Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice

Saturday, October 16 9:30am-4:30pm

Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County

Media, PA

 Keynote Speaker: Rev. Leslie Takahashi-Morris
Coordinator Patricia Most

This conference will help us focus on personal work to help us become more authentically receptive and wholly present in our congregational relationships and in our community social action.  Believing that only bad people have prejudices deters us from examining the effects of internalized feelings of racial superiority and racial oppression.  To move Unitarian Universalism into a multiracial, multicultural future, we need to transform our congregations.  But first, we must transform ourselves.  Come join other UUs as we continue our personal journeys toward wholeness and encourage each other in our spiritual paths.

A flier is attached.

GO GREEN! DC area congregations are encouraged to use bus transport to and from the parking lot of Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church at 3215 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, MD 20783. Please email Carol Carter Walker at dartt(at)pbuuc.org  (We hope to have 35 – 40 riders and anticipate a cost of $50.00 or less depending on how many riders share the expense.)

Join the UU Service Committee (UUSC) in supporting our partners in their work to rebuild Haiti and ensure a just recovery for all Haitians. Our goal is to begin these volunteer