient, safe, and thriving communities, we encourage you to visit the UU Community Resilience Hub a comprehensive resource offering tools, training, and support to help protect our communities and democracy. The hub contains everything from conflict de-escalation to leveraging spiritual and physical assets during critical times. We will be updating this space often to bring you the latest information and resources to equip our communities to meet the challenges and opportunities of this moment.
Get Involved with State Action Networks
Our Unitarian Universalist State Action Networks (SANs) are crucial in mobilizing local communities for justice. They will also have the latest and best information for state specific actions and community support. For more information on how to get involved with SAN events in your area and to see how you can contribute, visit CUUSAN to find your local SAN.
Why This Matters
Moments that define us are made in the actions we take together. Forward Together will include on-the-ground updates, political analysis, and messaging guidance for leaders and partners. Let us use our time meeting the urgency of the moment while nourishing the networks that build hope and resilience.
Whether you are passionate about racial justice, environmental resilience, or democracy, we invite you to join us in grounding, reflecting, and organizing in solidarity with the most impacted people.
How do we make our interdependence faithful and value-driven?
This question was posed by UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt during the fireside chat with UUSC President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn. These two theologians and leaders discussed the UU theological grounding for climate justice. Interdependent doesn't always mean something positive, as Rev. Betancourt noted. Someone upstream polluting has an interdependent relationship with those downstream. So: how do we make our interdependence faithful and value-driven?
Watch the event recording which includes reporting back from the small group discussion that happened.
Host Your Own Congregational Viewing & Discussion
You are welcome to share the recording of our meeting or watch the conversation only and use these discussions for your own small group conversations.
Are you one of your congregation's facilitators for the UU Climate Justice Revival? All facilitators need to join one of our 2 hour Facilitator Training Sessions. Come learn how to be the best facilitator you can be for your congregation's Revival!
November 20 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT With over 375 UU Congregations hosting the UU Climate Justice Revival and 125 ACTIVE Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregations, UUs are mobilizing for Climate Justice...but how? As climate disasters become more commonplace, we need stronger networks of community care. Whether you want to convene a regional Revival, work on disaster response, collaborate on statewide advocacy, or just learn how others are approaching their climate justice work, working together with other UUs can be a powerful response to the problems of our times.
Get to know the new Green Sanctuary! Join the monthly orientation session to get a better understanding of the program and learn how your congregation can engage in ongoing climate action. Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice can transform your congregation through climate justice! Orientation meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET.
Green Sanctuary Celebration and Call for Renewal with Pres. Sofía Betancourt December 11 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT Come together to celebrate 35 years of Green Sanctuary! From the 7th Principle Project to Mobilizing for Climate Justice, the Green Sanctuary process has transformed our congregations and our world. Join Pres. Sofía and friends for a celebration of Green Sanctuary and a call for renewal through Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice. Register now.
How do we make our interdependence faithful and value-driven?
Our October Green Sanctuary 2030 Monthly Gathering was a fireside chat with UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt and UUSC President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn on UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice. After the conversation, participants were invited to join small group discussions.
Host Your Own Congregational Viewing & Discussion
You are welcome to share the recording of our meeting or watch the conversation only and use these discussions for your own small group conversations!
AISHA HAUSER Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
One of the most impactful trips I have ever been on in my life was with a friend to Olympic National Park in Washington State, specifically the Ancient Forest, an area that dates back to pre-contact, when only the indigenous people lived and thrived on this land, before the arrival of European settlers.
We were completely cut off from any of the digital and online life we were living. Being this off the grid took a bit of getting used to, however I quickly found something shifting in my physical body and my emotional state.
I felt calmer and inching closer to feeling relaxed. I hadn’t fully appreciated that there is a different kind of relaxation one feels when fully unplugged from anyone who isn’t in your physical presence.
Going into the ancient forest helped ground me while paradoxically allowing me to become more expansive at the same time.
Old growth and ancient grown forest ground contains layers upon layers of flora and fauna. In fact, the word “flora” means goddess in Latin. How fitting that divinity is part of the naming of these natural and sacred living entities.
The quiet of the forest is not silent. There is the rustling of the trees, the sound of a stream, birds chirping and the muffled sounds of our feet along the forest floor.
I felt myself release tension as I walked.
I placed my palms on the trees, leaning on them for comfort and solace.
It was truly a cleansing experience, a forest bath.
According to the National Geographic website:
The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”). The purpose was twofold: to offer an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests.
While the term ‘forest bathing’ may be relatively recent, humans have found ways to heal and cleanse while communing with nature throughout millenia.
Jesus prayed at the foot of olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Bodhi tree also known as the Wisdom Tree is believed to be where the Buddha found enlightenment.
Integral to Pagan practices are communing with nature often among the trees.
While I did not find enlightenment during my time in the ancient forest, what I did find was a deeper connection to myself and the earth.
Aisha Hauser, MSW, CREML One of the most impactful trips I have ever been on in my life was with a friend to Olympic National Park in Washington State, specifically the Ancient Forest, an area that dates back to pre-contact, when only the indigenous people lived and thrived on this land, before the arrival of European settlers.
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Our shared values of love, justice, and compassion call on us to respond to the many threats to our future of collective thriving and liberation. While we fight the many causes of climate disasters (extractive capitalism, racial injustice), we also commit ourselves to building communities of care and resilience. As the Southeast experiences the devasting loss from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we are grateful for the many who have taken up the sacred task of care. From spiritual support to life-saving rescue efforts to financial and material relief efforts, it is critical that we show up. If you can make a financial contribution to relief efforts, please support one or all of the vetted relief efforts at the end of this email.
It is clear that mitigation - working to reduce the polluting emissions that drive climate change - is no longer enough. We are called to expand our efforts to center justice and prioritize creating communities of care.
Our congregations must become places of refuge in the storms, hubs of resilience in times of climate disaster, and centers of nourishment when things fall apart. This, dear friends, is the work of our time.
We know that climate disasters do not affect all equally. Marginalized communities—including people of color, people with disabilities, low-income families, and unhoused neighbors—are often impacted first and hardest. Consider that people with disabilities are two to four times more likely to die or be injured during climate disasters. Or that Black disaster survivors receive significantly less government support than their white counterparts, exacerbating pre-existing inequities. This is a call to action.
As we reimagine a world where all communities thrive, we must also ground ourselves in the systems of oppression that worsen the climate crisis. Our work must include addressing FEMA accountability, the mental health crisis exacerbated by displacement, and the climate grief and anxiety that many are facing. We must not turn away from these realities but open our hearts to create a new world with this knowledge.
We encourage everyone to support efforts like the UUA's Disaster Relief Fund and mutual aid networks, such as those offered by Highlander, to uplift the most vulnerable. Additionally, the importance of voting for leaders and policies that prioritize climate justice cannot be overstated. Our collective action in these moments will shape the future.
Let us move forward with courage, faith, and an unwavering commitment to justice.
In solidarity,
Your colleagues at Side With Love
UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice
UUs have been at the leading edge of climate action for decades, but how does our faith call us to the work of climate justice?
Image description: a green background with watercolor splotches. Blue text reads UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice, followed by text in black that reads Wed, Oct 16, 4PT / 5 MT / 6 CT / 7ET. To the right hand side there are portrait images of Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt and Rev. Mary Katherine Morn. The bottom of the image has the logos for Side With Love and Green Sanctuary program.
Join the Green Sanctuary 2030 Community on Wednesday, October 16 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for a watch party of the UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice Fireside Chat with UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt and UUSC President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, hosted by Side With Love Climate Justice Advocate Rachel Myslivy.
How does your faith call you to this work? Join the conversation!
Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care
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.
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.
Use our toolbox, worksheets, and recorded trainings to assess your community's climate impacts and mobilize for action. Start today.
UU the Vote: 2024 Mobilization
With just 24 days until Election Day, UU the Vote continues to invite UUs around the country to join us for these important events to engage with voters.
If you are within driving distance of any of our in-person mobilizations, please join us! Each day includes spiritual grounding, training, lunch, and support (plus gas reimbursement if you bring a group!). Read about our in-person mobilizations in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Dallas!
Drop into any or all of our upcoming phonebanks - we train at the beginning of each one and provide on-going support. Your personal information is protected as you make calls through our software.
Image description: Over a navy blue background, white text reads Get Involved with UU the Vote. The image is decorated with stamp style photos of people in groups doing UU the Vote work, with yellow hearts and dotted lines connecting the images.
Our loving faith calls us to honor the inherent rights and dignity of all people and to fight forms of oppression wherever we find it. However, disabled people (who make up 26% of the population) regularly find ourselves pushed to the margins, being denied our needs, and not receiving the radical welcome UU’s aspire to provide to all members.
Lay leaders, religious professionals, and allies are invited to join us for our monthly lunchtime webinars where you can learn how to be more accessible and inclusive of your congregation’s disabled members and visitors.
Image Description: UPLIFT ACCESS MONTHLY WEBINARS in green and red letters that overly a planet made of gold grid lines and circled by a ring, with stars on the upper right.
Join us for our next UPLIFT Access Resource Webinar on Thursday, October 17 at 12:00pm ET / 9am PT for a discussion of Voting and Disability Justice. Join representatives from Side With Love, New Disabled South, and Rev. Amanda Schuber, the UUA’s Disability Justice Associate.
Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. Join us on October 22 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT 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)!
This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. You can be a regular or someone new, someone who's been curious for a while but hasn't yet checked us out, somebody who is rejoining after time away, and all other ways of relating to this space! You are welcome here, and you are loved.
The Side With Love staff team - some of whom are in the US South - are holding all our beloveds in deep care, prayer, and love tonight as Hurricane Milton makes landfall.
If your congregation is able, please consider a donation or collection for the UUA Disaster Relief Fund. All funds go directly to supporting congregations and their communities.
The UUA understands the connection between disaster relief and justice making. Populations who have historically been denied access to resources and care suffer most in a disaster.
Disaster Relief Grants to our UU congregations and related organizations not only help other Unitarian Universalists, they can also support on the ground relief efforts through existing partnerships that congregations already have. These grants encourage congregations to build coalitions to meet the needs of their wider communities.
UUs have been on the leading edge of environmental advocacy for decades - and much of that good work has focused on mitigation - working to reduce the polluting emissions that drive climate change. While mitigation is a critical piece, it’s not enough. As our beloved communities continue to experience climate disruption, extreme weather, and climate disasters, we must expand our climate work to center justice and prioritize creating communities of care. As we reimagine together a world where all communities thrive, we equally have to ground ourselves in the systems of oppression and harm. We know that climate disasters impact some of our neighbors more than others.
If you are in an area that hasn't yet experienced a climate disaster, I invite you to explore our resource Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care which includes a toolkit, webinar series, and worksheets for congregations and communities to identify risks and envision solutions with love and justice at the center.
In faith and solidarity,
your Side With Love colleagues
UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice
UUs have been at the leading edge of climate action for decades, but how does our faith call us to the work of climate justice?
Image description: a green background with watercolor splotches. Blue text reads UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice, followed by text in black that reads Wed, Oct 16, 4PT / 5 MT / 6 CT / 7ET. To the right hand side there are portrait images of Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt and Rev. Mary Katherine Morn. The bottom of the image has the logos for Side With Love and Green Sanctuary program.
Join the Green Sanctuary 2030 Community on Wednesday, October 16 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for a watch party of the UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice Fireside Chat with UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt and UUSC President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, hosted by Side With Love Climate Justice Advocate Rachel Myslivy.
How does your faith call you to this work? Join the conversation!
Celebrating the Climate Justice Revivals So Far
Just two weekends ago, hundreds of UU congregations around the country held their own UU Climate Justice Revivals - and we know more congregations are hosting their own throughout this winter and next spring.
If your congregation hosted a revival recently, tell us your revival story using our UU Climate Justice Revival Commitments & Evaluation form here or by going to https://bit.ly/UURevivalStories, where you can not only submit your revival participants’ words of commitment, but also share your feedback and upload the pictures you took!
Upcoming UU Climate Revival Facilitator Trainings
Thursday, November 14, 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7 ET: Register now
Wednesday, January 15, 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7 ET: Register now
Wednesday, February 26, 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7 ET: Register now
Upcoming Programming
Image description: half the image is solid green with white text that reads, Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings, 3rd Wed, 4 PT - 5 MT - 6 CT - 7 ET. The rest of the image has a background of fallen autumn leaves with word bubbles of upcoming events. There is a cartoon bird by one bubble and a yellow cartoon leaf on another. The bubbles read: View online: What do I have to offer? + the social change ecosystem framework; Oct 16: UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice; Nov 20: Green Sanctuary 2030 New Materials Release; Dec 11: Green sanctuary celebration and call for renewal
Recording and Resources
"What do I have to offer?" + the Social Ecosystem Framework
Our faith calls us to proclaim that liberation is possible even as the devastation stretches beyond what any human spirit should be forced to hold. As we watch the news out of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, the West Bank, and Israel our spirits are unimaginably stretched – especially those of us who have family and beloveds in danger on these lands. As people who commit to center love as the fundamental theological anchor of our faith, we are called to embody that commitment beyond our church walls, our nations’ flags, and even our personal pains. We are called to be beacons of true transformation, dreaming and creating pathways towards a justice that leaves nobody behind.
As people of faith, we reject the false narrative that the safety of some must come at the expense of the safety of others. It is that choice which has permitted too many atrocities in the U.S. and abroad. As our Unitarian ancestor and abolitionist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper reminds us, “We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest [sic] of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”
The Israeli government’s project of settler colonialism is now expanding to many countries. The violence must end. The U.S. government funding for this violence must also end. The cost to our collective soul is too high. The escalation in Lebanon and Yemen, which has caused more devastation and destabilization, must stop. U.S. military aid to the Israeli government must cease. And the oppression that has long fueled this conflict must finally come to a permanent and sustained end. Sovereignty for Palestine and an end to the occupation of Palestinian lands must be realized.
We are not bystanders to the moral imperative of our time. We are each called to faithful witness on the stage of history. We will not crumble under the shadow of a troubled past but be fortified in the light of the truth – that all life is a reflection of the Divine. Let us rise in that truth.
Let us live into our sacred duty to reject any actions that violate that truth, and instead fully embrace the opportunities for a holy and wholly liberated future. May we recover our collective humanity by making a different choice than we have over decades of this compounding human rights atrocity.
We can start by first witnessing this moment and grieving the lives, homes, and futures that this violence has stolen.
Image description: Graphic with lit candles on a black background with a red, green, and yellow abstract wave embellishment in the top right corner. Text reads, “Still Here: A Unitarian Universalist Vigil for Gaza. Sunday, Oct 6th, 8:00pm Eastern. Open to All. RSVP for Zoom: druumm.org/events. Logos: DRUUMM, UUJME, UUSCM, UU Women’s Federation, CLF, Side With Love, BLUU, UUCSJ, UUSC.
We can honor the commitments of our 2024 General Assembly’s Action of Immediate Witness, “Solidarity With Palestinians,” and move towards the necessary humanitarian demand of calling, yet again, for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and prisoners, and for the U.S. to stop shipments of military weapons to Israel.
Join us in taking action and renewing this commitment by calling your representative to ask that they support the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, which blocks a proposal to send $20 billion in weapons to Israel.
And finally, deepening in our knowledge and values through education and discourse so that we may align our work in healing and accountable solidarity with the many living under the remnants of settler colonialism and empire. Visit Resources for Engaging Palestine & Israel for ongoing resources and learning opportunities.
We embrace liberation as a collective process and collective responsibility. Each of us has a role in cultivating the collective thriving of which so many lives and futures, including our own, depend.
Towards collective liberation and a free Palestine, today and always, we Side With Love.
Talking about abortion is the first step to busting stigma, stopping harmful restrictions, and expanding access. On September 30, we learned how to have deeper conversations about abortion that are rooted in values and facts, defuse extremist talking points, and develop skills to use in one-on-one conversations. Watch the recording here.
UU Climate Justice Revival Ahoy! Starting this weekend, congregations across the land are coming together to reimagine a spirit-filled and liberatory future. Through conversations, worship, and advocacy, congregations will work together to realize climate justice and collective liberation in our communities. Let’s GO!
Read on for more info about:
Revivaling Congregations + YOU!
Tune in to the Livestream of President Sofia’s sermon at UU Congregation of Ann Arbor
Sneak peak into UUA’s expanding support for climate justice!
“When I go to the Revival” reflections from Side with Love!
Revivaling Congregations + YOU!
Over 370 UU congregations in 45 states plus Mexico, Canada, the Virgin Islands, and online - over 35% of our denomination - are joining in spirit to reimagine together a world where all communities thrive.
The UU Society of Oneonta, NY is the first congregation to share the outcomes of their Revival. Look at all those smiling faces! Karen Palmer reports,
“We just completed our Climate Revival Saturday Workshop a weekend early due to our schedules. Rev Stacey and I facilitated and we think it went very well. People were very engaged and moved from expressing that they felt overwhelmed and stressed about Climate Change to feeling more positive and hopeful seeing the collective energy that emerged from the event. Thanks for all the work your team did to provide the resources!”
What’s that you say? Your congregation hasn’t signed up to host a Revival yet? Do it now! You can host your Revival later this year or in 2025. Several folks are hosting theirs over Earth Day. Do what makes sense for you but sign up now so we can best support you!
Your Revival will bring together hearts and minds to make the connections between climate and justice and re-imagine what it means to do this urgent work in community. This powerful and transformative event weaves together the threads that have always linked our deepest commitments. The UU Climate Justice Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
Watch a Revival Worship This Weekend!
If your congregation is not hosting the Revival this weekend, but you want in on the fun, we invite you to join the livestream of UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt preaching at the UU Congregation of Ann Arbor on September 29 at 8:30am PT / 11:30am ET.
UUA developing new tools for Climate Justice facilities projects at the congregational level
As congregations seek to implement climate justice projects at the community level, we are excited to report that the UUA will soon be offering support and a loan option for clean energy projects with incentives for climate justice. We can’t go into too many details just yet, but put this in the back of your mind as your congregation is Reimagining Together at your UU Climate Justice Revival and stay tuned for more information!
How are you Revivaling?
Hear from the Side With Love Team on what we’re bringing to our Revivals!
“The sign of a health economy should be a drinkable river.” - Li An Phoa
Here in Delaware, none of our rivers and creeks are swimmable, let alone drinkable. Here in my county with the highest number of chickens in the country, chicken waste is spread on our fields and runs off into the water (among other causes for the unhealthy water). If we had drinkable rivers, families be able to play in them! But more than that, getting there would require improved conditions and lives for the chickens themselves, the small family chicken farmers stuck in contracts with the big chicken companies, and the largely immigrant and Black non-unionised workers in the chicken factories. When I go to the Revival, I will elevate the connection between small farms, workers, animals, water, and our health.”
Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Leadership Development Specialist
When I go to the Revival, I’m going to talk about the profound connections between climate justice and building a more democratic society for all people. I think about the opportunities for direct democratic process in Atlanta where over 116,000 residents signed petitions in support of taking Cop City – a militarized police training camp destroying an urban forest to be destructed – and the city’s unwillingness to respond to the demands of the people. I think about what it means when our governing bodies have been bought and sold by the wealthy and corporations – in the case of the Great Lakes, the federal government has not stopped Enbridge from pumping oil through their 71-year old pipelines through the Straits of Mackinac putting 21 percent of the world’s fresh surface water at risk. I am excited for the synergy and opportunity for more relationship and more collective action that will emerge from the Revival.
Nora Rasman, Democracy Strategist
When I go to my climate justice revival, I want to talk about the intersection of the climate crisis and our values. I want to leave able to articulate how our values call us into environmental action. I care about Climate Justice, and I'm already doing so much to end oppression that I want to better understand how this work impacts the work I'm already doing. It all feels so big! I want a space to dream about a better, healthier, and more connected world.
Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate
When I go to my revival, I will talk about the impacts of climate change on marginalized communities. Many who lack the basic necessities of life and whose livelihood depends on survival are the most likely to suffer the devastating impacts of climate catastrophe. When a hurricane hits or a chemical contamination strikes, low-income people, Black and brown people, trans people, and disabled people lack the financial resources to protect themselves. Worse yet, agencies and government officials fail to craft policies and procedures that take into account the variety of needs and contingencies that will ensure the safety of these communities. A climate revival will not only raise the aware of the reality of climate change but will also raise the awareness of how climate catastrophe impacts all communities and the need to center care for the most vulnerable as we consider sustainable solutions.
Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director
When I go to my Revival, I’m going to talk about disability justice, community care, and the urgency of practicing solidarity with disabled people in this age of pandemics. As we reimagine a world where all beings thrive, in this moment of accelerating mass disablement, death, and climate catastrophe and simultaneous calls to reinvest in pre-pandemic ways of living and organizing, I’m curious about what our movements can learn from disabled resistance, connection, and survival. I’m eager to attend to this need for the many generations of people who are becoming disabled in a very small window of time and to whom our movements are accountable for a place in this work. I’m inspired by the 2024 AIW Centering Love Amidst the Ongoing Impact of COVID-19. What’s possible for our communities when we live into communal interdependence?
When I go to my climate justice revival, I want to make sure we find spaces for us to grieve. There is so much violence we are encountering and experiencing in our lives, and it takes a toll on our bodies, minds, and hearts. My heart breaks for my Palestinian siblings who have lost homes, loved ones, and ancestral lands where they have nurtured olive trees for generations. All of us have lost the biodiversity that comes with human-driven climate change. And some of us may feel like humanity has lost its soul, with our extractive relationships to each other and our greater world. I want to make the space for us to name and feel that grief. Because in that grief, we can find our longing. We can find what it is we yearn for, rooted in our greatest imaginings of what our faith tells us is possible. In honoring our grief, we lean into the best of our humanity - our connections to our reality and our commitments to transforming this world into one centered on love.
When I go to my Revival later this year, I am excited to meet all of the community members we’re inviting to join us. We’re using the Revival materials to bring together as many people as we can from the many smaller communities in our area who are all connected to the same ecosystem we love and social services we need. I plan to elevate the connections between climate change and all of the injustices we fight so hard against as a means of working towards building community resilience together. How can we make sure that everyone in our community thrives? I know that I - alone - do not have the answer, but we - together - can create a vision, a north star, to guide our collective work. Together, with curiosity, humility, grace, and imperfection, we can find the solutions that strengthen our community and protect our ecosystem, all while centering the needs of those most impacted by climate injustice. I bring my lived experience as a person with a disability and my rural, working-class background to this dynamic work. As Chico Mendes said, “Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening.” How can our climate justice work intersect with labor, disability rights, anti-racism, disaster preparedness, and more? My commitment to justice and collective liberation will guide my actions both at the Revival and beyond. No system but the ecosystem, no liberation without love. We’re reimagining together!
On September 18, we joined Deepa Iyer for our September Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting: “What do I have to offer?” + the Social Ecosystem Framework. Watch the recording here.
We all have an important part to play in our congregation! To create a world that liberates all of us, we need each and every one of us. Deepa Iyer's Social Change Ecosystem Framework identifies ten "roles" all working towards and with the values of equity, liberation, justice, and solidarity. This framework is built on the recognition that we all have “innate gifts, lived experiences, learned skills, and formal and informal knowledge that can propel social change.” It also celebrates that we are fluid and adaptable, with our "role" changing from one context to the next. We’re using this framework in the UU Climate Justice Revival and in it can be helpful when bringing together you GS2030 Teams.
"We build spiritual containers. We tell different stories. We engage one another. We follow frontline leaders. We remind each other [to be with each other] when the world mocks us sometimes for hope; mocks us sometimes for the radical idea that love can guide who we are and how we show up, rather than needing to win at a game that puts some of us ahead of others." - Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt
Earlier this month, UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt joined our first UU the Vote in-person mobilization in Philadelphia. She was part of a powerful panel on the role of faith organizations in this political moment (watch the entire event at Side With Love’s YouTube) and invited UUs to remember how important it is that we be together in this work; to, in her words, "literally chaplain one another back to the space we are building together."
Over the next four weeks, we have a number of reproductive justice and access events so we can learn and take action on this critical issue. Two political education events, two phonebanks with partner organizations (one in Florida and one in North Carolina), and our ongoing UPLIFT and UPLIFT Access monthly gatherings. We hope you'll join us at these events where we can chaplain each other, remind each other why we're letting love guide us, and tell different stories about the world we want to live in.
Woven Together: Religion & Reproductive Justice
Political Education Series from SACReD
Tuesdays this fall 7-8:30pm ET
SACReD is a national alliance of multiracial, multifaith, multiethnic, mixed gender and sexual identity religious leaders, congregations, movement organizations, activists, academics, and directly impacted communities collaborating to advance Reproductive Justice through congregational education, culture change, community building, and direct service.
As we shift the culture to make Reproductive Justice a lived reality, we recognize that our political, religious, and reproductive lives are all woven together. We are watching the forces of White Christian Nationalism threaten our families and our communities every day. We are bringing together experts to cover the legal, political, theological, and cross-movement intersections of religion and reproductive justice. When we understand how all of our struggles are inextricably linked, we can continue to deepen our solidarity in the pursuit of liberation and justice for all.
Accessing this series is free, with a suggested donation of $25 per workshop, or $150 for the full series.
Help us grow our movement to limit government interference with abortion!
Florida's proposed Amendment 4 creates a state constitutional amendment that explicitly blocks the implementation of laws that prohibit, delay, or restrict abortion access.
On Thursday, Sept 26, you're invited to join Yes on 4 and UU the Vote for a virtual phone bank session. We'll connect to voters to invite them to take action and support Yes on 4 this election cycle. No experience is necessary, we will provide training and support to you while you make calls. Your personal information is protected and all calls are made through the dialer system. We'll have fun and promise the conversations you have with voters will energize you!
Unapologetic Abortion Access: Skill Training with Avow Texas
Monday, September 30, 2024 8pm ET - 9:30pm ET
Join us for a virtual workshop with Caroline Duble, Political Director of Avow Texas, to talk about abortion.
Defuse extremist talking points and develop skills to use in one-on-one conversations. We are particularly enthusiastic to invite UU reproductive justice organizers and activists and folks living in states with abortion ballot measures this November.
Talking about abortion is the first step to busting stigma, stopping harmful restrictions, and expanding access.
Learn how to have deeper conversations about abortion that are rooted in values and facts.
North Carolina Abortion Rights Interfaith Phone Bank
Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Join Side With Love, UU Justice NC, Pro-Choice North Carolina, and Carolina Jews for Justice for a phonebank calling North Carolina voters. The future of abortion access in North Carolina is on the line this election! Even though there isn't a ballot initiative, abortion is absolutely on the ballot in NC, because those we elect will either defend and advance abortion access, or keep banning it. People of faith are coming together to send a powerful message that reproductive rights are aligned with our values, so let's get on the phones and turn-out pro abortion voters this fall!
Our loving faith calls us to honor the inherent rights and dignity of all people and to fight forms of oppression wherever we find it.
However, disabled people (who make up 26% of the population) regularly find ourselves pushed to the margins, being denied our needs, and not receiving the radical welcome UU’s aspire to provide to all members.
Lay leaders, religious professionals, and allies are invited to join us for our monthly lunchtime webinars where you can learn how to be more accessible and inclusive of your congregation’s disabled members and visitors.
Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. 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)!
This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. You can be a regular or someone new, someone who's been curious for a while but hasn't yet checked us out, somebody who is rejoining after time away, and all other ways of relating to this space! You are welcome here, and you are loved.
Climate at the Intersections: Climate Justice is Gender Justice
In our newest video in our Climate at the Intersections series, Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer Rachel Myslivy and UU Women's Federation National Organizer Antoinette Scully explore how climate is a gender justice issue.
Upcoming events on abortion, reproductive justice, & access!
We have some fantastic meetings planned this fall, and we hope to see you all soon! Join the Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings for shared learning and mutual supports with other UUs working to transform our congregations through climate justice.
UU Climate Justice Revivals!
I know that many of you are busily preparing for your UU Climate Justice Revivals! Keep up the good work, and remember that if you do the Revival activities as planned, they can serve in place of your Opportunity Assessment! Win-win! If you missed it, check out the recording of the UU Climate Justice Revival + GS2030 to learn how these activities overlap and support each other.
If you haven’t signed up to host a Revival, there’s still time! Many of our congregations are hosting their Revival later this year or in 2025. Bonus! We have mini-grants to support your work! Sign up today!
Our meetings will begin and end with some very special guests! The September meeting, “What do I have to offer?” + the Social Change Ecosystem Framework will feature Deepa Iyer, author of Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection. Consider this a must-attend training for nourishing impactful Green Sanctuary Teams! In October, we’ll deepen our understanding of the UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice with the UUA President, Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, and UUSC President, Rev. Dr. Mary Katherine Morn. In November, we’ll release the new Green Sanctuary 2030 Materials and the yearly renewal process. These new materials will be even more manageable and accessible for all of our congregations. Come get the inside scoop! We’ll round out the year with the 35th anniversary celebration of the Green Sanctuary program featuring Pres. Sofía.
We all have an important part to play in our congregation! To create a world that liberates all of us, we need each and every one of us. Deepa Iyer's Social Change Ecosystem Framework identifies ten "roles" all working towards and with the values of equity, liberation, justice, and solidarity. This framework is built on the recognition that we all have “innate gifts, lived experiences, learned skills, and formal and informal knowledge that can propel social change.” It also celebrates that we are fluid and adaptable, with our "role" changing from one context to the next. We’re using this framework in the UU Climate Justice Revival and in it can be helpful when bringing together you GS2030 Teams. Learn more about this powerful framework from the author, herself!
We will be giving away 50 copies of the Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection at this event. You must be present to win. Sign up today!
UUs have been at the leading edge of climate action for decades, but how does our faith call us to the work of climate justice? Join the Green Sanctuary 2030 Community for a watch party of the UU Theological Grounding for Climate Justice Fireside Chat with UUA Pres. Sofía and UUSC Pres. Mary Katherine Morn. How does your faith call you to this work? Join the conversation!
Come together to celebrate 35 years of Green Sanctuary! From the 7th Principle Project to Mobilizing for Climate Justice, the Green Sanctuary process has transformed our congregations and our world. Join Pres. Sofía and friends for a celebration of Green Sanctuary and a call for renewal through Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice on Wednesday, December 11 at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET.
Announcing the Fall Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings!
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
Recently, I’ve heard more and more people wondering what is the place of covenant and accountability in Unitarian Universalism. In some circles, they have become almost dirty words–signs that we are somehow abandoning the individualist faith that so many people mistakenly think we are. And yet, both of these concepts are central to our faith.
Covenant consists of the sacred promises we make to one another. It is not a fixed set of beliefs, but rather a living understanding of how we are in community together. Covenants define the practices of Unitarian Universalism as well as what we are striving to create together.
As a faith movement, our congregations are bound to each other in covenant. That covenant is expressed in Article 2 of the Unitarian Universalist Association by-laws. It lives there because covenants and by-laws, unlike creeds, are meant to be changeable. As our understanding of our faith deepens, as our understanding of our world develops, and as the circle of our faith widens to welcome in those who have too long been marginalized, we must adapt the promises that hold us together.
And so it is that our covenant has been updated recently. Rather than simply asking our congregations to “affirm and promote” principles (a phrase that I came to see as the faith analog of the meaningless phrase “thoughts and prayers”), our new covenant asks us to engage in specific actions to live our faith in the world. It asks us to understand power, how it is abused to lead to oppression and exploitation, and to actively work to dismantle those things in our world. It asks us to commit to changing, growing, and repairing damaged relationships. It asks us to create fully accessible and inclusive communities, and to embrace our differences as we learn from one another.
These are good promises, solid promises that, if we keep them, will help us center our faith in love and live from the values we claim: justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, and generosity.
But what if we don’t keep our promises?
That’s where accountability comes in.
In 1646, the congregations in the New England colonies brought delegates together to discuss how they would be governed. The 1648 Cambridge Platform has served since then as the basis for what we call “congregational polity,” the way in which Unitarian Universalist congregations still come together. Even in 1648, congregations realized that one of their responsibilities to each other was to be able to hold each other accountable to the practices and ideals of their faith.
How this happens has changed a lot since 1648, but it has not ceased to be part of the relationship among congregations. We are collectively responsible for the covenant of our faith. And so, we have to be collectively responsible for asking our sibling UUs to be accountable to that covenant.
Accountability does not mean punishment, nor does it mean banishment, like so many people seem to fear. It does mean that we are allowed to ask each other to do better. It means that we are allowed to point out when each others’ actions fall short of the values we claim. Yes, it might mean that we are going to have to get used to giving and receiving constructive, loving criticism.
For too long, our faith has been mired in a hyper-individualism that is good for no one. We are not the faith where, as some claim, one can believe or do whatever one wants to. We are instead a faith where we proudly center our interdependence with one another, a faith that insists that none of us are in this alone.
In the back of our hymnal is an uncredited (anonymous) reading that blesses us with these words: “May we know once again that we are not isolated beings, but connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe, to this community, and to
each other.”
To these words, I add this: May our connection to each other be grounded in covenant. May it be a connection of mutual accountability and growth. May it be a connection that helps us all live with love at the center of our lives.
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino Recently, I’ve heard more and more people wondering what is the place of covenant and accountability in Unitarian Universalism.
Read more »
Download the full issue and read all articles on Issuu:
To create a world that liberates all of us, we need each and every one of us, whether in our roles in our congregation or in our wider community.
Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer and advocate for justice who has developed ten "roles" -- all working towards and with the values of equity, liberation, justice, and solidarity -- in her new book from Skinner House, Social Change Ecosystem Framework.
This framework is built on the recognition that we all have “innate gifts, lived experiences, learned skills, and formal and informal knowledge that can propel social change.” It also celebrates that we are fluid and adaptable, with our "role" changing from one context to the next.
We’re using this framework in the UU Climate Justice Revival and in it can be helpful in your congregation's justice ministry or your everyday life! Learn more about this powerful framework from the author, herself, by joining our September 18th event. We'll be giving away 30 copies of this book during the event, too, so join us live for what we know will be an informative and inspiring gathering!
Host the UU Climate Justice Revival on Your Timeline!
Did you know that more than a third of our North American congregations are hosting a UU Climate Justice Revival? This is an incredible demonstration of the passion and commitment our denomination has to this transformative work - and your congregation can be a part of it, whether you can host your revival in September or not!
The UU Climate Justice Revival is responsive to your unique needs and context, which means you can register now for the materials and schedule it whenever is best for your congregation. (We're requesting that all congregations offer their Revival before General Assembly 2025.)
Here’s a sneak peak of the “How do we schedule the Revival” section of the Toolkit. You can make this schedule work in a variety of ways—whatever suits your congregation. You could host one-hour meetings on Zoom over the course of four Wednesdays or your congregation could have volunteers host house parties for the dialogs and a potluck. Be creative! If you’re still not sure how to swing it, email us at UURevival@UUA.org. We can brainstorm ideas!
Connect with UU climate justice organizers & Side With Love staff on Slack!
Slack is a collaboration app that can be used on one's phone, computer, or web browser. Like a message board, it has various channels related to different topics and Side With Love has an active Slack account where UU volunteers, activists, and leaders can work together with Side With Love staff on a variety of topics and campaigns. Check out this intro packet to learn more and join!
Imagine that it's 2050 and we've achieved all of our wildest hopes for collective liberation. What is present in that re-imagined reality? What have our values led us to collectively abolish or move away from? How would our world transform if love was at the center of our climate actions and collective liberation were upheld as a uniting goal across all of the movement spaces that matter most?
With these questions in mind, the UU Climate Justice Revival planning team invited sermons that would ground us in this new reality. The number of submissions exceeded our expectations - evidence of the prophetic spirit and liberatory theology alive in our movement - and after much deliberation, we are proud to announce our sermon winners.
Congratulations to:
Andrew Batcher
Lee Curran
Diego Garrido Barreto
Meleah Houseknecht
Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
Frances Koziar
Edward Lynn
Rev. Arif Mamdani
Learn more about each awardee and read their award-winning sermon. Recordings of each sermon will be available by September 5th. https://www.uuclimatejustice.org/sermon
September Create Climate Justice Update: each and every one of us is needed
On August 7, we hosted Green Sanctuary 2030 + the UU Climate Justice Revival to learn how both the Green Sanctuary 2030 community and the UU Climate Justice Revival can spark and light the way to transforming climate justice in your congregation. Watch the recording here.
On September 28-29, congregations will host UU Climate Justice Revivals to collectively reimagine a spirit-filled and liberatory future. Through conversations, worship, and advocacy, congregations will work together to realize climate justice and collective liberation in our communities. Congregations will receive everything they need to host a revival in their communities, including discussion guides and materials for all ages, training, worship resources, and advocacy actions designed to transform our communities through climate justice.
Siding with love means we center accessibility in all our programming and events.
Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate on the Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team, offers some guidance for congregational staff and volunteers on how to center accessibility in programming.
by Nicole Pressley Organizing Strategy Director, Side With Love – Unitarian Universalist Association
On November 15, 2015, the Minneapolis Police Department killed a black man named Jamar Clark. That night, community members, organizers, and activists formed an encampment outside the Fourth Precinct to demand the release of the body camera footage and justice for Jamar Clark. For 20 days, as the Minnesota winter set in, businesses, organizations, unions, and people came together to build and sustain community. Meals were served, warm clothing was provided, and systems of care, security, and conflict resolution were designed. People danced. People sang. And people preached.
On a very late night, as many of us huddled under the propane heaters donated by the Sierra Club, Rev. Danny Givens preached a sermon about Henrietta Lacks, a black woman whose cells were used without her consent to lead to breakthroughs in science. He called us to remember the many ways in which that violation of black bodies feeds heteropatriarchal capitalism. He invited us into the powerful call to ground our work demanding justice for Jamar Clark in a broader demand to dismantle state violence and commit ourselves to black liberation.
This was the beginning of my journey into Unitarian Universalism. Rev. Danny Givens worked at Unity Church in St. Paul. At this encampment, I experienced “church” and activism in a new and powerful way that transformed my relationship to both. In my prior experience, sermons were delivered from ornate pulpits in the comfort of a building, not on a cold wet street under the threat of arrest and violence from police and white supremacists. The primary subjects were usually men whose stories felt too far away to be easily relevant to the struggles I find to be critical, as a black queer woman. Instead, he elevated the story of a black woman. Instead of focusing on salvation as a reward for our good deeds after death, he opened us up to the possibility of transformation and liberation as an urgent spiritual and political practice.
I reflected on this moment recently as I stood in solidarity with students at their encampment at Northeastern University. I was in Boston because I had the honor of being the respondent to the Minns Lecture, an annual Unitarian Universalist theological presentation, offered by Rev. Jason Lydon a few days previous. Rev. Jason spoke about the UU Service Committee’s National Moratorium on Prison Construction. He opened his remarks with the connection between the police violence against students on Emerson College’s campus and that of the cruelty of the prison system.At the Shabbat service that followed the early morning raid and arrests of Northeastern students, attendees discussed the police repression on Emory’s campus and at Stop Cop City actions in Atlanta. In the midst of this political action, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case on the criminalization of encampments of unhoused people across the country. With the Court’s ruling in favor of criminalization, students at elite universities and their unhoused neighbors will sit in the same jails, with the same charges, and for different reasons with vastly different resources. I think about how our jails will fill with trans people, medical professionals, and people seeking abortions, because life-saving care is also criminalized.
“If they take you in the morning, they will be come for us that night.”
—James Baldwin
Baldwin wrote these words on November 19, 1970 in a letter to Angela Davis in solidarity after her arrest. These words are not a warning like those we usually hear, “you’ll be next,” or, “first they came for…”. It is an understanding. Baldwin knows, deeply, that being targeted by the state can happen to anyone who finds themselves out of favor with those in power. LGBTQ, BIPOC, and disabled people, union organizers, sex workers, the unhoused, even women in bathing suits have found themselves the target of state based violence.
Criminalization as a tactic is not new, yet under increasingly fascist conditions in this country, we may find the connections between our struggles more easily.
As I wrote in this year’s 30 Days of Love, a project of the UUA’s Side with Love campaign: “before criminalization becomes a political tactic of disconnection and domination, it is first a spiritual acquiescence to dehumanization and disposability. We deny a moral mandate of mutuality in search of the protection of power over others.” Too often, we take up solidarity in a reaction to a threat. We use it as a political strategy, attempting to build larger coalitions as a means to pass or block legislation or win some other material demand for our communities. I hope that instead, like Baldwin, we can begin to know in our bones that our liberation is inextricably bound — that maybe, we are not just all we have, but we, together, are all we need.
Nicole Pressley On November 15, 2015, the Minneapolis Police Department killed a black man named Jamar Clark. That night, community members, organizers, and activists formed an encampment outside the Fourth Precinct to demand the release of the body camera footage and justice for Jamar Clark.
Read more »
Download the full issue and read all articles on Issuu:
Did you know that almost 300 congregations are hosting a UU Climate Justice Revival! How amazing! In just a few days, the registered congregations will receive all of the materials to host a Revival. If you haven’t signed your congregation up yet, there’s still time! But… maybe you’re saying to yourself…
"Aw, we can’t join the Revival because [insert time conflict here]!"
If you’re one of the many people thinking this, I’m here to tell you that YOU CAN HOST YOUR REVIVAL ANY TIME AFTER SEPTEMBER 28!
Seriously. The Revival is responsive to your unique needs and context. If you need to host the Revival in October, later in the year, or even in 2025, that’s fine! ✨ REGISTER TODAY ✨
“Yeah, but we rent our space and have limited access to it. We can’t reserve it for the dialogs.”
Bummer! But you can STILL host a Revival! In the soon-to-be-released Facilitator’s Toolkit, we’ve crafted several sample schedules to help congregations figure out what would work best for them. Revival activities are super flexible and can be modified in many different ways. We’ve included several options for the Day 1 Dialogs:
Quick and Easy: Afternoon Revival with Snacks
Slow and Steady: Full Day Revival with Lunch and Snacks (and Optional Videos and Longer Breaks)
The More the Merrier: Revival + Community Fair
Saturday Dialogs
Revival dialogs take place for one hour over four days
Here’s a sneak peak of the “How do we schedule the Revival” section of the Toolkit. You can make this schedule work in a variety of ways—whatever suits your congregation. You could host one-hour meetings on Zoom over the course of four Wednesdays or your congregation could have volunteers host house parties for the dialogs and a potluck. Be creative! If you’re still not sure how to swing it, email us at UURevival@UUA.org. We can brainstorm ideas! ✨ REGISTER TODAY ✨
“We really want to do the Revival, but our budget is t-i-i-i-ght! Is there any support for congregations who need some extra help to host a Revival?”
We sure understand that! The UU Climate Justice Revival is designed to be accessible to all congregations, regardless of size or resources.
Thanks to the generous support of the UUA and Revival sponsors, we are offering mini-grants to support congregations who need additional resources to be able to host a Revival. If this sounds like you, ✨ REGISTER TODAY ✨ and then fill out this UU Climate Justice Revival Mini-Grant Support Request form to let us know the kind of support you need. There are limited funds available, so we can't guarantee every request will be filled, but we’re going to do our very best to make it happen!
“Ok, so now that we’re registered and ready to go, what can we do to get our congregation excited!?
So much!
You can start getting your team together with the Welcome Packet
On July 20, we offered a virtual workshop to talk about abortion, led by Caroline Duble, Political Director of Avow Texas. Watch the recording here.
Talking about abortion is the first step to busting stigma, stopping harmful restrictions, and expanding access. We learned how to have deeper conversations about abortion that are rooted in values and facts, defuse extremist talking points, and develop skills to use in one-on-one conversations.
On July 17, we hosted Green Sanctuary 2030 + the UU Climate Justice Revival to learn how both the Green Sanctuary 2030 community and the UU Climate Justice Revival can spark and light the way to transforming climate justice in your congregation. Watch the recording here.
On September 28-29, congregations will host UU Climate Justice Revivals to collectively reimagine a spirit-filled and liberatory future. Through conversations, worship, and advocacy, congregations will work together to realize climate justice and collective liberation in our communities. Congregations will receive everything they need to host a revival in their communities, including discussion guides and materials for all ages, training, worship resources, and advocacy actions designed to transform our communities through climate justice.
by Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate, UUA Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team
Image 1: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: A Blessing for Disability Pride Month by Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate, UUA Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team.
Image 2: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: Spirit of Life and Spirit of Love, July is Disability Pride Month, a time to celebrate our community's diversity, tenacity, and adaptability.
Image 3: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: It’s a time to acknowledge the work being done towards a more accessible and welcoming world.
Image 4: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: This month, we lift up those who have fought tirelessly each day to ensure that everybody (every body) is honored as sacred and holy.
Image 5: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: We send love and care to those who have not been served well, who have been abused or forgotten.
Image 6: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: May we remember the fierce souls of our movement who have died this past yea as we carry their legacy forward.
Image 7: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: The Disability Community is one grounded in resilience and connection.
Image 8: Image has a black background. To the left is a stack of watercolor style hearts in the following colors: green, blue, white, yellow, and red. Text in white reads: May we hold fast to the promise of a future that is inclusive, welcoming, and accessible for all.
In these times, where the threats to democracy and liberty devastate our communities, we are fortified by the truth that throughout history, people rise to meet the moment.
In 2024, we are rising to the challenges we face in the world.
Transforming our Climate Justice Work
We are launching a first-ever faith-wide Climate Revival that will break down silos and springboard hundreds of congregations to a move beyond extraction into a wider climate justice movement—the Revival supports congregations with tools and training to equip us to take courageous and impactful action.
Growing our Organizing Power
We’re building response networks across the country for trans people, students, and the many folks targeted by state violence and legislative attacks.
Taking mass action for democracy
We are answering the call to show up boldly and be part of the moral majority that knows another world is possible. We are taking action right now towards that future with UU the Vote 2024.
Side With Love is a public expression of our values, bringing our values to life through mobilizing leaders in congregations and our communities.
Today, it is urgent that we center love in all that we do, if we are to transform ourselves and our world toward liberation. That is the power of a liberating love.
“Everything you touch, you change; everything that changes, changes you.”
Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
What happens when love is a force for change? Who must we become to embody that love?
Help Side With Love build community and campaigns centered around liberating love. Let's harness our power in the urgent times. Thanks to generous donors, all contributions made by July 5 will be matched up to $75,000.
The Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March on Washington DC on Sat, June 29
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is calling on people of moral conscience in the DMV area to join thousands on June 29th in Washington, DC to uplift and center the needs of the over 135 million poor and low-wage people and workers across the country. The UUA is one of the organizational partners for this event.
Watch the livestream on Saturday on our Facebook page.
Blessing for Queer Youth of Faith Day
Queer Youth of Faith Day is celebrated on June 30th.
According to Beloved Arise, "1 in 5 LGBTQ youth say their faith is important to them."
As a religious denomination committed to LGBTQIA+ liberation, Side With Love is pleased to share thisblessing for queer youth of faith, penned by Side With Love Leadership Development Specialist Rev. Cathy Rion Starr (they/them/theirs).
General Assembly 2024
Side With Love Cohorts
During General Assembly 2024, Side With Love offered a cohort for attendees. Twice a day, GA attendees could drop into one of Side With Love's cohort sessions which offered theological grounding, a story of congregational action connected, opportunities for discussion, and moments of movement and levity.
Recommended Resource: Collaboration is a relationship that starts with knowing what you have to offer and what you hold. See what your congregation can offer and what your congregation is currently holding:
Skill Up Workshop: Asset Mapping: Leveraging Congregational Resources for the Movement
Join Slack - our virtual field office! Slack is our primary online community for Side with Love - let’s connect!
Social Witness Statements for 2024
These statements were affirmed at General Assembly and are undergoing review by UUA legal counsel. Final text will be posted at UUA Statements by July 15th.
Queer Youth of Faith Day is celebrated on June 30th. According to Beloved Arise, "1 in 5 LGBTQ youth say their faith is important to them." As a religious denomination committed to LGBTQIA+ liberation, Side With Love is pleased to share this blessing for queer youth of faith, penned by Side With Love Leadership Development Specialist Rev. Cathy Rion Starr (they/them/theirs).
A Blessing for Queer Youth of Faith
Bless you, for who you are, right now, right here.
Bless you in your queerness, your genderfabulousness, your questioning, wondering, exploring, declaring. Bless you in the words you create and evolve and claim for yourself. May you relish your divinity as you dismantle binaries and create beautiful worlds of infinite possibilities. May those of us who are not queer respect you, learn from you, and show up for you as you need.
Bless you in your youth, your brilliance, your ideas, your curiosity, your incredible leadership right now (let alone what is to come). May you be fortified in the face of adultism and may you inhabit the fullness of your being. May those of us who are not youth respect you, learn from you, and show up for you as you need.
Bless you in your faith, your precious connection with the sacred, tradition, community, belief and action that guides your life and holds you through the storms and celebrations of life. May your faith sustain you when your faith tradition honors you and when it harms you. May those who hold faiths that judge you come to know how very sacred and perfect you are. May those of us from all sorts of faith traditions respect you, learn from you, and show up for you as you need.
May all of us – queer and straight, trans and cis, young – younger -old and elder, faithful and faith-allergic -- bless you as your full, beautiful, queer, young, sacred self.
Bless you as YOU. Know that you are enough right now, right here; and you are ever evolving, growing, deepening as your imperfectly perfect self.
May we bless all queer youth of faith, all queer youth, all queer and trans and questioning people, all youth on our collective journey towards liberation.
May you be blessed with the glitter of joy, dances of liberation, bricks of safety, and the nourishment of radical love.
It is that time again. PRIDE Month! Every June, many of us celebrate PRIDE, honoring LGBTQ+ people, our lives, accomplishments, and resilience. As you read this, the streets in your hometown may be lined with banners announcing the upcoming PRIDE parade; storefront windows are abundantly decorated with affirming messages like “love trumps hate” or “love is love.” From logos to curated book displays at our local library, we can find PRIDE deeply affirming and celebratory.
Pride is beautiful! It is life-affirming to be celebrated and declare your love for yourself and your beloved. Whether it is joining an affirming community in a parade or a gentle reminder of your worth and dignity on a rainbow t-shirt, PRIDE month can bring revolutionary joy and healing to our community. Our existence and our resistance is beautiful and worthy of celebration.
We know this PRIDE month may feel different. Maybe your school has removed books that include stories with LGBTQ+ characters. Maybe the PRIDE flag that used to fly outside your church’s door or in front of City Hall has been vandalized or stolen. Perhaps you and your community are grieving the loss of a loved one, the loss of a community member who has moved for their safety, or the loss of hope that things will get better. Maybe your PRIDE celebration includes a memorial or dedication.
PRIDE is complicated. The love, grief, and unbridled joy moves through us
It is a time when many of us hold our partners, our chosen family, and our beloved close because we know that “love is love” is not just a slogan. It means offering housing to someone whose home is no longer safe. It means cards and celebration on Nonbinary Parents Day. It means learning and celebrating new names, pronouns, and bodies. Love is embracing the joy in becoming who you know you are and the humility and care of being one who may be invited to witness this transformation.
Today, it is important that we remind ourselves that the first PRIDE was a riot and lift up the legacies of Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera. In June, we witness new cycles of “No Police in PRIDE” campaigns. Some LGBTQ+ organizations will inform us of all the corporations that churn out PRIDE-themed advertisements while donating millions to legislators who vote to ban trans children from sports and trans people from bathrooms, vote for discriminatory policies that leave many in our community without homes or jobs, or healthcare, spread pinkwashing messages that worsen the genocide in Palestine, abandon disabled people to an ongoing pandemic, and use the carceral system to police our identity.
PRIDE is political. PRIDE has never represented one cohesive and aligned community. Just as Silvia Rivera gave voice to a gay liberation movement that ignored the needs and contributions of trans and non-binary people, PRIDE continues to be an important site of political struggle that calls us into accountability and the work for collective liberation.
PRIDE, like our LGBTQ+ community, is so many things. For Side With Love, PRIDE is an opportunity to faithfully continue the work of LGBTQ+ liberation and gender justice. It is an opportunity to reflect on where movements have fallen short of our highest ideals and recommit to centering BIPOC, trans, disabled, and other marginalized LGBTQ+ people who are still marginalized due to multiple and intersecting oppressions. It is a time when we honor our legacy of protest and disruption by affirming protest and disruption when communities are struggling for their liberation. PRIDE is an invitation to root in a radical history so that we may reach a liberatory future.
This month, we will share short reflections from UUs on what PRIDE means to them this year. Find these posts on our Instagram at @SideofLove.
We know that these times ask a lot of us and that we need one another to stay in the work with hope, joy, impact, and accountability. Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff. Register now.
Climate Justice Revival Info Session
Thursday, June 13 at 1:00pm ET
Are you excited for the first-ever UU Climate Justice Revival ...but...still have so many questions? Is it on zoom or in person? Can kids participate? Is it a regional or national event? When we do new and different things, questions are expected! Come to the UU Climate Justice Revival Info Session and get all your questions answered! Register now.
Stop Cop City Monthly Huddle
Thursday, June 13 at 2:00 PM ET
We’ll review what’s happening and what you can do with Stop Cop City more broadly. Join us to get activated or to jump back in. Register now.
Blessing for Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We are grateful to share with you a blessing to honor all of you, from Side With Love Disability Justice Associate Rev. Amanda Schuber.
Spirit of Life, Source of Hope and Healing,
We open our hearts to the boundless love that surrounds us. Each of us is touched in different ways by the complexities of mental health. Today, and every day, let us remember that wholeness is our birthright, and each of us is a precious part of the vast tapestry of existence.
May we embrace a theology of hope, one that celebrates the wholeness within each soul, beyond any perception of brokenness. Let us acknowledge that our struggles and pains are not signs of failure, but threads in the intricate weave of our humanity.
In times of struggle, may we find the wat forward. May we hold onto the truth that we are never alone; we are part of a loving community that supports and uplifts one another. Together, we can accompany each other in this life, offering compassion and understanding to ourselves and to others.
Let us affirm that every person is deserving of care, dignity, and respect, and may we create spaces where mental health is spoken of openly and without stigma, where seeking help is seen as a strength, and where every story is heard with empathy.
Spirit of Love, guide us to be beacons of hope. May we find strength in our shared journey, knowing that we are interconnected, and that together, we can foster a world where every mind and heart can thrive.
My childhood consisted of navigating what it meant to grow up Egyptian in America. My mother spoke only in Arabic, and she very much passed on the traditions of our culture to my sister and me. She cooked delicious Egyptian meals, told us stories from her childhood and she taught us the ways to be a good Muslim, in an effort to raise us as devout as she was.
One of the lessons that I embody from my childhood is that of generosity. Not only of money, but also of spirit. The Muslim faith mandates generosity and giving to those who have less.
While I have never been a devout Muslim the way my mother still is, I remember that she donated money every year to help feed poor Muslims during the Eid (the feast marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan). She did this even when we were on public assistance. One year, I let her know that I thought we didn’t have enough to give to others, but she respondedthat since the government was helping us, we were mandated to help others.
My mother and I have had our share of disagreements and challenges over the years, but her spirit of generosity is one lesson that I have held dear and been grateful for, and that I try to replicate. In my personal life, this is something that I have easily embraced. This is not something that is as prevalent in modern U.S. society.
It has been more than a little disheartening to witness the dialogue about student debt forgiveness and universal basic income. I have heard people lament that they had to pay off their debt, so why should anyone else be “let off the hook.” When I bring up universal basic income people immediately dismiss it as unrealistic and one person asked me what the incentive would be to work. I responded by asking what the incentive is now. Is it death? Is that really the society we want to maintain? Don’t we want to support people not only living, but thriving and experiencing joy and creativity in ways that nourish our spirits?
These are just two examples of the ways I experience a lack of generosity of spirit in the United States. We find ways to make people “earn a living.” Instead of affirming the value and inherent worth of every person by offering a universal basic income, universal healthcare and free college education (thereby preventing student debt to begin with), this country asserts a scarcity mentality and creates barriers for thriving.
There is no reason to live this way except the stories we tell ourselves. While I know that the idea of transforming our systems is daunting to think about, we do have it in us to practice a generosity of spirit in the ways available to us.
I have witnessed examples of mutual aid that not only centers generosity of money, but also food donations. One wonderful example is Lasagna Love (lasagnalove.org), a continental organization that pairs people who want to cook a homemade lasagna with folks who would love to receive one. What a caring and generous way to affirm community care.
If you are interested in finding out what mutual aid programs exist in your community, and you have access to the internet, you can check out Mutual Aid Hub (www.mutualaidhub.org) for a map and list of organizations. The website hosts the networks across the United States, the organizers want to connect people but they do not vet or endorse any of the programs; please research once you find one you would be interested in.
These are ways that communities are embracing a generosity of spirit and community care. These initiatives feed my spirit and offer hope for the ways that society is already shifting to one that rejects scarcity and embraces abundance.
Aisha Hauser, MSW, CREML My childhood consisted of navigating what it meant to grow up Egyptian in America. My mother spoke only in Arabic, and she very much passed on the traditions of our culture to my sister and me.
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On May 15, Side With Love offered our May Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting: Climate Justice Brainstorm! Watch the recording here.
Advancing climate justice is one of the essentials of the Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice... but how do we do that... exactly? We joined other UU Congregations for our annual Climate Justice Brainstorm to hear what's worked, what hasn't, and how we're learning, supporting each other, and adapting along the way.
We hope you'll join us at one of our upcoming UU Climate Justice Revival Info Sessions.
Image description: Graphic with text on blue, pink, and green blobs on a white background decorated with colorful flowers in the bottom left corner. Text reads, "Reimagine Together: From An Extractive Age To A New Era. Info Sessions! Join any of our sessions to connect with the Planning Team, ask questions, and learn more about how to host the Revival in your congregation! Tues, May 21 @ 7pm ET/4pm PT. Wed, May 29 @ 1pm ET/10am PT. Thurs, June 6 @ 5pm ET/2pm PT."
Are you excited for the first-ever UU Climate Justice Revival... but... still have so many questions? Is it on Zoom or in person? Can kids participate? Is it a regional or national event? When we do new and different things, questions are expected! Come to the UU Climate Justice Revival Info Session and get all your questions answered!
May 16th is the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). UUA Accessibility Resources Coordinator Gretchen Maune shares this reflection on digital accessibility.
In 2007, I was staying at a blind rehabilitation center in Kansas City. Six months prior, I had gone from having 20/15 vision to being almost completely blind over eight rough weeks. I was 24 years old and needed to complete just 15 more credits to finish my Bachelor’s in English so I could move on to grad school, but first, I had to figure out how.
While I enjoyed learning Braille, and techniques for cooking without sight, most of my motivation was reserved for learning to use a computer again. Starting with my family’s Apple II GS, I had been using computers for the vast majority of my life. Being unable to use one for the last several months had made everything from writing capstone papers, to playing Morrowind, to messaging friends impossible, and I was miserable. Cut off from so much, I didn’t know how I was supposed to live my life anymore. When my rehab counselor told me there was software that made it possible for blind people to use a computer, I felt hope and clung to it.
Through the help of a text-to-speech screen reading program called JAWS, I quickly adapted to navigating Windows with my ears instead of my eyes. My instructor, Jim, was the first blind person I can ever remember meeting, and I will be forever grateful to him for all he taught me. One day, as I was practicing surfing the web (come on, it was the 00’s) I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with a particular website. The techniques I’d been taught weren’t working, and though I creatively strove to find a solution, I eventually found myself giving up. Confused, I asked Jim what I was doing wrong, but the answer he gave me was “nothing at all.” That was the day I learned about digital accessibility.
Assistive technologies like screen readers make participating in society possible for me and countless other disabled people. However, these tools can’t make content accessible all by themselves. Application developers, page designers, instructional material creators, and anyone posting something to the internet (so, that would be just about everyone) have to do their part as well, building, editing, or sharing with accessibility in mind.
Thankfully, my UUA colleague, Kasey Kruser, knows just how important digital accessibility is, and is always keeping it in mind with her work. When asked why she thinks accessibility is important as a web developer, she says, “Making our sites as accessible as possible is a great way to help people feel welcomed and included right from the start. Whatever else might be going on in their lives, whatever brought them to our site, I want to know I've done my best to remove frustrations and roadblocks; I hope my efforts make life that much easier for everyone in or looking for our community.”
As someone who relies on accessibility for my professional, entertainment, and spiritual needs, I am reminded daily that we’re all in this together. On this 13th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day, let us design our websites, create our documents, and share our social media with love.
A few of the resources I recommend:
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG, are standards for making digital content accessible to disabled users. These standards are required by many countries and other entities across the globe. Learn more with this WCAG primer.
Whether you’re using mostly text, tables, or graphics, increase your inclusive practices with this guide to creating accessible Microsoft Office documents.
Engage with official GAAD Events and Resources and learn to make your content more accessible!
Photo of Gretchen Maune standing against a gray background. Gretchen has long brown hair and is wearing a black top and holding a cane in their right hand.
Quest for Meaning Seamus Vonn-Jernigan
CLF member, incarcerated in OR
Oh Great Creator,
We are humbled to have been created by you and to witness your creativity flow through us daily. We understand that we are your instruments of peace, play and innovation, and intend to funnel your imagination through our very existence.
We are your hands, that sculpt the clay and ...Read more »
Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire.
Perhaps you have seen the widespread cartoon image that illustrates the difference between “equality” and “equity” [above]. First drawn in 2012 by Dr. Craig Froehle, it shows two panels. In each, three people of varying heights are trying to watch a baseball game over a fence, and they have three crates to stand on. In the scenario labeled “equality,” everyone gets one crate, which allows the tallest person to tower over the fence, but the smallest person still can’t see the game. In the scenario labeled “equity,” the crates are distributed so that everyone can see over the fence.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this cartoon as Unitarian Universalists discuss naming equity as one of the core values of our faith. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about why there is a wooden fence in the first place, and about all of the people in the stands whose access to the game doesn’t depend on the distribution of crates.
If someone were to attend the game in a wheelchair, they’d need more than crates to see over the fence. They’d need an expensive ticket, and a ballpark policy that carves out appropriate and desirable places for wheelchairs to be. (It is purely coincidental but illustrative that this week, a friend who uses a wheelchair and loves baseball took to Facebook to decry the ways in which several major league teams make it harder for him to attend games by putting additional steps in place if one wants to buy a wheelchair-accessible seat.)
It seems to me that true equity is that everyone has access to the game in a way that fits their bodies and brains and not their wallets or the willingness of someone to give them a temporary boost.
It wasn’t until I decided to write about this cartoon, though, that I learned that its original creator researches inequities in healthcare. This makes the difference between getting into the ballpark and trying to see over the fence even more stark. For too many people, inequity leads to death.
I have hope that our Unitarian Universalist embrace of equity will be deeper and more meaningful than a cartoon. Part of the proposed language for what would be our core values reads that “we covenant to use our time, wisdom, attention, and money to build and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities.”
If we are really serious about equity, then, we will work to make our communities—inside and outside of our congregations—fully accessible and inclusive.
This means accessible and inclusive to all bodies. This means accessible and inclusive to different ways that brains work. This means accessible and inclusive to people with different financial means. That means accessible and inclusive to people with histories of trauma and also those who are imprisoned.
It also means that Unitarian Universalists are called to understand ourselves as part of accessible and inclusive communities, so that when we build structures that allow everyone to be part of things, they don’t come across as unfair or unequal.
Have you ever complained that someone else got a crate to see over the fence, even if you didn’t need one?Sadly, over my years as a minister I’ve fielded way too many similar complaints.
Instead, let us tear down that fence and let everyone into the game. Let’s create space where we can all have the place we need to participate, and where we don’t resent the full participation of others.
What does it mean to value equity? How does it look?
Darrell CLF Member, incarcerated in CA
To be honest, at first I thought this theme might be about real estate. Then my mind switched gears and I began to grasp the foundational meaning of the word equity — value! Upon taking the backseat of my life’s vehicle (I tend to let the Universe do the driving nowadays), I’ve become more conscious of our society in regards to our behavior towards ourselves and others.
When I was in my late teens, an older guy once told me, “people that live in lower class environments are blind to their true worth and potential.” Hopefully this same individual has come to the realization that this imaginary blindfold can be worn by individuals from all walks of life, expanding all over the planet. Do we exhibit self-value when we fill our bodies up with harmful narcotics? Are we expressing our self-value by overindulging and drinking alcoholic beverages? Is self-value being shown by the clothes we wear, cars we drive, people we socialize with, and the amount of money we possess? What is self-value anyway?Does self-value (or acknowledging that you have self-value) determine how you treat or value others?
Someone asked me a few years ago if I would rather be loved or valued. What a profound question! Not knowing the meaning of self-value back then, I decided to choose love, because I was ten times more familiar with its existence. If you were to ask me that same question right now, I would say both — but overall, I would rather be valued.
Why? Consider the society that we all are experiencing together. This country runs off capitalism. I hear people say, “money isn’t everything,” and I would concur. But let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment: everything you need to survive in this society only becomes available through the exchange of currency (food/clothing/shelter). This economy has a strong influence over its inhabitants that leads them to place value on people, places, and things when, in all actuality, the majority of those objects (or subjects) have no value at all.
Let’s face it, everybody might not love their boss, but we all value our paycheck because it helps pay our bills, provides clothes for our children, keeps gas in our cars, and so on and so on. This emotion that we call love can be fleeting at times. We all know what it feels like but half of us have a hard time expressing it, because of fear of getting hurt or it not being reciprocated. Some of us don’t even know what love looks like when other people display it to us through their actions. I see way more conditional love then I see unconditional love (which is true love).
This is my suggestion on what I believe this country needs to place value in: God/higher power/nature/knowledge/wisdom/and understanding of various aspects of the Universe and how we correlate to them. We need to place value in our physical well-being, mental well-being, emotional and spiritual well-being and the well-being of our Mother Earth. We need to place value in positive, powerful, and uplifting beliefs about ourselves and others, and build a positive attitude towards life, self, and others. We need to value unconditional love, family ties, real friends, discovering one’s purpose in life — and so much more.
As I continue to build equity in my life experience, I am forced to go with the flow of the collective consciousness that sees value in some of the most ridiculous things. I will never confirm their beliefs, nor will I condemn them. I will only adapt and use my awareness of this knowledge in a way that will empower me and along the path towards true prosperity. We are all more than worthy!
Kathleen CLF member, incarcerated in VA
First, let us look at what equity means.. Webster’s dictionary defines equity as: the quality, state, or ideal of being just, fair and impartial. The first thing that stands out to me in that definition is the word ideal. I’ve been feeling a lot lately that as Americans, we are not living up to our ideals, equity being one of them. I feel that this is because we are often alienated from one another due to our so-called differences. I think that equity means putting aside our differences and looking through them, to the throbbing, pulsing, living divinity that exists in each one of us.
Equity means that I want for you what I want for myself. Equity is not selfish. As a trans woman of color, I think the more we fight for equity, the more it becomes exacerbated in the media, and people become fatigued by slogans. Many people are tired of hearing us rally for justice in an unjust world. So what do we do, where do we turn?
I think the key is trying to relate to each person, even when they do not want to relate to us – whoever they are. Because in the big picture, it really isn’t us vs. them. It’s just us. I think it’s time for the world to see that.
Seamus Vonn-Jernigan CLF member, incarcerated in OR
Oh Great Creator,
We are humbled to have been created by you and to witness your creativity flow through us daily. We understand that we are your instruments of peace, play and innovation, and intend to funnel your imagination through our very existence.
We are your hands, that sculpt the clay and paint the canvas.
We are your eyes, that capture a photograph and perfect a design.
We are your ears, listening to the harmonies among the song of birds, crash of waves, cries of babies and the wisp of the wind.
We are your feet, that dance across the stage, and your arms, that conduct a symphony.
We are your words, that form haiku and fill pages to create great novels.
We are your voice, that sings in the choir and whispers our prayers
at night.
We are your laugh, that fosters joy and heals our souls.
We are your mind, that seeks the truth and guides us to think
objectively.
We are your heart, that allows us to love our neighbors and forgive our enemies.
We are your spirit, that shepherds us to share peace and compassion with each person we meet and to extend grace to all, especially those who appear to deserve it the least, as they need it the most.
We are your creation, and your creativity lives on through us.
What we dream in our minds, help us to believe in our hearts. What we believe in our hearts, help us to cultivate in our lives.
Side With Love, in collaboration with the Youth and Emerging Adult team of the Lifespan Faith Engagement office and the UU College of Social Justice, joins in solidarity with Unitarian Universalist young adults and students across the globe who are protesting the ongoing assault in Gaza. These protests are a response to the moral urgency of this moment. The assault on Gaza, sponsored by the United States, has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians. We cannot turn away.We join the chorus of faith and progressive organizations calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the protection of student activists.
In the face of dehumanization, devastation, and death, human beings have always gathered to create life-affirming communities of resistance. Rooted in a strong lineage of student movements, this generation - like those protesting the Vietnam War, calling for the racial integration of their campuses, and for the end of apartheid in South Africa - are, again, asking this nation to embody its highest ideals of liberty and justice for all.
Our values call on every generation to listen with care and compassion to the prophetic witness of these courageous students and offer faithful solidarity. We, too, must rise to meet the highest aspirations of our faith, which rejects the disposability of any human being and proclaims all are worthy of love and belonging.
This generation of students has endured the trauma of COVID-19, school shootings, a climate crisis, and the brutality of U.S. police forces on their campuses and in their communities. It is time to turn around the question, “Where are the young people in our faith movement?” and instead ask, “Where are all of us, as people of faith, when our young people are showing up?” We must not turn away.
Side With Love proclaims the transformative power of love to build vibrant and liberated communities. This dangerous assault on civil liberties on college campuses and human rights – at home and globally –are connected. Too many of our justice movements (labor movement, Civil Rights, Gay liberation), have been met with sanctioned police brutality, imprisonment, and worse. We must not fail our students with our silence. We will not betray our faith with our complicity.
We call on university administrations and public officials to remove police from campuses, end the militarized response to student activism, and come to the table in good-faith negotiations with student demands. We call on our community to show up in solidarity. We welcome all, in this pivotal movement, to Side With Love.
Rev. Scott Aaseng Abigail Abysalh-Metzger Ms. Kathleen Adams Rev. Dr. Julia Aegerter Ms. Nancy Ahmadifar Dr. Robert Alexander Dr. Amanda Alexander Ms. Melody Allan Ms Gaylee Amend Dr. Susan Anderson Adele Andrews Rev. Dr. Leonisa Ardizzone Ms. Larissa Armstrong Ms. Dana Ashrawi Ms. Ellen Asprooth Barbara Atkinson Dan Bailey Ms. J Bannester Rev. Erica Baron Rev. Dr. Tracie Barrett Ms. Kathy Bartolomeo Dr. Lynette Bassman Janet Bednarz Ms. Sharon Bell Stevens Mrs. Sharon Bell-Stevens Patricis Bennett Ms. Rebecca Bent Gene Bergman Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt Ms. Joyce Bianchini Rev. Ashley Birt Mx. Sara Blackthorne Mx. Emily Blair Ronnie Boyd Cole Breedlove Henry Bright Mr. Farrell Brody Ms. Beth Brunton Ms. Dana Buhl Mr. Benjamin Burch Sue Burke George Burman Ms. Shirin Caldwell Rev. Dr. Isabel Call Mrs Cici Carilli Cheryl Carmi Dr. Devin Carroll Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer Alesha Chaffin Mr. Donald Chery Ms. Jane Collins Mr. R.Sidney Collins Rev. Otto Concannon Rev. Susan Conrad Rev. Julie Conrady Mr. Larry Cooper Rev. Darcy Corbitt Ms. Nan Corliss Betty Cornelisen Rev. Lyn Cox Carol Crabill Mrs. Sue Craig Chris Crass Ms. Gretchen Crawford Mrs. Jamaine Cripe Mrs. Lee Curran Patrice Curtis Mrs. Jeanne Davis Ms. Karen Deaton Rev. Emily DeTar Birt Ms. Mary Devitt Rev. Tina DeYoe Rev. Jaimie Dingus Sarah Ditzler Ms. Rebecca Donley Angie Donnay Laura Dooley Ms. Lynn D Douglas Mr. Bruce Douglas Ms. Joyce Dowling Ms. Helen Duffy Martha Durkee-Neuman Angelique Duvet-Tovar Rev. Dayna Edwards Natalie Eldridge Susie Epstein Ms. Claire Eustace Dana Fisher Ashrawi Beverly Fitzpatrick Rev. Tobi Fleck Ms. Clare Fortune-Lad Kim Fox-Kristensen Ms. Janna Radovsky Frelich Ms. Roberta Frye Lori Garcia Dr. Shernaz Garcia Dr. Anne Garcia Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson Ms. Vicki Gavel Rev. Pamela Gehrke Elaine Gehrmann Ms. Sally Jane Gellert Janine Gelsinger Elisabeth Geschiere Mrs. Stephanie Giamberardino Mark Giese Ms. Ann Gilmore Rev. Annie Gonzalez Rev. Sara Goodman Ms. glenda gordon Ana Gorny Danielle Grand Mrs. Virginia Green Ms. Joan Gregory Rev. Ranwa Hammamy Emily Hand Ms. Katia Hansen Dr. bill Harris Ms. Zoe Hart Victoria Hartman Ms. Aisha Hauser Ms Gwyn Helie Peter Helwig Paul Heniques Rev. Meagan Henry Rev. Patt Herdklotz Samantha Herndon Bill Hessell Ms. Sandy Hildebrandt Mr. Joel Hildebrandt Rev. Jamie Hinson-Rieger Rev. Dr. Lucy Hitchcock Heather Hoecker Dr. Donna Hoffmeister Ray A Hommeyer rimki honnold Rev. Ashley Horan Edythe Hough Rev. Molly Housh Gordon Ms. Kathleen Yezierska Hulley Kirsten Hunter Rev.erend DL Hwlfer Ms. Laila Ibrahim Elizabeth Ingram Diana Ingram Ms. Catherine Jackson Mr. Mark Jagner Dr. Melissa James Rev. Abhi Janamanchi Ruth Jenkins Ms Cheyenne Jenvey Mr. Bruce Jewell Valerie Johnson Ms. Barbara Johnston Miss Zoe Johnston Constance Jones Rev. Dr. Dr. Roger Jones Rev. Jeff Jones Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones Mona Jones-Romansic Dr. Donna Joss Dr Razan Kaileh ANN KALINOSKI Mr. James Kane Ms. Rosemary Kean Carl Kennedy Asma Khan Ms. Izzy Khapoya Lynn Kimbark Dr. D King Rev. Dan King Gregory King Rev. Cecilia Kingman Mary Kingsley Ms. LINDA KNIGHT Ms. Katie Kosseff Anne Kosseff-Jones Rev. Tim Kutzmark Ms. Pat Lamanna Mr. Steven Sellers Lapham Ms. Areej Latif Dr. Kate Lenhardt Rev. Bran Lennox Ms. Renate Ley Dr. Judy Lightstone Tanya Liscano Dr. Deborah Little Ms. Karin Livingstone Andrew Livingstone Patricia Looney-Burman Ms. Sue Ann Lorig Mr. Terry Lowman Marie Lowry Marsha Luce Monica Luevano Mares Kathleen Lund Leigh Ann Luscan Dr. Aurolyn Luykx Rev. Jason Lydon Mx Bernise Lynch Mx. Sherri Lysy Mr. Melvin Mackey Dr. Heather MacLeod Ken Mah Tina Malone Alisha Mancinas Rev. Kevin Mann Jennifer Marck Mr. Bob Mason Ms. Sally McCollum Clara McCollum Dr. Renee McCormick Ms. Pamela McInnes Kathy McKay Ms Ann McKay Bryson Jung Han Messinger Ms. Joanne Michelson elizabeth miller Rev. Alisha Mills Rev. Sarah Millspaugh Mr. Michael Monroe Rev. John Morehouse David Morgen Dr. John Moses Abbas Moussaoui Rev. Johannah Murphy Ms. Christine Myers Ms. Diane Nassif Mrs. Dawn Newcomer Dr. Gail Newel Mrs. Jackie Newman Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen Jil Novenski Ms. Susan Nye Debbie Ockey Mx. Kyle Osborne Peggy Owen Sands Lori Palmer Ms. Kathryn Partridge Miss QuianaDenae Perkins Rev. Ali Peters Lydia Philip William Philips Rev. Millie Phillips Betty Prange Dr. Marcelle Pratt Mrs Virginia Preuss Ms. Lois Reborne Dr. jon rice Ms. Mary Richards Emily Richards Alice Richards Sandra Rigsbee Rev. Cathy Rion Starr Christina Rivera David Roberts Ms Nancy Roberts Dr. robert roberts Ms. Amanda Rogers Jonathan G Rogers Rev. Jonathan Rogers Ms. Genevieve Rohan Rev. Katie Romano Griffin Mary Rooker Dr. Lee Rossi Rachel Rott Ms Ann Rovere Mr James Ruelas Mr. Stephen Sacks Ms. Judith Sadegh Rev. Misha Sanders Rev. Elizabeth Saunter Ms. Wendy Schoener Rev. Amanda Schuber Mx. Andrea Schulz Rev. Catie Scudera Antoinette Scully Jeffrey Severson Evelyn Sheridan Ms. Isabel Sheridan Rev. Alia Shinbrough Ms. Terri Shofner Dr. Joshua Shurley Mr. Brett Smith Rev. Julián Soto Sandra Steubing Catherine Strickland Wesley Stroupe Ben Strube Rev. Sonya Sukalski Judith Swick Rev.erend Jan Taddeo Rev. Leslie Takahashi Dr. Katrina Thompson Mr. Scott Thomson Bis Thornton Ms. Rita Townsend MS. Ellen Trumpler Dr. Brenda Ungerland Elizabeth Valencia Danielle Van Dusen Nico Van Ostrand Ms. Michelle Venegas-Matula Sandra Villareal Hannah Villnave Dr. Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa Dr. Caitlin Waddick Dr. Kaitlin Walker Virginia Waring Mylo Way Rev. Vail Weller Penelope Wells Krista Westervelt Elizabeth Westie Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker Mrs. Jan Wiley-Egdall G Williams Gordon Woodworth Ms. Carol Workman Ms. Connie Young Lenore Yousef Rev. Crystal Zerfoss
Overview Rev. Cathy Rion Starr led us through the Universe of Possibility presentation, after which we all spent some time drawing our unique Universe of Possibility for work we're doing in our congregations and communities. We reflected on questions like:
How many people are in each circle? Who’s in your core?
Is your committee reflective of the congregation as a whole in terms of demographics and interests?
What do you invite folks to at each level?
How is the flow of leaders in and out of the circles?
What are your hopes & dreams for your universe? What changes would you like to make?
It was so helpful to frame our work through this tool, but don't take my word for it, here's what some of your peers said:
"Love this tool and this group… looking forward to working with y’all!" - Sharon G.
"Thank you, Rev. Cathy, for reminding us about the importance of different levels of involvement!" - Diane D.
"This is a great topic — impactful teams! Our UU congregation has many teams and they all operate differently. Love this model and I think we can apply it broadly. I hope to learn more about building community and spiritual connection simultaneously. Thank you!" - Carolyn T.
"I loved this! Lots to think about and weave into all my future efforts!" - Dorothy S.
This will definitely be a workshop we reference time and again in the coming months!
Christina Rivera When I think about transformation, I often think of when people say they had a “transformational experience,” or when, as religious professionals, we look for the ways in which ministry can be transformational for our congregants.
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Quest for Meaning When I read that April’s theme was Transformation, I decided that it was time to share my story with the world for the first time. 2024 is a big year for me, as I have begun the Male to Female (MtF) transition process.
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Quest for Meaning Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 51st Annual Meeting will be held via video/telephone conference call and screen sharing on Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 6:45PM EDT/3:45PM PDT. RSVP to attend the meeting at www.clfuu.org/joinannualmeeting.
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When I think about transformation, I often think of when people say they had a “transformational experience,” or when, as religious professionals, we look for the ways in which ministry can be transformational for our congregants.
And it gets me thinking: What is all this transformation about? In my experience, a lot of people really don’t like change. Even people who say they want to be “transformed” also can really not like change! Why would we seek that which we can’t actually embrace? I tend to think it is because our entire human experience is leading to an ultimate transformation which we cannot know the result: death. So sometimes we are, at best, ambivalent, and other times outright hostile to change.
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is one of my favorite books about Change. Because in the book she explores the idea that God is not some distant almighty spirit, but rather the very up close and real experience of Change (capital C.) What an exciting idea to explore! Her most often quoted refrain from the book, and that which the central characters revolve, is “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.”
When I first read that phrase as a young adult, it blew my mind! I loved it. I loved the capitalizations which conveyed the idea that what we’re reading in the capitalized word carried with it the reverence of the word God. Here was a religion I could get behind. The idea that I could continually be both transformational and transformed?! Wow!
This idea helped me look at the changes in my young adult life in a new way. It helped me realize that while there was change that I couldn’t control, I could still make that change part of my life. And it helped me realize that I had a deep responsibility for the Change that I created in the world. That Butler chose to capitalize the Y in “All that you touch You Change” was something I thought about frequently. That I continue to think about when faced with difficult situations and decisions.
In Parable of the Sower, the people who couldn’t change, couldn’t adapt, those who desperately clung to racism, sexism, and fascism, did not survive the new climate changed landscape. They met the ultimate Transformation while resisting the very changes which could have helped their survival. And when I think about the difficulties we face as Unitarian Universalists, I think about what it is we are resisting and could those things be the very things that can prepare us for survival?
In creating the community structures of Parable of the Sower, Butler relies heavily on the community building foundations seen in the “We” culture communities in which she was raised. “We” culture communities in the U.S. are most often found in Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous peoples as well as other BIPOC communities. Among many “We” cultural values, most strikingly, the requirement of putting group needs ahead of the individual needs is foundational in Parable of the Sower.
So I wonder: What would it look like to put the needs of our entire faith community ahead of our individual needs? What are the needs of Unitarian Universalism at large? How do we meet those needs even when it feels like we are not getting what we want as individuals? This feels a lot like the conversations which are going on right now around the proposed changes to the UU Principles and Sources, often referred to as Article II.
As we’ve written about in recent issues of Quest, our denomination is in the process of adopting new language to articulate and ground our faith community. This new language is framed as seven UU values: Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, Generosity and Love.
I wonder if haven’t we actually already made these changes in spirit. Haven’t we already touched, and thus Changed how we practice Unitarian Universalism? What if the proposed changes — the new UU values — are simply the language catching up to the spirit of Unitarian Universalism?
Perhaps we have already touched and been Changed. Because in the end, Change cannot be successfully resisted but it certainly can be influenced. And we can do so together. ′
How do we remain open to change and transformation?
JACK CLF Member, incarcerated in MA
Transforming is the action of changing every day, and each and every one of us is witness to transforming experiences whether we know it or not.
For those of us in prison: we meet new inmates, new staff. We are exposed to expressions of concern, love, happiness, sadness, sorrow, and even fear. Every one of our senses meets something new or different, something we had not noticed before, something we had not heard before or smelled before, and we can be open to being transformed by them.
So often we think over the years that nothing is new, and prison life never changes; one day in prison can seem like any other. You know what day it is only by what food is served. But each day is new, each day is different. Each day has the opportunity for us to think differently, discover something new, something we didn’t know before. You may discover someone you had only passed in the hall, someone different from those you talk with every day.
Journaling is one of the best ways of always looking for that one thing, that one day that was new. It may be the one thing that transformed your day into something different, or that offered you the opportunity to be transformed in ways we had never thought possible. Use your senses. Look around. Let your mind out of the cell around you. Let your thoughts roam. Dare to be transformed, to welcome change.
JACOB CLF Member, incarcerated in AR
Being open to change and transformation is an important part of growing spiritually, maturing and succeeding in life. Transformation is to change or alter in some way shape or form. To remain open to this means to put yourself in situations, to experience new things, to learn — especially to learn of other cultures and religions and practice the knowledge you’ve gained.
By keeping your mind open, you stay open to growth, change, and transformation, but you have to want to.
JASON CLF member, incarcerated in IL
Transformation is an interesting word, especially for someone who has been in institutions for as long as I have.
As I write the word transformation, it makes me think of who and what I used to be. When I was younger, I was full of hate and fear. I acted impulsively and reacted to what people said or did towards me, which got me into a lot of trouble, as well as a number of fights.
Now, I’m no longer filled with hate, and though I still have some fears, they are nowhere near as bad as the ones I used to have. Now, instead of reacting to what people say or do, I take a mental step back, think things through, and then respond to them.
Now, because of the changes I have made and continue to make as I work to transform myself into the person I want to be, my life is a lot less stressful than it could be.
Our transformations
are our own, paths we choose
but are never forced to take.
What doesn’t kill you does not make you stronger, but—
you can choose for it to,
learn lessons from your suffering
that help you create what you believe in.
And those transformations are yours
to be proud of, no one
gets to take credit for the good inside of you
or the skills you have worked on, especially
not those who have abused you.
Because you choose your self
if not your path, and that has always
been your strength.
When I read that April’s theme was Transformation, I decided that it was time to share my story with the world for the first time. 2024 is a big year for me, as I have begun the Male to Female (MtF) transition process. It took a lot of prayer and soul searching to get to where I am now.
My journey begins in rural South Dakota. My parents are immigrants, I am a first generation American. We are of Eastern European and Jewish descent, so old Testament laws and morals were imprinted into me as I grew up. There was right and there was wrong with no shades of gray or alternate choices. The result of this strict upbringing was inner turmoil as I got older. I saw that my orientation and gender identity were not compatible with what I had been taught.
How can God love me, I thought, when every thought and action I took were tainted by sin? Why did He make me so broken, so against everything He wanted mankind to be? These questions haunted me every time I tried to pray.
In my 20s I turned away from God completely, going years without a single prayer. I embraced a bisexual identity and found a measure of happiness. After a time, I figured out that I was transgender, and it was only then did the pieces start to fall into place.
I was then angry with God. How could he do this to me? Was he asleep at the switch the day I was born?
My turning point came when a woman I was dating told me something. She said that God didn’t make mistakes, and that He put me here on earth because she liked girls like me. I was like this to be there to love her. Something else she pointed out was that there were millions like me, all through history. Would God have allowed so many of us to be made if not by his will?
This happened right before I came to prison. While it helped me make the final decision to make the MtF conversion, I have spent the last 4 years in hiding, biding my time until I felt it was safe enough to come out into the light. While difficult, God has helped me through this dark time. My personal relationship with Him is the strongest it’s been in my entire life.
So now is my time for change and transformation. It’s not an overnight process; in fact it will take a couple years. I will face many challenges ahead, but I know that what I do is by design. This is what He wanted of me. This place, this prison, is no longer my place of confinement.
It is now God’s tool of transformation and change. I am right where I need to be. I will emerge from this cocoon in 2 years and like a butterfly, I will be free to live the life and be the woman he always wanted me to be.
If anyone reading this is contemplating similar choices, or has been down this road before, your welcome to share your story with me.
You may contact me at: Kay Anderst 18611-273, PO Box 1000 USP 2, Leavenworth, KS 66048.
This Sunday, April 21, is Nonbinary Parents Day. As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), we not only open our doors to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, we value diversity of sexuality and gender and see it as a spiritual gift. We share with you a blessing to affirm and celebrate all nonbinary parents and caregivers. (See our Facebook post for beautiful graphics of this prayer!)
Blessing for Nonbinary Parents Day
To all the in-betweens, outside-ofs, not-quites, both/ands, and neithers:
We honor all of who you are and all of how you nurture and care.
Through your embodied authentic self, you impart a transformative love.
A love that is abundant, bold, whole, holy, you.
On this Nonbinary Parents’ Day, may we amplify this transformative love into a world that allows you to be secure and safe, to rest, breathe, and relax.
On this joyous day, may we celebrate the sacredness of your relationship and role.
Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Side With Love Congregational Justice Organizer and "Nommy"
Noor Hammamy-Way, Honorary Staff and "Cube"
Announcing Nicole Pressley as Organizing Strategy Director!
We are pleased to welcome Nicole Pressley as the Organizing Strategy Director for Side With Love!
Nicole first joined Side With Love in 2020 as the National Organizer for UU the Vote and has since worked to strengthen our infrastructure, nurture partnerships, and coordinate collective action across our core issues as the Field and Programs Director.
Our movement partner SACReD, is hosting a multi-faith conference centering Reproductive Justice: the SACReD Gathering, May 7-9.
Connecting healing, skill building, deeper analysis, and organizing, the SACReD Gathering will strengthen our cross-movement connections and capacities to build a world where Reproductive Justice is a lived reality.
This is a space to share the hard stuff and to hold the hard stuff that others are navigating in their lives. During our time together, our lead chaplain/facilitators will share opening and closing words, and in between, there is time for everyone to share what's on their hearts, and receive what others are sharing about their own lives. Register to join.
Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad for an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Come drink in the music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together. Show up as you are, whatever is in your heart, and with your camera on or off as you need. Register to join.
Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ UUs and co-create support and community across our faith. This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. Register to join.
Nonbinary Parents Day and May Programming from UPLIFT!
I am thrilled to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share some exciting news.
As of March 1, I have been promoted to the position of Organizing Strategy Director on our Side With Love team. It's an incredibly meaningful step for me personally, and I am eager to continue serving our community in this capacity.
You may already be aware that Rev. Ashley Horan has transitioned into the role of Vice President of Programs and Ministry, providing strategic support to President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt and the UUA in advancing our shared mission. Rev. Horan's tenure as Organizing Strategy Director has been marked by tremendous growth, culminating in the consolidation of our issue programs (UU the Vote, Create Climate Justice, UPLIFT Action, and Love Resists) under the Side With Love umbrella. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Rev. Horan and eagerly anticipate the impact she will make in her new role.
My journey at the UUA began in 2020 when I joined as the National Organizer for UU the Vote. In the face of significant political challenges, we embraced innovation, fostered new relationships, and adapted our strategies to meet the moment.
In subsequent years, as Side With Love’s Field and Programs Director, I have worked to strengthen our infrastructure, nurture partnerships, and coordinate collective action across our core issues.
While our communities continue to grapple with the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic and the erosion of democratic norms, I remain steadfast in my belief that we are stronger and more resilient than ever before. Through my fifteen years of organizing, I have come to understand that our commitment to justice transcends socio-political fluctuations and conditions.
During the emergence of Covid-19, UU the Vote became the largest activation of Unitarian Universalists in the history of our faith. Our advocacy for bodily autonomy draws from our legacies in abolition and the women’s suffrage movement, extending to Uplift Action work proclaiming that every body is sacred. As we confront the climate crisis, we are revitalizing Green Sanctuary and reimagining how we do this urgent work together in a national Climate Justice Revival in September to catalyze a widespread denominational commitment to transforming our congregations and communities through climate justice. While the criminal legal system continues to claim lives and devastate families, we have mobilized efforts to close detention centers and counter rising fascist tactics in the campaign to Stop Cop City.
It is this steadfast dedication that sustains our justice movements through adversity and uncertainty. And the relationships and communities we build are the manifestation of what we are fighting for: whole, just, and thriving communities centered in liberating love.
At the heart of our work lies the profound power of love. Love serves as both a catalyst for action and a source of solace for our communities in times of need. In these times where we are told the lie that our individual thriving requires someone else's suffering, love is the promise of Beloved Community, where all of us are whole and worthy.
Side With Love embodies this transformative vision. It is more than a slogan; it is a call to moral clarity and collective action. It is a bold invitation to be who we say we are. Today, as the world around us continues to grapple with crises fueled by hatred and indifference, we have a moral mandate to embody the principles of justice and compassion in all that we do. Together, we can be the architects of a more just and equitable future. Now is the time for us to embody the promise of our faith, and I believe that we are ready.
I want to express my gratitude for your continued support and partnership. I am so proud to do this work with you and with the amazing staff team who has stewarded this work with brilliance and care.
I am excited to continue this journey together and look forward to the incredible work that lies ahead.
Join me at the next Side With Love Monthly Mixer on Monday, April 15 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET. Our monthly mixer is a time to connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff. We know these times ask a lot of us and that we need one another to stay in the work with hope, joy, impact, and accountability. Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love.
Join UU the Vote 2024
UU the Vote is our campaign for democracy and electoral justice, grounded in Unitarian Universalist values. With UU the Vote 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.
Excited to join UU the Vote but need some support with your work? Confused about what electoral work is “allowed” for non-profits? Want help finding a local partner to work with? Join us at Getting Started with UU the Vote: Community Gathering on Thursday, April 18 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET as we talk through some of the first steps to making a plan.
Join with hundreds of sibling congregations across the continent for our national UU Climate Revival, offering inspiring collective worship, creative learning, and new frameworks at the intersection of climate and justice.
The UU Climate Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
Open to every UU congregation of every size and budget, we will provide facilitation toolkits, training, music, projects, coordinated justice action and more! Find out more at www.uuclimatejustice.org.
Announcing Nicole Pressley as Organizing Strategy Director!
The urgency of the climate crisis can sometimes lead folks to believe that integrating justice into our climate actions is a distraction. “Don’t we need a singular focus on reducing emissions to save the planet?” or “Once we solve climate change, then we can focus on racial justice,” and even “We’ve been fighting racism forever; we only have a few years to fix climate change,” are murmurs in climate spaces.
For many of our congregations engaging in the Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice process, integrating justice into our climate actions can be the most challenging part of the work. When I hear anxieties about folding justice into our on-going work, I always remind our teams that while it may feel like the most challenging, it is also the part of our work with the most opportunity and the most potential for impact!
As people of faith, ours is the work of collective liberation. If we honor the interconnectedness of all life, justice for all must be our guiding principle.
For as many problems climate change poses to our world, there are even more solutions that cultivate a flourishing world for all. When we put our faith into action not just to reduce emissions but also to create thriving communities for all, we’re nurturing collective liberation.
If we reject the scarcity mindsets that pit our climate action teams in competition with our racial justice teams, we embrace abundance in our shared ministries. If we cultivate trusting relationships within our congregations and our communities, we amplify our impacts. If we faithfully advance intersectional climate actions with love at the center of our work, we co-create a future where all communities thrive. Just imagine the beauty, the joy, the togetherness, the solutions, the stronger communities, the flourishing world that will come from these shared ministries.
Friends, this is why I am so excited to invite you all to join the UU Climate Justice Revival, “Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era” this September!
Bring your congregation, your justice teams, your problem solvers, and your dreamers together for a powerful weekend of togetherness through shared dialogs, inspirational worship, and collective actions designed to intentionally and faithfully break down silos, cultivate connections, and envision the world we want to create, and chart a course for actions that cultivate that world.
Together, we can shift our work to be less isolated, more connected; less anxious, more nourishing; less limited, more visionary. Let’s reimagine together a world where love guides our actions and all communities thrive. We can’t do it without you, so sign your congregation up today for the UU Climate Justice Revival on September 28-29.
Join with hundreds of sibling congregations across the continent for our national UU Climate Revival, offering inspiring collective worship, creative learning, and new frameworks at the intersection of climate and justice.
The UU Climate Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
Open to every UU congregation of every size and budget, we will provide facilitation toolkits, training, music, projects, coordinated justice action and more! Find out more at www.uuclimatejustice.org.
Join the Line 5 Petition
(Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. The 30-inch diameter pipe transports up to 540,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily.)
The Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN) is sharing a petition drive and a new video just released highlighting Indigenous women leaders fighting to stop Line 5 and protect water, climate, and Indigenous rights. The petition drive joins growing national and regional efforts to stop Line 5 permanently.
Petition signatures will be delivered ahead of the premiere of the Bad River documentary film, taking place in Washington, D.C., with invited government leaders and officials. Indigenous women leaders, WECAN, Sierra Club-Wisconsin, and others will deliver the petition signatures on March 13 to the Army Corps offices in Washington, D.C.
Keep Calling And Writing: How the Climate Justice Movement Affects Federal Legislation
UUs for Social Justice presents a Zoom policy talk by Katie Thomas Carol, Esq., Director of Energy and Environment Programs for the CPC Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that identifies and develops solutions to build a more just, equitable, and resilient nation.
With almost a decade on Capitol Hill working energy and environmental policy and legislation, Katie will speak in her personal capacity about how UUs can drive the progressive agenda.
Katie will highlight examples of her work as Staff Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment for Rep. Ro Khanna and Senior Policy Advisor for Energy and Environment to Senator Bernie Sanders before that.
Happily, Katie is also a UU. RSVP and attend to create a lovely, robust, informative Earth Month event.
Available Now - Climate Justice & Racial Reconciliation in Predominantly White Congregations
On March 20, we joined Dorothy Swain of UUs of Grants Pass and Gabi Johnson with the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, both from Grants Pass, Oregon, for our Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting on Climate Justice & Racial Reconciliation in Predominantly White Congregations. Check out the recording and resources!
Nourishing Impactful Teams
As we work to transform our congregations and communities through climate justice, a strong and dynamic team is critical. Join Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Side With Love Leadership Development Specialist, for tips on how to bring together and nourish a cohesive and impactful team! Register to join us!
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 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET. Each meeting includes a brief introduction to the Green Sanctuary 2030 process and a presentation on a climate justice topic usually led by a Green Sanctuary 2030 Team followed by an open discussion.
Remind Congress We Still Need The Environmental Justice for All Act
We still want Congress to act on "the moral principle that all people have the right to pure air, clean water, and an environment that enriches life." We still agree "Federal policy can and should seek to achieve environmental justice, health equity, and climate justice for all underserved communities," let's urge them to do so. Last year's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a significant step toward greater investment in clean energy.
Unfortunately, some provisions of the IRA are expected to stimulate fossil fuel production and worsen pollution in areas already saturated by heavy industry. Now, in the new Congressional Session, the House is proposing legislation intended to loosen procedural protections around energy projects. This includes efforts to undermine cornerstone environmental protections like the National Environmental Policy Act, and measures that will increase the risk to public health.
Tell Congress: Support the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act!
Register for the 2024 National Faith + Climate Forum
We are excited to invite you to join us for an inspiring and transformative event designed to strengthen local congregations through care for creation – The National Faith + Climate Forum on April 16th from 12:00 pm - 5:15 pm ET / 11:00 am - 4:15 pm CT / 10:00 am - 3:15 pm MT / 9:00 am - 2:15 pm PT!
Join other faith leaders in our area to hear inspiring national speakers and participate in purposeful discussions, practical workshops, and energizing collaborative sessions. All clergy and lay leaders, younger and older congregants, are welcome to join, whether you have been caring for creation for some time, or just getting started. We all can be part of the solution in our congregations and our community. Learn more and register here.
We are called to re-imagine what it means to do climate justice work in community
The urgency of the climate crisis can sometimes lead folks to believe that integrating justice into our climate actions is a distraction. “Don’t we need a singular focus on reducing emissions to save the planet?” or “Once we solve climate change, then we can focus on racial justice,” and even “We’ve been fighting racism forever; we only have a few years to fix climate change,” are murmurs in climate spaces.
For many of our congregations engaging in the Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice process, integrating justice into our climate actions can be the most challenging part of the work. When I hear anxieties about folding justice into our on-going work, I always remind our teams that while it may feel like the most challenging, it is also the part of our work with the most opportunity and the most potential for impact!
As people of faith, ours is the work of collective liberation. If we honor the interconnectedness of all life, justice for all must be our guiding principle.
For as many problems climate change poses to our world, there are even more solutions that cultivate a flourishing world for all. When we put our faith into action not just to reduce emissions but also to create thriving communities for all, we’re nurturing collective liberation.
If we reject the scarcity mindsets that pit our climate action teams in competition with our racial justice teams, we embrace abundance in our shared ministries. If we cultivate trusting relationships within our congregations and our communities, we amplify our impacts. If we faithfully advance intersectional climate actions with love at the center of our work, we co-create a future where all communities thrive. Just imagine the beauty, the joy, the togetherness, the solutions, the stronger communities, the flourishing world that will come from these shared ministries.
Friends, this is why I am so excited to invite you all to join the UU Climate Justice Revival, “Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era” this September. Bring your congregation, your justice teams, your problem solvers, and your dreamers together for a powerful weekend of togetherness through shared dialogs, inspirational worship, and collective actions designed to intentionally and faithfully break down silos, cultivate connections, and envision the world we want to create, and chart a course for actions that cultivate that world. Together, we can shift our work to be less isolated, more connected; less anxious, more nourishing; less limited, more visionary. Let’s reimagine together a world where love guides our actions and all communities thrive. We can’t do it without you, so sign your congregation up today for the UU Climate Justice Revival on September 28-29. You can read more on our website: UUClimateJustice.org, or check out our Frequently Asked Questions and the Overview which explains all the beautiful work happening to bring the revival to your congregation. As always, you can email me at Environment@UUA.org with any questions.
In community,
Rachel
Rachel Myslivy (she/they)
Climate Justice Organizer
Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team
Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era
Join with hundreds of sibling congregations across the continent for our national UU Climate Revival, offering inspiring collective worship, creative learning, and new frameworks at the intersection of climate and justice.
The UU Climate Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
Open to every UU congregation of every size and budget, we will provide facilitation toolkits, training, music, projects, coordinated justice action and more! Find out more at www.uuclimatejustice.org.
Join our national UU Climate Revival, September 28 - 29, 2024!
When Nex Benedict — a Two Spirit (nonbinary) Choctaw youth -- died one day after being beaten by other students in the girls room at Owasso, Oklahoma High School, the event generated rare public awareness. Benedict’s death in February appeared around the nation in news coverage of what was later labeled a drug-induced suicide by local officials.
But despite the lack of attention, suicides among LGBTQIA+ youth are tragically common. According to The Trevor Project, about half of transgender youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, and it was the second-leading cause of death among ten to fourteen year-old members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Further, young LGBTQIA+ people of color reported much higher rates of attempting suicide than their white peers.
Rev. Jami Yandle, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Transgender Support Specialist, believes transphobia and harassment led directly to Benedict’s death. “Imagine sticking up for yourself, getting in a fight, and then having to go to school following that incident -- and probably hundreds of others -- with no protections and feeling so much of the world against you at such a young age,” said Yandle.
The environment Yandle describes was created largely by deliberate scapegoating. In 2022, Oklahoma’s overwhelmingly Republican state legislature banned transgender females from playing on female sports teams. The following year, the state made it a felony crime for health care workers to provide gender-affirming medical care to young transgender people, despite the medical community overwhelmingly supporting such care. Another 2023 law required students to use bathrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Fueling the hostile setting in Oklahoma, right wing agitators are trying to ban many books depicting gay and transgender people from school libraries.
Of course, a gender-neutral bathroom could have been a life-saver for Benedict. “Nex deserved to grow up; to live long enough to have gray hair. So, when we talk about anti-trans legislation, this is literally a life and death issue,” said Rev. Yandle.
Unfortunately, Oklahoma is far from exceptional. As of March 2024, more than470 state bills were active that attack the equality, dignity, and free expression of LGBTQIA+people, with many directly targeting transgender youth. Some bills would criminalize the very existence of Transgender and Gender Expansive people (the Unitarian Universalist Association and many UU State Action Networks have spoken out against and are working to thwart those bills).
Trangender Day of Visibility may seem modest in the face of such legislative onslaughts until you learn fewer than half of U.S. residents say they personally know someone who is transgender, meaning their opinions are formed entirely from what they absorb from media, politicians, and other people, not from personal experience. Transgender people are among the last who can successfully be portrayed as dangerous “others,” because gender identity is not well-understood by many Americans.
Earlier movements to advance civil rights for LGBTQIA+ people accelerated dramatically when millions of Americans “came out” to family and friends, dismantling the ability of oppressors to portray people as threatening or dangerous based on their sexual preferences. The same will surely hold true for advancing gender equality.
In supporting the importance of gender expansive people “coming out,” Rev. Yandle says “because I'm white, I feel an obligation to be out and loud, and use what little privilege I have -- to be a little more bold to pave way for folks who may feel like it's unsafe. So they have a visual marker of somebody who is aging and will hopefully grow old enough to get gray hair.”
“That visibility is why I also sometimes wear my collar when I'm at a rally or public event…so that everybody can see, there's a trans person who's also an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister,” said Yandle.
The Rev. Jami A. Yandle with TV personality and LGBTQIA+ advocate Jonathan van Ness at a rally against anti-trans legislation at the Austin, TX capitol. The event was part of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry’s 2023 legislative day of action. Rev. Yandle serves as the UUA's Transgender Support Specialist, ministering on the Organizing Strategy Team that holds the outward-facing justice work for the UUA under the banner of Side With Love. Rev. Yandle provides spiritual support and direct care for the trans and non-binary community within and beyond the UUA. Photo by Rev. Erin Walter.
UUs have a long history of working to advance LGBTQIA+ rights and, in a recent nationwide survey by Public Religion Research Institute, led all included denominations in supporting nondiscrimination protections (93 percent) and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals within congregations (29 percent).
But Rev. Yandle stresses the need for UUs to push themselves and their congregations to keep working. “I don't want to minimize the life saving capability of using somebody's correct pronouns, but that's the least you can do. It all comes down to organizing, and bodies in state capitols, and going to legislator’s offices, to be in their faces.”
Special Event Join UPLIFT and TRUUsT Director Rev. Julián Jamaica Soto for an online gathering to celebrate all Trans & Nonbinary people following Trans Day of Visibility. Tuesday, April 2 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET. Register today!
On March 20, we joined Dorothy Swain of UUs of Grants Pass and Gabi Johnson with the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, both from Grants Pass, Oregon, for our Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting on Climate Justice & Racial Reconciliation in Predominantly White Congregations. Check out the recording and resources shared below.
Dorothy and Gabi's community organizing on Grants Pass Remembrance: from Sundown to Sunrise exemplified interfaith partnership and climate justice actions deeply rooted in the context of oppression in their community. They shared tons of great resources all linked below.
We hope to see you for April's Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting on Nourishing Impactful Teams with Rev. Cathy Rion Starr on April 17. RSVP today!
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! We joined other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities.
In this 2024 webinar, Peg MacMorris with Foothills Unitarian Church in Fort Collins, CO, shared the way her congregation is approaching installing solar with IRA funds and Sabina Shelby with the Unitarian Church of West Hartford, CT, talked us through the Financial Incentives for Energy Investments at Houses of Worship document the IRA PLC group created to help congregations access IRA funds.
Following the presentation, Michael Cohen with Solar United Neighbors and First Unitarian Church of Orlando, FL, and Russell Outcalt from UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, chimed in with Peg and Sabina to answer questions from the audience.
“Pluralism accepts the moral reality of different kinds of truth, but rejects the idea that they can all be placed on a single scale, measured by a single value.” —Timothy Snyder
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino Recently, several people have taken the time to write to us about the ways in which we talk about Israel and Gaza, especially on our weekly talk show, Voices of Unitarian Universalism (aka The VUU). I thought that our wider community would be interested in my response.
Read more »
Quest for Meaning Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 51st Annual Meeting will be held via video/telephone conference call and screen sharing on Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 7:00PM EDT/4:00PM PDT.
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When my daughter was nine years old, she asked me which religion was the “right one.” The reason this was even on her mind is that my children are part of an interfaith family. Their father was raised Jewish and I was raised Muslim. When we married, we had a secular wedding and for a time chose not to raise our children in either of the traditions exclusively. We thought we could get away with raising them with no religious identity. However, this turned out not to be the case.
At the time we were living in New Jersey and my children’s best friends (also siblings) attended a conservative Christian congregation. I would let my kids attend programs with them mistakenly thinking it would be benign. This changed after my daughter returned home at age 5 declaring to her Jewish father, “Jesus is the light of the world.” To which he responded, “No he’s not, we’re Jewish.”
I realized at that moment that we weren’t being intentional in how we raised our children and they were clearly wanting to engage in some kind of religious community, even at their young age. It was age appropriate, wanting to belong.
I had already known about Unitarian Universalism and promptly looked up the closest UU congregation. Thankfully, there was one just two towns away, in Ridgewood. We attended together and the rest is history.
One year later, I was the religious education coordinator for a small congregation in Orange, NJ and from there I dove deeper into the world of faith leadership, eventually becoming credentialed in religious education leadership, a long and thorough process demonstrating competencies in leadership, faith development and the UU faith, among other things.
The reason we chose a Unitarian Universalist community is that it is pluralist. UUs do not claim to be superior to any other faiths and we affirm that there are many paths to what we understand to be spirituality, whether or not that includes belief in a deity.
This is a profound and sacred notion for the modern era. Especially because it seems that the world around us is doubling down on religious extremism. Religious dominance causes intolerance of those who are of a different faith, or choose no faith at all.
Truly embracing pluralism and the freedom to coexist in the same society while maintaining your own religious identity is a transformative idea. We are witnessing in real time the impact of religious extremism, whether it is anti-trans laws that purport to “protect children” or taking away the right to bodily autonomy, this kind of thinking is oppressive at its core.
The path to a liberated society includes embracing pluralism and not holding up any one religion over another.
As for my children, they continue to be on their own path. I will not share where they are, as this is their story to tell. I will share that their values and who they are is shaped by growing up as part of a Unitarian Universalist community.
What does it mean to be pluralistic in our beliefs?
Jack CLF member, incarcerated in MA
Is God an old man in flowing robes with a long beard who looks down from on high? A Lord and Lady offering blessings to those in worshiping circles? A pantheon of Gods, each representing another face of a Supreme Being? Or Gaia, Mother Earth, in which we and all were created?
Is Jesus a prophet? The long awaited Messiah? A forerunner of Mohammed? An issuer of great wisdoms like the Buddha? On the son of a supreme being — but then aren’t we all sons and daughters of the Supreme Being?
Is Heaven a place of pearly gates, streets of gold, food aplenty, where we all learn to play harps and praise our God; a place where all earthly pleasures are ours? Is Hell a place of fire and brimstone, a land of ice and perpetual cold, where our earthly bodies are eternally tormented?
Is Heaven and Hell the legacy we leave behind, the kindnesses we showed, the ones we befriended, fought, touched, challenged to be better, to show love for all? Or is it the pain we left behind to be suffered generation after generation?
Does it really matter? Does it really matter how we envision a thing beyond human comprehension? Does it really matter what happens to our earthly bodies after death? Does it matter what name we use for those forces of creation?
Names come and go. Visions change as our lives change and evolve from a primitive society living on the land to a people of computers, space travel, and seeking to understand the stars.
What does matter is how we lived our lives, how we respected each other, and how we had reverence for all creation of the heavens and the earth. What does matter is not what we will gain or suffer after death but the legacy we leave for future generations. Will they show the love we shared or the pain we caused?
The future of and those who live beyond us is not written in stone—yet—but you are the sculptor with the hammer and chisel who will write it. What will you write?
Jacob CLF Member, incarcerated in AR
Pluralistic is, by definition, holding to the doctrine of pluralism, which is accepting and embrace diversity in all of its forms. The act of accepting and encouraging diversity leads to a better acceptance and love for others. It helps us to remember the fact that the Divine is Love; accepting others and their differences is a step to acting in Love and embodying the true essence of Love.
A Utopian Crucible
Lauren Silverwolf CLF member, incarcerated in TX
Oxford defines pluralism as, “the acceptance within a society of a number of groups with different beliefs or ethnic backgrounds.” This does not sound like the world we live in today, but it does sound like somewhere I would bleed to see become a reality.
I joined the U.S. Army at the age of 18, straight out of high school. I was an Airborne Infantryman, and I swore to defend the Constitution. What I wanted was to defend the principles of being truly free, of being accepting of all who came to us, and of being what we proclaimed ourselves to be in word, although never truly in deed. I would love nothing more, and I would serve again to defend a truly pluralistic society.
I would like to introduce two more terms to define what this would look like: utopia and crucible. Again, we go to Oxford: utopia is defined as, “an imagined world or society where everything is perfect,” and crucible is defined as, “a container in which metals or other substances may be melted or heated.”
This may seem completely out of context, but think of a society like the crucible. If we melt together, we become one out of many, and if we could coexist in this manner, most of our reasons for war or violence would diminish, creating a utopia. Pluralism seems far off, to my eye atleast, but I believe it is achievable. The day we see it, we live truly in a Utopian Crucible.
Chaos and Concord battle in the collective mind.
Chaos whispers to every tribe, religion, and race
“Fear ‘the other’
They covet your power
They envy your advantage.”
She sings to each group,
“You’re the stronger, the higher, the better,
You’re the blessed. Privilege is your right.”
Concord’s small voice speaks of equity, justice and peace.
“Like us, ‘the other’ has tradition, history, community, art.
Like us, they are right to exist.”
“No,” cries Chaos.
“Only the strong, the worthy, the majority can rule.
The vote is your modern weapon for keeping them at bay.
If you cannot defeat them,
feign tolerance to hide your enmity while you bide your time.”
“Tolerance is not enough,” Concord interjects.
“We must be happy for them and their community.
Erasing a culture is not up for ballot.
We can’t hide our violence and bias behind popular votes.
It kills freedom, feeds Chaos, it is cruel.”
“Conquest and conformity,” Chaos asserts,
“is the only way to happiness.”
“Belief that, someday, all will accept the same beliefs,
the same god, the same history,
only perpetuates sadness and despair.”
Concord challenges,
“pursuit of happiness is not by forced acceptance.
Happiness grows
by being happy for each other,
by supporting each other’s spiritual growth,
by helping each other build meaning,
by trying to understand and encourage all those around us.”
The Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco hangs this banner in support of a permanent ceasefire now. The banner is from the Interfaith coalition of Faith Communities across the San Francisco Bay Area. Photo credit: Aisha Hauser
Recently, several people have taken the time to write to us about the ways in which we talk about Israel and Gaza, especially on our weekly talk show, Voices of Unitarian Universalism (aka The VUU). I thought that our wider community would be interested in my response.
It is correct to say that the CLF Lead Ministry Team has taken a clear stance on the current state of the conflict. We believe strongly that the preservation of life is the value that should be most paramount. I have been taught by Jewish teachers that this value is in line with the highest teachings of Judaism. We believe that all lives are worthy of preservation, even if all lives are not equally threatened by violence at present.
We also believe strongly that those with the most power to preserve life have the most obligation to do so. On a recent show of The VUU, my co-minister Christina Rivera eloquently spoke about the power imbalance present right now in Gaza, and why our stance is that Israel needs to be responsible for a cease-fire. Some have noted that Chris made them think; for this we are grateful.
We have not taken a stance on Zionism, nor will we; it is simply not our place as non-Jewish people. We understand why criticizing the actions of the State of Israel might make it seem as if we have done so, but we are clear that the actions of Israel are not on behalf of Jewish people everywhere. We have strongly opposed anti-Semitism in all of its forms, as we oppose all forms of hatred, oppression, and violence.
We have invited Jewish UUs onto the show who share our viewpoint on the abhorrent ways in which current Israeli leadership is dehumanizing Palestinians, abrogating treaty obligations, and murdering innocents. To be frank, we don’t want to feature voices who might support that. I don’t think that academically debating the term “genocide” is worthwhile as hospitals and refugee camps are being bombed. It’s a strong word on purpose.
We are committed to continuing this dialogue in the future. We are working on having Jewish UUs speak on The VUU about the ways in which anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head around the world. When we do so, we will invite people who have been chosen by Jewish UU communities as leaders.
We hope that the CLF community appreciates the values with which we have come to these positions. We hope that you will continue to let us know how we can live out those values, when we agree and when we disagree with each other.
We began this year with a 30 Days of Love reflection from our Democracy Strategist, Nora Rasman, who wrote, “This year, we will tell the truth to each other and ourselves about the political landscape we inhabit, the conditions and threats we are facing and the power of the left.” The truth is the stakes are high. It is also true that every action that chooses democracy as the method to express political desires or dissent is an invitation to building a new world, together.
Last night millions of voters went to the polls to express their desires about the leadership of their states and country. Hundreds of thousands voted “uncommitted” in protest of the ongoing assault in Gaza. Several voter suppression laws have created an unjust field that cannot produce accountable and representative elected leadership. Some candidates speak openly about ending free and fair elections, disparage trans people and immigrants, and celebrate limiting our individual freedoms. Last night, we faced hard realities together. Now, we must decide what we will do in the days ahead.
Let us remember that every movement forward generates new possibilities. Every new person we invite into our work grows our power. Each time we respond to the grief, rage, and demands of a people yearning to be free with compassion and a faithful recognition of our shared humanity, we Side With Love.
We invite you to use today to deepen your commitments to justice. This moment and our movement, needs you. With UU the Vote 2024, we are leaning even more deeply into the shared values that move voters to the polls. We are equipping leaders to engage in compassionate conversations that hold our grief as well as our commitment to building a multi-racial democracy. We are resisting state violence in our work to Stop Cop City in Georgia. We’re showing up to protect abortion in the Yes on 4 campaign in Florida. We are launching Green Sanctuary 2030 to ground our congregational climate justice work in local and accountable relationships.
Throughout history, we have shown up to kindle the flames of justice in uncertain times. Today, we build on that legacy and commit to justice and prophetic action to build a future where we all thrive. This is our work. We forge the paths that lead us towards the just and loving world we seek to create.
Join a community of people who greet each day a new opportunity to Side With Love in all that we do.
UU the Vote 2024 is an ambitious strategy to grow a powerful pro-democracy majority. This year we will build our commitment to democratic practices and recommit to showing up for social movements building infrastructure and relationships to sustain us the beyond the electoral year. Join us to learn about our work with State Action Networks and their partners in key states, key ballot initiatives, political education and spiritual grounding opportunities and our mass voter contact program.
March 20: Climate Justice and Racial Reconciliation in a Predominantly White Congregation Integrating justice in our climate work is essential, but many UU congregations struggle with this component of the Green Sanctuary 2030 process. Join Dorothy Swain from UUs of Grants Pass, OR, and her colleague Gabi Johnsen from the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, to learn about the ways their congregations are advancing climate justice in a predominantly white, rural community.
March 18: Side With Love Monthly Mixer Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff.
March 21: UU Stop Cop City Monthly Action Huddle Our huddle this month will focus on writing letters to those imprisoned for protesting Cop City in Atlanta. Writing letters to folks locked up is a ministry, a political act, and a great way to invite new folks into decriminalization work. As always, we’ll also review what’s happening and what you can do with Stop Cop City more broadly. Join us to get activated or to jump back in.
Democracy Is an Invitation to Build a New World Together
After closing out this year's 30 Days of Love, Side With Love is looking forward to exciting opportunities for faith-filled action this spring. Starting March 6, we have a range of offerings that we hope will ground you and help sustain your commitment to liberation, democracy, and justice. Please join us and share with your congregation!
Get ready for UU the Vote 2024! On Thursday, March 14 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, join UU leaders and partners to learn how you can show up for our values and communities in the critical 2024 elections. Invite your congregation and social justice teams to join us for an exciting launch of UU the Vote 2024.
When we organize, we build power in our communities for justice, accountability, and healing. In the last four years, UU the Vote has built new networks of spiritual and political communities to #VoteLove and #DefeatHate. With UU the Vote 2024, we’ll be showing up to combat criminalization; protect and expand healthcare, including abortion; and deepening local democratic practices, from participatory budgeting to ranked choice voting.
We are fighting for so much in 2024. Together, our communities can address the current threats to our democracy and human dignity. Join us in this fight on Thursday, March 14 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for the launch of UU the Vote 2024!
Get to know the new Green Sanctuary! Join the monthly orientation session to get a better understanding of the program and learn how your congregation can engage in ongoing climate action. Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice can transform your congregation through climate justice!
This is a space to share the hard stuff and to hold the hard stuff that others are navigating in their lives. During our time together, our lead chaplain/facilitators will share opening and closing words, and in between, there is time for everyone to share what's on their hearts, and receive what others are sharing about their own lives. It's a supportive, judgment-free place to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ people.
Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff.
Integrating justice in our climate work is essential, but many UU congregations struggle with this component of the Green Sanctuary 2030 process. Join Dorothy Swain from UUs of Grants Pass, OR, and her colleague Gabi Johnsen from the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, to learn about the ways their congregations are advancing climate justice in a predominantly white, rural community.
This is a cozy, drop-in community space for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism where we connect with each other with games and breakout groups, share ideas and stories on all kinds of topics, listen to music and poetry (often by trans/nonbinary+ creators), and much more! 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.
Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad for an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Come drink in the music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together. Show up as you are, whatever is in your heart, and with your camera on or off as you need.
Mark your calendars for the March 20 Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting: Climate Justice and Racial Reconciliation in a Predominately White Congregation with Dorothy Swain of the UUs of Grants Pass, OR. Justice is one of our four Essentials for Climate Action, and it’s often the one our congregations struggle with the most . . . or, as I like to say, the one with the most opportunity! I hope to see you for some shared learning and mutual supports at this or any of our Green Sanctuary 2030 Community meetings.
Wow, was our February meeting inspirational or what?! Huge thanks to Russ Outcalt and the UU Fellowship of Raleigh for sharing the ways they’re Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030. I love hearing how our congregations are engaging with the Green Sanctuary 2030 process, and the UUs in Raleigh are doing stellar work! Check out the recording below, and while you’re at it get your congregation involved with UUSJ’s Environmental Justice for All Actions, also linked below!
Big thanks to our UU congregational leaders who shared their knowledge at our Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle this month! Peg MacMorris with Foothills Unitarian Church in Fort Collins, CO, shared the way her congregation is approaching installing solar with IRA funds and Sabina Shelby with the Unitarian Church of West Hartford, CT, talked us through the Financial Incentives for Energy Investments at Houses of Worship document the IRA PLC group created to help congregations access IRA funds.
Following the presentation, Michael Cohen with Solar United Neighbors and First Unitarian Church of Orlando, FL, and Russ Outcalt from UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, chimed in with Peg and Sabina to answer questions from the audience. If you missed the presentations or want to review alllllll of the information shared (it was a lot!), look for the link to the recording below.
Financial Incentives for Energy Investments at Houses of Worship is a wealth of information and resources for congregations looking to access federal funding for clean energy. In addition to details about federal funds, there’s a section on UU specific funding opportunities you can use to leverage IRA funds. Towards the end of the document, there are links to all of the webinars we’ve held related to the historical investments in clean energy available in the IRA.
We hope to see you at the Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting: Orientation on Wednesday, March 6 at 7ET.
New Resources Available
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle for Congregations
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act Funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! Thanks to everyone who came together to learn and share information at the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle to learn with other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities. Watch the recording, and get up to speed by reading this short primer on the opportunities available for congregations.
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030!
On February 21, we learned from the recently recognized Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregation, the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, about the ways their congregation renewed their environmental justice commitments through the GS2030 process. View the recording and resources.
Climate Justice and Racial Reconciliation in a Predominately White Congregation
Integrating justice in our climate work is essential, but many UU congregations struggle with this component of the Green Sanctuary 2030 process. Join Dorothy Swain from UUs of Grants Pass, OR, and her colleague Gabi Johnsen from the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, to learn about the ways their congregations are advancing climate justice in a predominantly white, rural community. Register to join us!
Image description: Graphic with text bubbles on a background of pine branches, decorated with an illustrated pine cone and a bird resembling a goldfinch. Below is the Green Sanctuary logo, a chalice lit with a leaf flame. "Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings. 3rd Wednesdays. 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET. Jan. 17: Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration! Feb. 21: Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030, UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC. Mar. 20: Climate Justice & Racial Reconciliation in a Predominately White Congregation, UUs of Grants Pass, OR. Apr. 17: Nourishing Impactful Teams, Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Side With Love Leadership Development Specialist. May 15: Climate Justice Brainstorm!"
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 8ET - 7CT - 6MT - 5PT. Each meeting includes a short presentation on a climate justice topic, followed by open discussion on pressing needs.
Remind Congress We Still Need The Environmental Justice for All Act
We still want Congress to act on "the moral principle that all people have the right to pure air, clean water, and an environment that enriches life." We still agree "Federal policy can and should seek to achieve environmental justice, health equity, and climate justice for all underserved communities," let's urge them to do so. Last year's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a significant step toward greater investment in clean energy.
Unfortunately, some provisions of the IRA are expected to stimulate fossil fuel production and worsen pollution in areas already saturated by heavy industry. Now, in the new Congressional Session, the House is proposing legislation intended to loosen procedural protections around energy projects. This includes efforts to undermine cornerstone environmental protections like the National Environmental Policy Act, and measures that will increase the risk to public health.
Tell Congress: Support the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act!
Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era
As climate change rocks our world, there is a spirit at work in the congregations and movements committed to justice.
As we make the connections between climate and justice, we are called to re-imagine what it means to do this urgent work in community. As we make the connections between climate and justice, we are called to re-imagine what it means to do this urgent work in community. How can our climate work be:
Less isolated, more connected;
Less anxious, more nourishing; and
Less limited; more visionary?
Through worship, laughter, learning, reflection, lamentation, and joy, we can feed our spirits and move forward nourished and connected with love at the center of our climate actions. Together, we can move from a deadly era of extraction to a flourishing era of connection.
Join us on September 28 and 29 for a national UU Climate Revival offering inspiring collective worship, creative learning, and new frameworks at the intersection of climate and justice, and the chance to weave together the threads that have always linked our deepest commitments. The UU Climate Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
If you’re interested in learning what is new with Green Sanctuary 2030 and our new, flexible process; or if you want other leaders in your congregation to understand how powerful this program is for wider community change, join one of our upcoming orientations! Held the first Wednesday of each month at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, this orientation presents our new, flexible, accessible process and the opportunity to speak with me about what your congregation has been doing. Register now!
An Invitation to Faith-Filled Transformation through Climate Action
The Green Sanctuary 2030 process provides congregations with an accessible and impactful framework to advance climate and environmental justice. On February 21, we learned from the recently recognized Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregation, the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, about the ways their congregation renewed their environmental justice commitments through the GS2030 process. See the recording and resources below.
Our grief is holy. Our rage is divine. Our love is enduring. Our lives are sacred.
This week we learned that Nex Benedict, a non-binary child in Oklahoma, died after a violent attack by fellow students at their school. While the details are still emerging, one thing is extraordinarily clear - hateful policy and hateful theology are deadly. The ongoing dehumanization of trans and non-binary people by elected officials and hate groups fuels inhumane actions.
Our grief is holy. Our rage is divine. Our love is enduring. Our lives are sacred.
Nex should be alive today. As we look at Nex’s photos, learn about their dreams, read about their love of Minecraft and nature - we bear witness to a beautiful soul who had every right to flourish and thrive. We also bear witness to a collective loss of humanity as a new generation is enlisted to carry forth this legacy of violence.
Our grief is holy. Our rage is divine. Our love is enduring. Our lives are sacred.
When we face the ultimate cruelty that systemic oppression visits upon our communities, any number of responses emerge. Whether you need to remain still or stirring in your grief, wild or weary in your rage, frozen or frenetic in your fear, resilient or resistant in your love - we encourage you to care for your sacred body and life in whatever way your spirit demands.
Let your grief be holy. Let your rage be divine. Let our enduring love move us to build a world where trans and non-binary lives are honored as sacred.
Friday, February 23, at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT
Join UPLIFT Ministries on Friday, February 23, at 8 ET/7 CT/6 MT/5 PT to be in community and hold ourselves and each other in the feelings and needs we’re experiencing right now. All are welcome–this is a space that is open to everyone–cis, trans, metagender, questioning, and more! During the vigil, we will spend time all together, as well as move into breakout groups for:
Children and youth (focused on trans/nonbinary+ youth, but open to people of any identity)
Trans/nonbinary+ adults (closed to this identity)
Trans families, caregivers of trans/nonbinary+ children/youth, and other close loved ones of a trans person/people (this space may have people with cis, trans, or other identities)
General breakout focused on cisgender experiences (though someone of any identity may join)
This space will be facilitated by Jess Hunt and Rev. Steven Leigh Williams, and will have chaplains available. Register here
This is a collection of resources, both within and outside the UUA, geared towards trans/nonbinary+ people and our supporters. Resources for mental health crisis appear at the bottom.
Hosted in March 2022, this training featured Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy & Government Affairs for The Trevor Project as well as Side With Love staff Rev. Ashley Horan, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, and Adrian Ballou.
Held March 15, 2022, this training featured Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy & Government Affairs for The Trevor Project; Rev. Erin Walter from Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry; and Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson from UU Justice Ministry on North Carolina, in addition to Side With Love staff Rev. Ashley Horan, Rev. Michael Crumpler, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, and Adrian Ballou.
UUs have long been part leaders in powerful multifaith movements fighting for trans and queer rights and liberation. Join UPLIFT Action and Side With Love staff for this webinar, lifting up the faithful work UUs are engaging in right now in the context of the wave of hateful legislation and violence against trans and queer people. We'll hear stories from congregations and State Action Networks on the ground, and point toward ways you and your community can take meaningful action.
When I think about our 7th principle of Unitarian Universalism, the “interdependent web of existence of which we are a part,” I envision the way a small touch on one strand of a spider web makes the whole web shake.
Last month, with our partners at the American Friends Service Committee, we shook the web across the country with actions focused on corporate funders of Atlanta’s Cop City, like Bank of America and Home Depot. Thank you to those of you who wrote one of the over 7,000 letters to CEOs and showed up from Oakland to Atlanta! You can still sign the letter to CEOs urging them to stop funding increased militarization of police.
Side With Love Congregational Justice Organizer Rev. Ranwa Hammamy outside the Emeryville Home Depot during the Stop Cop City! Corporate Week of Action.
Celebrate Good News!
Unitarian Universalist Joan Gregory has been one of many in the Salt Lake City area organizing for Victor’s release for the past 11 months. Victor is an Indigenous land defender who has spent much of his adult life caring for the water, for the land, and for his elders. On March 5, 2023, Victor was arrested at the South River Music Festival near the site in Atlanta of a proposed Cop City which is under construction and where hundreds of acres of forest have already been destroyed. Victor was unloading camping equipment from his truck with his dog inside when heavily armed police charged at him from the woods, violently assaulted him, and hauled him to jail. After spending 3 months incarcerated at DeKalb County Jail without bail set or being indicted, he was transferred to a remote ICE facility, where he spent 8 months. In September, he learned he was one of 61 people indicted in the highly repressive RICO case that’s attempting to criminalize any and all efforts to Stop Cop City. We join Victor’s home community in the Salt Lake City area in celebrating his release. For more information and an opportunity to show your support go to: http://tinyurl.com/VictorIsFree.
As Nicole Pressley wrote recently, “Our work to Stop Cop City dismantles the false ideal of safety. This false ideal is destroying forests, intensifying violence against communities of color, and silencing the electorate. As people of faith, we cannot affirm the worth and dignity of all while privileging the well-being of a chosen few. We are not fully human when we separate ourselves from the humanity of others.”
When one side of the web is hurting, it rattles the whole web of existence.
May we continue to honor these connections across the whole web of existence.
May we each do our part to stop the pain and injustice.
May we envision a world of community care and abundant love.
May we recommit ourselves to mutuality, abundance, and community.
In faith and persistence,
Rev. Cathy Rion Starr Side With Love Leadership Development Specialist
Available Now - Skill Up: Community Safety & Security
Unitarian Universalists are called to grapple with the question, “what is safety?” Black liberation organizers say “We Keep Us Safe" as a way to proclaim that true safety comes from relationship, community, and structures of care and mutuality outside of state structures of violence and control. How do we build our political and theological commitment to keeping each other safe in the face of state and interpersonal violence?
In this Skill Up led by Nora Rasman and India Harris, we defined safety and security grounded in abolitionist practice, discussed our spiritual mandate towards building sanctuary, and concretely outlined what we can honestly offer to ourselves and each other.
March 21 at 11am PT / 2pm ET (Please note the date change this month!)
Our huddle this month will focus on writing letters to those imprisoned for protesting Cop City in Atlanta. Writing letters to folks locked up is a ministry, a political act, and a great way to invite new folks into decriminalization work. As always, we’ll also review what’s happening and what you can do with Stop Cop City more broadly. Join us to get activated or to jump back in. This meeting usually happens on the second Thursday of the month at 11am PT / 12pm MT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET.
In case you missed it, view our final gifts from our Bonus Days of 30 Days of Love! During the last days of 30 Days of Love, we explored the theme of “liberatory intersections.”
Safety. Re-Imagining. Possibility. Resilience. These themes have been the backbone of this year’s 30 Days of Love, with each offering extending to us the opportunity to hone our ability to pause, listen, and receive even as the world around us continues its frenetic hum. We hope that these weekly gifts from our siblings in faith have invited you to breathe deeply, feeling – even if just for a moment – a sense of connection with kindred spirits who share a soul-deep yearning for justice and wholeness.
At the most basic level, spiritual practice is spending regular, intentional time turning away from despair and fear and toward connection and commitment. At Side With Love, we believe that this kind of spiritual practice is what makes sustained organizing for justice possible: without making space in our lives to purposefully strengthen the musculature of imagination and hope, the soul of our movements atrophies and the dream of liberation becomes an empty fantasy.
Click here to read the full reflection by UUA Vice President for Programs & Ministry Rev. Ashley Horan. Our final offerings: a blessing by Rev. Verdis LeVar Robinson, a musical blessing by Rev. Erin Walter, a Time for All Ages by CB Beal, a body practice by Rev. Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa, and a prayer by Rev. Kim Wildszewski.
May We Envision a World of Community Care and Abundant Love
Over the next couple of weeks you may hear murmurs of a gathering for UUs to deepen our commitments to climate justice…in the coming months, we hope those murmurs will turn into a cacophony of excitement around the UU Climate Revival. Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era will connect our congregations through inspiring collective worship, creative learning, new frameworks at the intersection of climate and justice, and the chance to weave together the threads that have always linked our deepest commitments. Two words for you: “Stay Tuned!” Or maybe three words are better: “Don’t miss this!”
As we’ve been envisioning this powerful event, I am now (and forever!) reflecting on the question: how can we center love in the climate movement? For me, it’s all about relationships. I do not want to build the world that is right for me, I want to collaboratively cultivate a world where all communities thrive.
This means shifting from a singular mindset, a narrow focus, a myopic vision into an expansive reimagining, an abundance of possibility, and - yes, friends - collective liberation for all. There is no quick and easy fix to the problems of our world. For me, there are unbounded possibilities when I recognize that I alone do not have the answer. Of course, I can’t single handedly solve the complex, interconnected crisis that is climate change, but goodness sometimes it’s easy to fall into that mindset. There’s no time! There’s no time! I am here to remind us all that there is always time for love in our movements.
When it feels like everything in the world is on fire and my heart breaks with the enormity of it all while my task list has more than I can possibly accomplish in a year of Sundays, it can be tempting to push forward as fast as possible. Still, if I do that, and you do that, and everyone pushes forward independently, well, you can see where that gets us. For me, this means embracing curiosity, humility, and grace. Spending time with colleagues to learn about who they are, what their vision is, how they think we should move forward, so that when we do move forward, we move forward together. Does it take more time to build relationships? Does it slow down the work? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
I find grounding and renewal in Viktor Frankl’s quote, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Today, I invite you all to pause. Slow down. Reflect on how you can center love in your actions. I promise your next thought, your next response, your next move will be all the better for it.
And as we all move forward refreshed and grounded in love, I hope to see you at any one of the many nourishing and inspiring events in the coming months. From Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with Green Sanctuary 2030 to the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle or even just taking a break to watch the recording of Reimagining with Energy Democracy, we have several opportunities to build community, learn, get inspired, and move forward together with love at the center of our climate actions.
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 - Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting
Join our next Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting, Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 on February 21. The Green Sanctuary 2030 process provides congregations with an accessible and impactful framework to advance climate and environmental justice. Learn from the recently recognized Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregation, the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, about the ways their congregation renewed their environmental justice commitments through the GS2030 process. Register to join us!
Our monthly Green Sanctuary 2030 Community meetings celebrate success, build capacity for teams, elevate how the local context of oppression shapes our climate action, and celebrate the ways the Green Sanctuary 2030 process supports our work on climate justice, community resilience, congregational transformation, and mitigation - all balanced with the faith-filled call to impactful action on climate. Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET.
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act Funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! If this sounds like you, we invite you to join the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle on Wednesday, February 28 at 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET to learn with other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities.Get up to speed by reading this short primer on the opportunities available for congregations, then bring your questions and good ideas to the PLC!
The IRA Peer Learning Circle is a place for congregational leaders to come together to brainstorm, get into the weeds, and figure out the best way to access these funds for our congregations and our communities.RSVP today!
For a deep dive on how one congregation is reducing emissions, check outNet Zero by 2030 with the People’s Church of Kalamazoo.
Available Now: Reimagining with Energy Democracy
On January 25, we offered a webinar on Reimagining with Energy Democracy. You can review the slides here and watch the recording here.
Reimagining with Energy Democracy was part of two larger events, Side With Love’s 30 Days of Love and our Clean Energy as a Human Right series. Throughout this series, we’ve invited folks to embrace a visionary approach to clean energy, not just as a technical solution, but as a moral imperative. Rather than falling into the scarcity mindset so common in climate spaces, we encourage you to embrace abundance and ensure that our clean energy work nourishes thriving communities for all.
The Clean Energy as a Human Right series includes:
March 21 to May 2 (International Day of Biodiversity) is Spring for Change! Together with a variety of Unitarian Universalist partners working for climate justice, the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth is offering activities and educational events to provide congregations and individuals with spiritual grounding and resources to face our ecological crises with courage, compassion, and a commitment to justice. Click here to view the full schedule of offerings.
World Water Day: Water is Life - March 21, 2024
7:00 pm ET/ 6:00 pm CT/ 5:00 pm MT/ 4:00 pm PT
World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness that 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water. We are honored to welcome Rev. Dr. Clyde Grubbs and Rev. Karen Van Fossan into a conversation on this important and sacred day. They are defenders and protectors of water; two spiritual leaders in our UU movement who will help us build a heart-centered approach to a right relationship with Mother Earth and her waters.
Rev. Dr. Clyde Grubbs is a Unitarian Universalist minister who served congregations in Indiana, Quebec, Massachusetts, Texas, Florida and California. He honors his Native American heritage (Texas Cherokee) which informs his spiritual understanding and practice, and his anti-racist and anti-oppressive commitment He has worked for peace, justice and equality since he was in the Unitarian Universalist youth movement, Liberal Religious Youth.
Rev. Karen is also a Unitarian Universalist minister and author of A Fire at the Center: Solidarity, Whiteness, and Becoming a Water Protector. She is an abolitionist, licensed professional counselor, and former defendant in the Line 3 pipeline resistance. She is pursuing a Doctorate of Ministry specializing in abolition through Pacific School of Religion. Clyde is on her dissertation advisory committee. Karen lives in Fargo, North Dakota, on the traditional lands of Anishinaabe, Lakota/Dakota, and many Indigenous peoples.
Join Us for 2024 The National Faith + Climate Forum! We are excited to invite you to join us for an inspiring and transformative event designed to strengthen local congregations through care for creation – The National Faith + Climate Forum on April 16th from 12:00 pm - 5:15 pm ET / 11:00 am - 4:15 pm CT / 10:00 am - 3:15 pm MT / 9:00 am - 2:15 pm PT! Join other faith leaders in our area to hear inspiring national speakers and participate in purposeful discussions, practical workshops, and energizing collaborative sessions. All clergy and lay leaders, younger and older congregants, are welcome to join, whether you have been caring for creation for some time, or just getting started. We all can be part of the solution in our congregations and our community. Learn more and register here.
Safety. Re-Imagining. Possibility. Resilience. These themes have been the backbone of this year’s 30 Days of Love, with each offering extending to us the opportunity to hone our ability to pause, listen, and receive even as the world around us continues its frenetic hum. We hope that these weekly gifts from our siblings in faith have invited you to breathe deeply, feeling – even if just for a moment – a sense of connection with kindred spirits who share a soul-deep yearning for justice and wholeness.
At the most basic level, spiritual practice is spending regular, intentional time turning away from despair and fear, toward connection and commitment. At Side With Love, we believe this kind of spiritual practice is what makes sustained organizing for justice possible. Without making space in our lives to purposefully strengthen the musculature of imagination and hope, the soul of our movements atrophies and the dream of liberation becomes an empty fantasy.
As Black feminist, abolitionist, and scholar Angela Y. Davis famously says, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” But none of us can sustain that on our own. At Side With Love, our work is to build a skilled, rigorous, interdependent network of individuals, congregations, and partners who are in it together, day after day, season after season – audaciously fostering transformation and tending to each other’s spirits in the struggle.
As we close out this year’s 30 Days of Love, we know there is daunting work ahead of us in 2024. Never has it been clearer how deeply interconnected all our issues are, or how very high the stakes are for all of our communities. As we gear up yet again to defend and deepen our democracy, to fight for a society that honors the sacredness of all bodies, to push back against the dehumanizing impact of criminalization, to re-imagine a thriving future for our precious planet – we are grateful to be fighting and dreaming alongside you. Even after these 30 days of practice and pause, let us commit to making space – as individuals, as communities, as movements – for re-grounding in our purpose and nurturing our spirits along the way.
May we all be well, whole, and free. In faith and solidarity, Ashley
The Rev. Ashley Horan UUA Vice President for Programs & Ministry
p.s. As some of you know, I have recently moved into a new role at the UUA, so closing out this 30 Days of Love feels especially bittersweet as it will be my last year overseeing this beautiful project and the year-round work of the Side With Love team. We will be sharing more with you soon about these role transitions, including the exciting news that our beloved Nicole Pressley is now serving Side With Love as Acting Organizing Strategy Director – stay tuned!
Unitarian Universalists are called to grapple with the question of “what is safety?” Black liberation organizers say “We Keep Us Safe" as a way to proclaim that true safety comes from relationship, community and structures of care and mutuality outside of state structures of violence and control. How do we build our political and theological commitment to keeping each other safe in the face of state and interpersonal violence?
In this skill up, Nora Rasman and India Harris define safety and security grounded in abolitionist practice, discuss our spiritual mandate towards building sanctuary, and concretely outline what we can honestly offer to ourselves and each other. View the webinar below, or on Vimeo.
Skill Ups are our monthly series of trainings on organizing skills to help build our UU the Vote and Side with Love Volunteer Squads and help YOU build stronger teams in your congregation and community. We'll start the session with some spiritual fun and then launch into our training. See our past trainings.
Skill Up Recording and Resources: Community Safety and Security
The Side With Love Team is hosting our annual 30 Days of love, and the second week's theme was Reimagining :: Climate Justice. Reimagining encourages us to shake off our can’ts and embrace our coulds. What could the future hold if love was at the center of our selves, of our relationships, of our actions, of our world? When we embrace reimagining, we move past myopic, my-way-or-the-highway thinking and into the space of possibility; shifting from scarcity into abundance.
If we are to realize a world with no fossil fuels, where clean energy is a human right, and all beings thrive, we need new systems, norms, approaches, and ways of being to bring that world into existence. Without a clear vision of the world we want, we prioritize short term gains and false solutions; we advance goals disconnected from cultural shifts, we divide our focus, and our movements are out of alignment with justice. If we reimagine a world with justice, with love at the center, we cultivate communities of care where all beings thrive. Read my full 30 Days of Love, Reimagining :: Climate Justice reflection here.
We’ve got loads of opportunities for you to learn, act, and reflect on climate justice in the coming weeks, including:
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 on February 21
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle on February 28
In between these amazing events, watch the recording of our Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration! We heard from almost 20 congregations actively engaging in the Green Sanctuary 2030 process designed to transform our congregations through climate justice.
Get inspired, then get involved!
Get inspired with the Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration!
During our January Community Meeting, we hosted the annual Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration. Almost twenty Active Green GS2030 congregations shared highlights of their current work. Green Sanctuary 2030 teams engage in intersectional actions that align with our Four Essentials of Climate Action: Justice, Congregational Transformation, Community Resilience, and Mitigation. Learn from your fellow UUs transforming our congregations through climate justice!
On January 25, we offered a webinar on Reimagining with Energy Democracy. You can review the slides here and watch the recording here.
Reimagining with Energy Democracy was part of two larger events, Side With Love’s 30 Days of Love and our Clean Energy as a Human Right series. Throughout this series, we’ve invited folks to embrace a visionary approach to clean energy, not just as a technical solution, but as a moral imperative. Rather than falling into the scarcity mindset so common in climate spaces, we encourage you to embrace abundance and ensure that our clean energy work nourishes thriving communities for all. The Clean Energy as a Human Right series includes:
Image description: Graphic illustration from the Abolitionist Visions on Climate Justice webinar titled, "Side With Love. Abolitionist Visions on Climate Justice," with a sunflower with a raised fist stem at the top. In the top left is a group of people holding hands, sharing a thought bubble with a heart, and resting atop a half-earth with the words, "Plantcestors, Spiritual Natural Grounding, and Beyond the Human World." In the bottom left is a Council of Grandmothers. In the center is a globe with cities powered by clean energy and oceans with abundant fish and red arrows. On the right side of the document is a large scene featuring mountains; a thriving city with clean energy, rivers supporting birds and fish, happy families, healthy agriculture, and safe roads; and cows, sheep, bees, and people relaxing in a field near the words, "Loving Each Other" and "Caring for Each Other." The illustration features a diversity of plants and people of different races, ages, genders, and abilities. There are bright colors and gentle lines, and all the beings represented are free, connected, and safe. Logos: UUA, Create Climate Justice, Green Sanctuary 2030, See in Colors.
Imagedescription: Black and white version of the graphic illustration shared above, to be printed out and enjoyed as a coloring page.
Upcoming Green Sanctuary Orientations
If you’re interested in learning what is new with Green Sanctuary 2030 and our new, flexible process; or if you want other leaders in your congregation to understand how powerful this program is for wider community change, join one of our upcoming orientations!
Held the first Wednesday of each month at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, this orientation presents our new, flexible, accessible process and the opportunity to speak with me about what your congregation has been doing. Register now!
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 - Green Sanctuary Community Meeting
Join our next Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting, Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 on February 21. The Green Sanctuary 2030 process provides congregations with an accessible and impactful framework to advance climate and environmental justice. Learn from the recently recognized Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregation, the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, about the ways their congregation renewed their environmental justice commitments through the GS2030 process. Register to join us!
Our monthly Green Sanctuary 2030 Community meetings celebrate success, build capacity for teams, elevate how the local context of oppression shapes our climate action, and celebrate the ways the Green Sanctuary 2030 process supports our work on climate justice, community resilience, congregational transformation, and mitigation - all balanced with the faith-filled call to impactful action on climate. Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET.
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act Funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! If this sounds like you, we invite you to join the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle on Wednesday, February 28 at 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET to learn with other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities. Get up to speed by reading this short primer on the opportunities available for congregations, then bring your questions and good ideas to the PLC!
The IRA Peer Learning Circle is a place for congregational leaders to come together to brainstorm, get into the weeds, and figure out the best way to access these funds for our congregations and our communities. RSVP today!
For a deep dive on how one congregation is reducing emissions, check out Net Zero by 2030 with the People’s Church of Kalamazoo.
On January 25, Side With Love hosted a webinar on Reimagining with Energy Democracy. You can review the slides here and recording here.
Reimagining with Energy Democracy was part of two larger events, Side With Love’s 30 Days of Love and our Clean Energy as a Human Right series. Throughout this series, we’ve invited folks to embrace a visionary approach to clean energy, not just as a technical solution, but as a moral imperative. Rather than falling into the scarcity mindset so common in climate spaces, we encourage you to embrace abundance and ensure that our clean energy work nourishes thriving communities for all. The Clean Energy as a Human Right series includes:
This webinar was also part of our 30 Days of Love, Reimagining :: Climate Justice. Reimagining encourages us to shake off our can’ts and embrace our coulds. What could the future hold if love was at the center of our selves, of our relationships, of our actions, of our world? When we embrace reimagining, we move past myopic, my-way-or-the-highway thinking and into the space of possibility; shifting from scarcity into abundance.
If we are to realize a world with no fossil fuels, where clean energy is a human right, and all beings thrive, we need new systems, norms, approaches, and ways of being to bring that world into existence. Without a clear vision of the world we want, we prioritize short term gains and false solutions; we advance goals disconnected from cultural shifts, we divide our focus, and our movements are out of alignment with justice. Consider what this radical reframing could look like. How would it feel? What does not exist in that future world? What is the shift that needs to happen in you to commit to this future? Bring this reimagining to your work in your relationships, congregations, and communities.
Big thanks to the sponsors of this event, including: the Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns, People Power Solar Cooperative, POWER Interfaith, The Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth, Reamp Network, UUs for Social Justice, UU Service Committee, UU College of Social Justice, JUUstice Washington, UU Women’s Federation, UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina, and Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley.
We do this work together, with love at the center of our climate actions, and I am so grateful for the support and collaboration and unique work of each of these amazing organizations.
Recording and Resources: Reimagining with Energy Democracy
Rev. Dr. Michael Tino Interdependence has been a central concept to our Unitarian Universalist faith since our current principles were adopted in 1985, and yet, too often Unitarian Universalists have focused on the implications this has for our relationship with the natural world around us, without understanding that we, too, are part of that web.
Read more »
Tia Love is the wish for all human beings to have happiness. Compassion is the wish for all human beings to be free of suffering and what causes suffering.
Read more »
Quest for Meaning General Assembly (GA) is the annual gathering of UUs from churches across the country to worship together, learn together and make decisions about how we run the association of congregations, and what we stand for as an association of congregations.
Read more »
Interdependence has been a central concept to our Unitarian Universalist faith since our current principles were adopted in 1985, and yet, too often Unitarian Universalists have focused on the implications this has for our relationship with the natural world around us, without understanding that we, too, are part of that web.
What does it mean to acknowledge our place in the web of all existence?
Our Universalist ancestors taught us that we all end up in the same place when we die. Centuries ago, they meant that all souls would be in heaven, but I like to expand this theology and filter it through my scientific brain.
I am regularly stopped in my tracks by the unfathomable beauty of this notion that we are inextricably bound to one another. All of our being ends up in the very same place when we die—the same place it came from in the first place, the same pool of atoms and energy that has created all life since the formation of our Earth, the same protons and neutrons that will create all life for the duration of our planet’s existence.
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. We need to learn together to make decisions that consider the other beings with whom we share our fragile planet.
The theological notion of interdependence exists in relationship with other parts of who we are, and the most important has yet to be inserted into our principles. The most important concept that interdependence relies upon is accountability.
When we are accountable to someone or something, we hold ourselves responsible to them. When we are accountable, we allow others to measure our success. In justice work, we talk about accountability to those who are most vulnerable, those who are oppressed, those who are the targets of discrimination and hatred.
When we practice accountability in justice work, we take instructions from those who are most effected by the work we are doing.When we practice accountability, we learn to live the tenets of interdependence.
We understand that climate change is changing our oceans. Carbon dioxide is acidifying them, hotter temperatures are melting ice and causing sea level rise. We understand that we are interdependent with the beings of the ocean, and that our fate as humanity requires that we address their fate.
What does it mean to be accountable to them, though? What does it mean to be accountable to the people of Kiribati, whose island nation is disappearing under the sea? How do we live understanding that our actions might determine whether or not they have a home in a decade?
We understand that modern agricultural systems are wreaking havoc on our planet, on its soil, on its beings, on pollinators and birds and animals. We feel our interdependence with the earth when we eat. What does it mean to be accountable to this knowledge?How do we change our behaviors to take into account the needs of those most vulnerable to this change?
At CLF, we also understand that the addiction of dominant U.S. culture to mass incarceration is a direct descendant of the systems of oppression that founded this country. The United States began with slavery and genocide and continued into an era of terrorism at the hands of private individuals, and now it is the government itself practicing that violence.
We ask ourselves often what it means to be accountable to our incarcerated siblings, who are the targets of this violence. We ask ourselves often what it means to be accountable to Black and brown communities torn apart by systems of injustice. And now we are asking how our larger faith movement might be accountable to the voices of our incarcerated UU members. It changes the way we do things to practice that accountability.
I have heard some recently say that accountability is something they fear—because accountability requires those of us with power in this world to exercise that power as power-with, and not as power-over. It requires us to take directions, to listen, to understand relationship.
Instead of being something to fear, however, I invite us to think about accountability as the way in which we live our commitment to interdependence.
I find this concept to be new and exciting. Throughout my life I’ve been taught to depend on God and family only when I need help through hard times and to help those in need, but with the undertone of looking down on them, because they didn’t have family like I did to support them. In prison, my family is not here to help me, so I must make a place in my heart for my fellow prisoners, and accept their help as I also help them.
Through sharing this newsletter and talking about what I learn through the CLF, I have found people I can create a community with, and be interdependent with. We lean on each other by learning together through this church and community in written letters. We devour our mail from the CLF as soon as we get it, and can’t wait to get a pen pal (hopefully one from Boston, since the Red Sox and the Patriots are my two favorite teams!).
Connectedness
JOSEPH CLF Member, incarcerated in TX
“Every man and every woman is a star.” Those words, from Aleister Crowley’s Liber AL vel Legis, illustrates both the simplicity and complexity of the human condition. We are all special and unique, and are part of the larger cosmic dynamic set in place at creation. While special and unique, humanity must remember that they are not the center of everything, that the energy of others is necessary for vital existence.
Animism states that everything is alive and interconnected. This is true in the objective and subjective sense, in the microcosm as well as the macrocosm. We do not think twice about swatting a mosquito that bites or annoys us, but even those creatures play their part in the world. One may wonder how he/she/they are connected to the planet Jupiter, for example, as that planet is so far away from us on Earth. However, the universe is ordered. Jupiter is a sort of shield for Earth, taking hits from meteors that would end life on Earth. What benefit Jupiter receives from Earth is, as far as I know, unknown. However, because the universe is ordered, and reciprocity is one of the highest laws, one can rest assured that Jupiter also benefits.
The connectedness of humans comes through largely on the sociological scale. “People need people,” as the saying goes. However, the exchange goes far deeper than mere sociological “obligations.” People need people because nothing happens in a vacuum. We need each other to work out ideas, create the next generation, and bring about progress. These things all sound sociological, but in reality, they are the building blocks which enabled society in the first place. We not only need each other personally, we need each other professionally.
Remember, everything is alive and interconnected. As the form of creation with the highest ability to reason (as far as we know), humans are charged with recognizing our connectedness to the rest of creation, and being good stewards. Show me any religion, and I will show you the mandate for humanity’s stewardship. However, we must start with ourselves. If we cannot recognize and utilize our connectedness with each other as humans, the rest of creation will suffer.
Every human deserves the respect of every other human, and until the day this truth becomes manifest, our interdependence will remain a shadow of what it could be. Crowley’s formula, based in the Greek word Thelemn, stated: love is the law. Love under will. How strong is your will? Strong enough to hold the basic law of love? Reconcile your head and your heart, and you will find true connectedness with the rest of humanity, the world, and the universe.
A girl with a curl and a ton of sass
Went
to class.
Killed in (and by) NYC,
She quit the act
To teach the facts
In Chi – Shy town.
Having no idea that even though the earth was round,
A person without a net
could still fall off.
Sissy pushed
And pushed
The stone up the hill of affiliation by achievement.
And then, She thrashed, and
She crashed, and
Her fragile health fell into a million pieces of relationships,
Broken by unavoidable need, ugly crying, and underutilized potential.
Oversharing, overcompensating, and
Overwhelming disability took care of the rest.
With characteristic persistence she fought to file down the jagged edges,
to pivot on the axes of former privilege
until they were smooth again,
And all her,
Again.
To no avail.
“If you have your health”… they say.
But what do they say next?
Now she says, some day, you’ll all understand.
Some day you will all need more than an occasional hand.
What a world we live in;
The definition of a support system,
or its politicization
or vilification
or our procrastination
because we are all so busy resisting.
Everyone has a battle to fight, a bullet to bite, a goal,
in sight.
But nonetheless,
She is going blind.
Who will be her eyes.
Love is the wish for all human beings to have happiness. Compassion is the wish for all human beings to be free of suffering and what causes suffering. Prejudice and being judgmental alienates us from each other. A quote from Mother Theresa captures this well: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
The monk and theologian Thomas Merton also spoke to this, saying, “the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.”
Spiritual practices like meditation and prayer can be used as tools to calm our mind, make us more peaceful, eliminate worry, develop concentration and understanding, as well as control our anger and jealousies, and rid us of negative actions and guilt. It is a tool of transformation; by taking the time to reflect on ourselves and our faults, we can change them.
How you treat someone is dependent on you, and you are only responsible for your actions, not everyone else’s. You can choose to change or transform anything you don’t like about yourself. You choose who you are and also who you associate with.
Many of us were reminded of the central role of community and chosen family in our lives by the articles by Aisha Hauser and Christina Rivera in the most recent issue of the Worthy Now Newsletter. I was forced to create my own chosen family starting in 1990, when I was disowned by my family of origin for coming our as LGBTQ. I’m male to female transgender, and I’m not a devout Catholic, which didn’t earn me any familial credits. Since then, I’ve seen no one, and not been invited to any family functions, or been notified of any births, weddings, or deaths. Looking back at this time, my one regret is not finding the Church of the Larger Fellowship or Unitarian Universalism earlier — though I know I may not have been ready to join the community at that time, given the long spiritual journey I’ve been on and the religions and philosophies I’ve studied in the time past 30 years.
Prayer now helps me to center myself in love and compassion. I’d like to offer a prayer that may also speak to you:
Prayer for World Peace
Peace be spread throughout the Earth!
May the orient express peace,
May peace come from the East and go West,
May peace come from the North and go South,
And circle the world around!
May the garments of the Earth,
Be in the place to magnify the Divine.
In this day and hour of this night,
May the world abide in an aura of Divine Peace.
In our final week of 30 Days of Love, we explore the theme of “democracy and electoral justice” and how it is situated within our broader organizing.
As we begin our electoral work of 2024 together, I return to recent remarks by Working Families Party National Director Maurice Mitchell: the organizing principle that we build trust by telling the truth about the world we share. The core truth that I’m reckoning with this year is that democracy—the promise of our elected officials feeling a direct and accountable tie to us, their electorate—has always been aspirational.
I acknowledge the fear that many of us hold–that the threads of democracy we’ve had will fully unravel, and we will lose the pieces of representation we rely on. And I ground in the possibility that with the millions of people who have come into social movements in the past four years, we might push closer to a more just world. We will continue to fight and build the power of the working class multi-racial majority to exact wins from the people in power that will make all of our lives better.
This year, we will tell the truth to each other and ourselves about the political landscape we inhabit, the conditions and threats we are facing and the power of the left. We will share, heavy hearted, the truth that we are facing massive devastation and suffering by war and genocide, climate catastrophe, legacies of colonization and imperialism, and rising fascist politicians and policies. We will share the bitter reality that our social movements fighting for justice have grown while also facing massive backlash and criminalization. We will also share in the conviction that our work in the year ahead is to continue to fight for the political conditions where winning is more possible.
Organizing is where we draw hope and build long term power. It is where we invest in each other and our communities through relationships and partnerships with grassroots organizations. Organizing is where we move towards the aspiration of representative democracy; a place where local but consequential change happens. Collective decisions like distribution of parking spaces at our congregation, the neighborhood association being trained on de-escalation techniques and the passage of a new lead abatement law at city council.
When we look back on 2024 - what are the relationships we have built? How is our local organizing landscape stronger? How have we changed?
Our work should ground and fortify us for whatever outcomes lie ahead. This means building and strengthening our local organizing landscapes. Growing and sharing our skills and resources generously. Engaging humbly. And always telling the truth.
Unitarian Universalism calls us towards building democratic processes - in our congregations & communities. I hope we can do that together this year.
Nora Rasman is the new Democracy Strategist for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Organizing Strategy Team, which drives Side With Love and UU the Vote.
Unitarian Universalists are called to grapple with the question of “what is safety?” Black liberation organizers say “We Keep Us Safe" as a way to proclaim that true safety comes from relationship, community and structures of care and mutuality outside of state structures of violence and control. How do we build our political and theological commitment to keeping each other safe in the face of state and interpersonal violence?
In this skill up, Nora Rasman and India Harris define safety and security grounded in abolitionist practice, discuss our spiritual mandate towards building sanctuary, and concretely outline what we can honestly offer to ourselves and each other. View the January 21, 2024 webinar below, or on Vimeo.
Imagine a world where everybody - every body - was treated as truly sacred. Every body, whatever shape, size, expression, ability - was revered as one of the infinite expressions of the Divine. A reflection of God. An opportunity to celebrate the holy diversity that makes up our humanity.
When we witness our shared humanity we are called to care, to defend, protect, and affirm OUR very existence and our inherent worth. In this world, every body is cared for. Everybody has the ability to make the decisions they need to be safe and whole in their being. Every body has access to the resources they need to thrive. Everybody - every body - is held in a truly liberating love.
Unfortunately, we know that the world as it is today does not treat every body as sacred. Our country's dominant narrative of "safety," heavily influenced by ongoing colonization, criminalizes black and brown bodies. An oppressive and exclusive definition of gender, perpetuated by conservative Christian supremacy, dehumanizes queer and transgender bodies. The denial of access to even the most basic spaces and resources, exacerbated by a "profit over people" healthcare industry, invisibilizes disabled bodies. Injustices rooted in the capitalist and white supremacist systems that have shaped our communities for generations have created an apocalyptic world, brutalizing sacred bodies in a vicious cycle of exploitation, violence, and death. Our society’s dependence on these immoral forces has moved us so far away from our shared humanity that we no longer regard one another as threads woven together in a Divine tapestry.
These attacks on our bodies are attacks on our existence. They are neither isolated nor unrelated. We know this because there is a unified strategy and single solution. Devalue and criminalize our identities and institutionalize our people. We know the tactics and the institutions - prisons, jails, conversion therapy, conservatorship, detention, surveillance. These are the many tentacles of the carceral state that are strangling so many of our Beloveds.
And yet, it is within this fight where we can remind ourselves that another world is possible, but only if we commit to creating it together. In the midst of what is, there are glimmers of what could be. There are holy moments of possibility that we must lean into during these desperate times. From the quiet moments of self-determination and action, to the power of thousands showing up for collective liberation, there is hope in all of those moments that connect us.
Click here to read the full reflection for 30 Days of Love from Side With Love Disability Justice Associate Rev. Amanda Schuber, Trans Support Specialist Rev. Jami Yandle, and Congregational Justice Organizer Rev. Ranwa Hammamy.
This week's offerings: a Time for All Ages from Rev. Hannah Villnave, a body practice by Rev. Catharine Clarenbach, a prayer from Rev. Mykal Slack, a grounding practice by Canedy, and a blessing from Kaden Colton.
Upcoming Events:
February 7:UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary+ Pastoral Small Group 5pm PT / 8pm ET This is a space to share the hard stuff and to hold the hard stuff that others are navigating in their lives. During our time together, our lead chaplain/facilitators will share opening and closing words, and in between, there is time for everyone to share what's on their hearts, and receive what others are sharing about their own lives. It's a supportive, judgment-free place to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ people. Register to join.
February 22:Faithful Grounding 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad for an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Come drink in the music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together. Show up as you are, whatever is in your heart, and with your camera on or off as you need. Register to join.
February 27:UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary+ Monthly Gathering 5pm PT / 8pm ET Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ UUs and co-create support and community across our faith. This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. You can be a regular or someone new, someone who's been curious for a while but hasn't yet checked us out, somebody who is rejoining after time away, and all other ways of relating to this space! You are welcome here, and you are loved. Register to join.
Imagine a world where everybody - every body - was treated as truly sacred. Every body, whatever shape, size, expression, ability - was revered as one of the infinite expressions of the Divine. A reflection of God. An opportunity to celebrate the holy diversity that makes up our humanity.
When we witness our shared humanity we are called to care, to defend, protect, and affirm OUR very existence and our inherent worth. In this world, every body is cared for. Everybody has the ability to make the decisions they need to be safe and whole in their being. Every body has access to the resources they need to thrive. Everybody - every body - is held in a truly liberating love.
Unfortunately, we know that the world as it is today does not treat every body as sacred. Dominant ideas of safety have created inflated police budgets that rob our children of books and our communities of healthcare. Living outside prescriptive gender binaries can mean losing a job or your life. Our society isolates disabled people from community and care by denying access to housing, healthcare, and public space. But ideas alone aren't what is killing us. It is the allegiance to a values system that moves people to violent and deadly action – against their neighbors, their country, and sometimes their own children. Our society’s dependence on these immoral forces has moved us so far away from our shared humanity - brutalizing sacred bodies in a vicious cycle of exploitation, violence, and death - so that we no longer regard one another as threads woven together in a Divine tapestry.
These attacks on our bodies are attacks on our existence. They are neither isolated nor unrelated. We know this because there is a unified strategy and single solution. Devalue and criminalize our identities and institutionalize our people. We know the tactics and the institutions - prisons, jails, conversion therapy, conservatorship, detention, surveillance. These are the many tentacles of the carceral state that are strangling so many of our Beloveds.
The nature of the attacks on our sacred bodies means that those of us who live at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities face this violence on all aspects of our being. Within the carceral state - which already disproportionately targets black and brown communities - 40% of the state prison population are people with disabilities. The number is even higher for incarcerated youth. In just this first month of 2024, at least 322 bills targeted the transgender people, many in states where we have already witnessed the criminalization of reproductive health care. And among individuals specifically seeking abortions, 1 in 5 must travel out of state for care. That barrier creates unsurmountable burdens for individuals without the financial, social, or physical means to travel. As we dream of a world where everybody thrives, we find ourselves fighting to create a world where every body can at least survive.
And yet, it is within this fight where we can remind ourselves that another world is possible, but only if we commit to creating it together. In the midst of what is, there are glimmers of what could be. There are holy moments of possibility that we must lean into during these desperate times. From the quiet moments of self-determination and action, to the power of thousands showing up for collective liberation, there is hope in all of those moments that connect us.
Our connection isn’t just sacred, it is powerful. Some of these moments look like gathering together to protest anti-trans laws at the capitol; holding vigils to honor the community members whom we have lost; teaching our youth what rights they have over their own bodies; and growing mutual aid networks that strengthen each others’ access to essential resources and care. In those moments, where we show up together, our momentum is realized and the loneliness is lessened.
Changing the world has always happened when the few become the many. When we each find our common humanity in the strength of our values, we all find new ways to love the hell out of this world!
Knowing that God lives in the margins, on the edge of all possibility, we are called to engage in the world as it is, grounded in our values and in an all-encompassing LOVE, to turn it into what it could be. This week we hope you will take time to think about how to build the world of infinite possibility that we dream of, where our bodies, however they are, are expressions of all that is good and sacred in this world.
Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate Rev. Jami Yandle, Trans Support Specialist Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Organizer
The Side with Love Team is hosting our annual 30 Days of love, and this week’s theme is Reimagining: Climate Justice. Reimagining encourages us to shake off our can’ts and embrace our coulds. What could the future hold if love was at the center of our selves, of our relationships, of our actions, of our world? When we embrace reimagining, we move past myopic, my-way-or-the-highway thinking and into the space of possibility; shifting from scarcity into abundance.
If we are to realize a world with no fossil fuels, where clean energy is a human right, and all beings thrive, we need new systems, norms, approaches, and ways of being to bring that world into existence. Without a clear vision of the world we want, we prioritize short term gains and false solutions; we advance goals disconnected from cultural shifts, we divide our focus, and our movements are out of alignment with justice. If we reimagine a world with justice, with love at the center, we cultivate communities of care where all beings thrive.Read Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer Rachel Myslivy’s full 30 Days of Love, Reimagining: Climate Justice reflection.
We’ve got loads of opportunities for you to learn, act, and reflect on climate justice in the coming weeks, including:
Reimagining with Energy Democracy this Thursday, January 25
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 on February 21
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle on February 28
In between these amazing events, watch the recording of last week’s Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration! We heard from almost 20 congregations actively engaging in the Green Sanctuary 2030 process designed to transform our congregations through climate justice. Get inspired, then get involved!
Reimagine with Energy Democracy
Please join us for Reimagining with Energy Democracy this Thursday, January 25, to explore the ways Energy Democracy reimagines a world where everyone thrives and recreates the systems we need to bring about that future.
Energy Democracy helps frontline communities build power and liberation by reimagining how we organize our lives toward new systems that support the health and wellbeing of our communities and ecosystems. We invite you to explore the power of Energy Democracy and the ways our congregations can reimagine energy for our communities.
Join Side With Love and special guests from the Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns, People Power Solar, and POWER Interfaith for a webinar on Reimagining with Energy Democracy on January 25 at 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET. Register to join us!
Get inspired with the Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration!
During our January Community Meeting, we hosted the annual Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration. Almost twenty Active Green GS2030 congregations shared highlights of their current work. Green Sanctuary 2030 teams engage in intersectional actions that align with our Four Essentials of Climate Action: Justice, Congregational Transformation, Community Resilience, and Mitigation. Learn from your fellow UUs transforming our congregations through climate justice! If you’re ready to join the community, sign up for an orientation and join us for our monthly community meetings. The GS2030 orientations are the first Wednesday of each month, and the community meetings are the third Wednesday, both events are at 7ET.
Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 - Green Sanctuary Community Meeting
Join our next Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting, Renewing Environmental Justice Commitments with GS2030 on February 21. The Green Sanctuary 2030 process provides congregations with an accessible and impactful framework to advance climate and environmental justice. Learn from the recently recognized Green Sanctuary 2030 Congregation, the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC, about the ways their congregation renewed their environmental justice commitments through the GS2030 process. Register to join us!
Our monthly Green Sanctuary 2030 Community meetings celebrate success, build capacity for teams, elevate how the local context of oppression shapes our climate action, and celebrate the ways the Green Sanctuary 2030 process supports our work on climate justice, community resilience, congregational transformation, and mitigation - all balanced with the faith-filled call to impactful action on climate. Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET.
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act Funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! If this sounds like you, we invite you to join the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle on Wednesday, February 28 at 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET to learn with other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities. Get up to speed by reading this short primer on the opportunities available for congregations, then bring your questions and good ideas to the PLC!
The IRA Peer Learning Circle is a place for congregational leaders to come together to brainstorm, get into the weeds, and figure out the best way to access these funds for our congregations and our communities. RSVP today!
For a deep dive on how one congregation is reducing emissions, check out Net Zero by 2030 with the People’s Church of Kalamazoo.
Join UUSC on the Hill!
Join the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in Washington, D.C on Wednesday, January 31 to visit Members of Congress to advocate for solutions to the climate crisis.
We will be demanding that Congress take action to protect vulnerable communities from the devastating effects of climate-forced displacement:
Advance community-led solutions to climate-forced displacement in the United States; those closest to the problems are experts on the solutions.
Ensure Indigenous communities have the resources they need to apply for federal funding from bills like the Inflation Reduction Act.
Take accountability for the damage caused by U.S. fossil fuel dependency by increasing U.S. funding for the Loss and Damage fund.
Please visit bit.ly/UUSCHillDay to let us know if you’ll be attending and for a more comprehensive schedule. Please feel free to email Ivanna D’Alencon at idalencon@uusc.org if you have any questions.
Join the UU Ministry for Earth Board!
If you have a deep and embodied commitment to uplifting the need to face and adapt to the climate crisis, counter environmental injustice, and support the flourishing of all life, and if you feel drawn to support and contribute to the many offerings of the UU Ministry for Earth (www.uumfe.org), please reach out to the UUMFE Nominations Committee to share your strengths and desire to be part of the team. UUMFE is looking to develop a dynamic, multicultural, multigenerational anti-oppressive Board, inclusive of people of color, trans and gender-nonconforming people, young people, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, and/or frontline communities; people who self-identify with such identity are especially welcome to apply. Please contact SearchTeam@UUMFE.org to submit your resume and letter of interest. For details on roles and responsibilities of Board members, go here.
This Month: Learn, Act, and Reimagine for Climate Justice
On January 17, Side With Love gathered to celebrate the good work our congregations are doing to create Green Sanctuary in our communities! Green Sanctuary teams shared how they're transforming their communities through congregational transformation, climate justice, mitigation, and community resilience. Watch the recording here.
Image description: Graphic with a green and yellow gradient background and an open head with colorful flowers blooming out. Text reads, "Reimagining with Energy Democracy. January 25. 4 PT / 5 MT / 6 CT / 7 ET." Logos: Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns, Side With Love, Create Climate Justice, People Power Solar, POWER Interfaith, UU Ministry for Earth, Re-Amp Network, UUs for Social Justice, UUs for a Just Economic Community, UU Service Committee, UU College of Social Justice, JUUstice Washington, and UU Women’s Federation.
Reimagining with Energy Democracy January 25, 2024 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET | Online
Join us for Reimagining with Energy Democracy on January 25! For the last in our webinar series on Clean Energy as a Human Right, we invite you to explore the power of Energy Democracy and the ways our congregations can reimagine energy for our communities. Energy Democracy helps frontline communities build power and liberation by reimagining how we organize our lives toward new systems that support the health and wellbeing of our communities and ecosystems.
Join the Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns (OH), People Power Solar (CA), and POWER Interfaith (PA) for Reimagining with Energy Democracy on January 25, 2024 at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET Cosponsors include: Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns, People Power Solar Cooperative, Power Interfaith, UU Ministry for Earth, UU Women’s Federation, UUs for Social Justice, UU Service Committee, UUs for a Just Economic Community, Re-Amp Network, UU college of Social Justice, JUUstice Washington, UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina, Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley. RSVP here: bit.ly/EnergyDemocracyWebinar.
Image description: Graphic with watercolor sunflowers on a green background. At the top is a white UUA chalice and the Green Sanctuary 2030 logo, a chalice lit with a leaf flame. "Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle. Wednesday, February 28. 1pm PT / 2pm MT / 3pm CT / 4pm ET."
Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle February 28, 2024 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET | Online
We’ve all heard about the funding available for congregations to advance clean energy through Inflation Reduction Act Funding, but…really…don’t we all still have questions about how it works?! If this sounds like you, we invite you to join the Inflation Reduction Act Peer Learning Circle to learn with other UUs figuring out how to put these opportunities into action in our communities. Get up to speed by reading this short primer on the opportunities available for congregations, then bring your questions and good ideas to the PLC! RSVP here!
Tending SOIL
Reach out to Rev. Cathy Rion Starr if you'd like to learn more about the Tending SOIL (Skills, Organizing, Interdependence, Liberation) program at CRionStarr@UUA.org. To learn more, watch the introductory video here.
Recording and Resources: Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration!
The North Carolina Climate Justice Collective offered a framework for the 4 Rs of Social Transformation for people working on climate:
Resist: working against the current systems
Reform: working within the current systems
Reimagine: envisioning a just new system
Recreate: creating models for a just new system
We need people learning, acting, reflecting in each of the four areas. One approach is not better than the other; rather, they are complementary and each approach is as important as the other. Take a moment to think about yourself and the way you approach climate justice . . . Are you a Reformer committed to policy change? Do you take to the streets as a Resister? Do you orient to dismantling and creating new systems? Do you light up with the possibilities of Recreating? Once you find your natural inclination to this framework, ask yourself which approach feels the most difficult for you? Which one do you admire the most?
When I first learned about this framework, the first prompt was: “Where are you in your work?” And the second was, “Where are you in your heart?” For me, most of my climate work has been squarely in the reform and recreate with resist sprinkled throughout. In my heart, I reimagine. For me, the magic happens when we are curious, exploring new ways of thinking and being in relationship with each other and the planet. Reimagining encourages us to shake off our can’ts and embrace our coulds. What could the future hold if love was at the center of our selves, of our relationships, of our actions, of our world? What does the idea of “reimagining” climate justice call to mind for you? How does it feel in your body when you think of reimagining the future? When we embrace reimagining, we move past myopic, my-way-or-the-highway thinking and into the space of possibility; shifting from scarcity into abundance.
If we are to realize a world with no fossil fuels, where clean energy is a human right, and all beings thrive, we need new systems, norms, approaches, and ways of being to bring that world into existence. For the Abolitionist Visions of Climate Justice (see video) event in May 2023, we asked now Pres. Sofía Betancourt, Dr. Rashid Shaikh, and Antoinette Scully to draw a picture of the world they want to see. If you imagine the world we want to create, what does it look like? How does it feel? What does not exist in that future world?
Above is the illustration of the discussion. You can download or print the full-color image here (pdf). We also offer a black/white outline (pdf) of the drawing for printing to color at home or school.
Without a clear vision of the world we want, we prioritize short term gains and false solutions; we advance goals disconnected from cultural shifts, we divide our focus, and our movements are out of alignment with justice. If we reimagine a world with justice, with love at the center, we cultivate communities of care where all beings thrive.
Reimagining is not spiritual bypassing. It is not daydreaming with no action. It does not dismiss the harmful systems of oppression or ignore the climate disruption that is breaking our communities and our world. As we work toward a future where all are free, we must dream beyond our current circumstances. Those dreams are the seed of that future, and as we believe, we begin to shift our relationships, our commitments, and our actions to creating that world.
2023 was the hottest year on record, and we broke the record for billion dollar disasters by September. As we experience the climate crisis, we become increasingly distressed at the perilous state of our world. Climate anxiety, eco-anxiety, and climate grief are breaking the hearts of so many. Reimagining the future we want can soothe this anxiety while also helping folks recommit to meaningful action.
How? What are the connections between anxiety and imagining? How can reimagining inform our resistance? Our efforts to reform? What systems do we need to create? As we reimagine together, what new (and ancient) ways of being can we bring to our relationships? To our organizing? To our inner work? How can reimagining nourish our individual and collective spirits for the long haul?
We invite you to explore these questions and more as we reimagine together this 30 Days of Love.
Rachel Myslivy is the climate justice organizer for the UUA's Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team.
On Jan. 15-21, demand corporations stay out of policing our communities and end their involvement in Cop City!
The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to use millions of tax dollars and millions in corporate contributions to build one of the largest militarized police training facilities in the country in Atlanta. Corporations, which are not accountable to the public, are funding Cop City and the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Home Depot and UPS are among 21 corporations involved in sponsoring, financing, insuring, and building the facility. We are taking action to tell them to get out of policing in our communities. Please join with your community this week of Jan. 15 -21 to demand that these corporations end their involvement with Cop City.
Image description: Graphic by Paul Garner (paulartifice.com) with a powerful forest rising out of a hollow construction site behind a blue and orange bulldozer. The trees have trunks shaped like raised fists. Two people representing UPS and Home Depot are fearfully running away on the sidelines, carrying a box and bucket of dollars, which are fluttering out. In the background is a sunburst. “HOME DEPOT & UPS are among 21 corporations pouring millions into one of the largest militarized police training facilities in the U.S. So… WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO ABOUT IT? STOP COP CITY! Corporate Week of Action. Jan 15–Jan 21, 2024. Take Action!" The graphic includes a QR code and two URLs: afsc.org/CopCityAction and bit.ly/StopFundingCopCity.
The construction of Cop City would destroy much of the city's largest urban forest, warming nearby majority Black neighborhoods by as much as 10 degrees. Similar projects are being considered in other cities.
Private sector corporations—which are not accountable to the public—are funding the Atlanta Police Foundation as well as other private police foundation projects.
Image description: Header with a rainbow hand drawn heart and a blue and white calendar with January 15-21 underlined on a black background. "30 Days of Love. January 15 - January 21. Weekly Theme Safety :: Decriminalization."
Welcome to the first week of 30 Days of Love! This year’s theme is “Imagining an Interdependent Future.” With each new year, we move into an intentional holy time of spiritual nourishment, contemplation, and embodiment. A new year can carry with it the weight and grief of the former while inviting us into possibility and prophecy of the new. We enter 2024 witnessing unconscionable suffering and injustice at a scale that calls us all to deeply reimagine a future where we all thrive. The only way through this moment is together, bound by a commitment to our shared humanity and interdependence. 30 Days of Love offers a place to steady and stretch as we faithfully journey toward wholeness and collective liberation. Together, let us imagine our interdependent future and order our work along this path.
In the first week, we explore the theme of “safety” and how it shows up in our world and our decriminalization work. Click here to read the full reflection from Side With Love Field & Programs Director Nicole Pressley.
This week’s offerings: a Time For All Ages by Rev. Mylo Way; a Body Practice from Jess Hunt; a prayer by Rev. Cecilia Kingman; a blessing from Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen; and a Grounding Practice for Safety by Lora Powell-Haney.
On January 11, Side With Love joined our partners at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and American Friends Service Committee to learn about the history of police foundations and the threat they pose to democracy. We took a close look at the funding behind APF—and explored how people can organize to stop them through collective corporate divestment. You can watch the recording here.
Across the country, for-profit corporations are funding private police foundations. With this dark money, these police foundations pour millions of dollars into militarized policing that harms Black and Brown communities.
That includes the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), which is seeking to build Cop City. APF's funders include big corporate names like Bank of America, Coca-Cola, and Cox Enterprises. It's also the largest police foundation in the U.S., despite Atlanta only having the country's 39th largest population.
Welcome to the first week of 30 Days of Love! This year’s theme is “ Imagining an Interdependent Future.” With each new year, we move into an intentional holy time of spiritual nourishment, contemplation, and embodiment. A new year can carry with it the weight and grief of the former while inviting us into possibility and prophecy of the new. We enter 2024 witnessing unconscionable suffering and injustice at a scale that calls us all to deeply reimagine a future where we all thrive. The only way through this moment is together, bound by a commitment to our shared humanity and interdependence. 30 Days of Love offers a place to steady and stretch as we faithfully journey toward wholeness and collective liberation. Together, let us imagine our interdependent future and order our work along this path.
In the first week, we explore the theme of “safety” and how it shows up in our world and our decriminalization work.
In “Letters from a Birmingham Jail,” Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words and context offer us an important lesson. First, that we need each other to survive. Second, we learn that when you challenge a usurped power held by the state, criminalization is a routine tactic to repress a people rising up to be free.
Today, we are experiencing a contest for power: accountable collective governance for all or power organized and held by the few. This contest is not new.
To me, it is clear that a new world is emerging. As the Civil Rights movement helped usher in a new day, we are witnessing the mass mobilization and subsequent violent repression that are hallmarks of political and social transformation.
But as we are reminded in this letter, before criminalization becomes a political tactic of disconnection and domination, it is first a spiritual acquiescence to dehumanization and disposability. We deny a moral mandate of mutuality in search of the protection of power over others.
As our nation struggles to realize the promise of liberty and justice for all, it also reckons with the ways it has used oppression to construct an idea of safety that relies on the comforts of those in power. We have witnessed this in battles around integration, access to medical care for trans people, book bans, and more. This country has erased people from history, from legal recognition, and from the public square in order to secure power in a world demanding change.
The struggle for collective liberation must not be mistaken for a threat to safety. Today, we know the consequences are too great.
History teaches us what happens when we build a world around an exclusionary idea of safety. Our government carves borders, erects armies, surveils, polices, and imprisons the threat. And with each action towards this end, we make enemies of each other. We devote our resources, our labors, our art, and our children to mutual destruction. No one in this kind of world is safe.
Decriminalization is a political and spiritual project. Our work to Stop Cop City dismantles the false ideal of safety. This false ideal is destroying forests, intensifying violence against communities of color, and silencing the electorate. As people of faith, we cannot affirm the worth and dignity of all while privileging the well-being of a chosen few. We are not fully human when we separate ourselves from the humanity of others.
Decriminalization is a process of healing and (re)connection. A just and abundant concept of safety requires all of us. It proclaims a future where care and safety are abundant because our relationships are cultivated through mutuality, not domination. We act, showing up with and for communities to win campaigns and to grow a network of love, compassion and care. This is the work of community building. This is how we keep us safe.
In faith and solidarity,
Nicole Pressley, Field & Programs Director, Side With Love
This week’s offerings:a Time For All Ages by Mylo Way; a Body Practice from Jess Hunt; a prayer by Rev. Cecilia Kingman; a blessing from Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen; and a Grounding Practice for Safety by Lora Powell-Haney.
Recently a Young Adult Unitarian Universalist I know asked me “I know Love is at the center of our faith but how the hell am I supposed to love my oppressor?!” This is such a good question. As we embark on a new year with the knowledge a genocide is happening on one hand and constant consumer messaging on the other, how do we center Love?
To be clear, there are as many different kinds of love as there are grains of sand on a beach. Family love, friend love, partner love, pet love, etc. But when we talk about Love being at the center of our faith, the most relevant love is called Agape Love. Agape Love is known for its qualities of empathy and sacrifice. It wants the best for everyone and is intended for everyone. In the Christian faith, from which both Unitarianism and Universalism was born, it is the love God extends to us and the reciprocal love we extend to God. That love includes all things and all people. It is a covenant of unending care.
What Agape Love is not is absolution. It does not mean that we do not hold each other accountable for wrongs. It does not mean we do not name a genocide as a genocide. It does not even mean we have to like one another. We can go so far as to hate someone and still find Agape Love for them. This is because even in our hatred we still must see the humanity in the other person. Even if they have acted in inhumane ways, Agape Love, our UU Love, calls us to uphold their worth and dignity as we hold them accountable for the terrors they have committed. See the difference there, we can hold people accountable and uphold their humanity. We can Love them.
So after I got through that mini sermon, of course this UU had more to say! Here’s a replay of the rest of our conversation:
young adult:So I can tell them I love them even if I hate them…that seems hypocritical.
me: Why are you even talking to them if you hate them?!! If they’ve done something so terrible to you, why are you allowing them into your life?
young adult:Well you just said I have to affirm their humanity, don’t I have to engage with them to do that?
me: Goddess no! Agape Love says that you affirm their humanity, it doesn’t say that you are solely responsible for that.
young adult: So I can hate them and love them, just from a distance?
me:Yes, set a boundary. Make sure that their access to you is exactly as much or as little or as none as you want. There is no need to take care of your oppressor or abuser. Agape love means that when they are held accountable for their actions, it is done by someone else and it done while keeping their humanity intact.
young adult: Well what about revenge, what if I want them to suffer?
me:Ah, that’s really getting to the crux of it all isn’t it? It’s not about not wanting to love them or not. It’s that we want them to feel what we felt, suffer the way we’ve suffered. And we know that if we’re called to Love them, we can’t allow them to suffer. Even if we have. Even if we have at their hands. That’s really what this conversation is about isn’t it?
young adult:Well, yeah.
me: Will their suffering heal you? Will it make the world a better place? Will it in any way change what happened in the past?
young adult: No but…is this like the time you told me that hate is like drinking poison hoping that the other person will die?
me: Do you think it’s like that?
young adult: Hmmm, maybe. I’m gonna have to think about it.
me:Absolutely, that’s part of our faith too! And if you can, please let me know what you come up with because that’s how I learn and grow as a Unitarian Universalist too.
So beloveds, there it is. Let me know what you think so we can learn and grow together.
Through my eyes, I see all humans with equal vision, regardless of diverse qualities, color, gender, and belief — this is what love looks like to me. Through my senses, I perceive all as one and the same, directed by cosmic order, consciousness, self, God or Guru, which are all synonymous — this is what love feels like to me.
Through my ears I hear and hold no judgment, condemnation, ridicule, or punishments for whatever is said — this is God, through me, in me at all times. Love is God, and God is love: not separate from me, and never forsaking me, for me are one and therefore I am.
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.
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 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.
Desperate and alone, this trans heart has been,
forever seeking its needs in places bereft of such things.
Trying to make due with what’s at hand,
knowing its needs would never be met.
Dark and tainted this trans heart has been,
always ignored and forgotten in a world so cold.
Always being refused and abused,
rarely has it known the warmth and light of real love.
Hated and jaded this trans heart has been,
just for refusing to adhere to the world’s ignorance and lies.
Never rewarded for standing true to itself,
but always cast aside, unwanted by others.
Begging and pleading, this trans heart implores you,
those who have the capacity for love and caring.
Don’t let others rule who and how you should be,
let you heart judge; it knows the deepest truths.
Christina Rivera Recently a Young Adult Unitarian Universalist I know asked me “I know Love is at the center of our faith but how the hell am I supposed to love my oppressor?!”
Read more »
Rose Gallogly If you’ve been tracking the next 6 months of Quest themes, you may have noticed something: we’re using these themes to explore the Values of Unitarian Universalism, as articulated in the proposed new Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bylaws.
Read more »
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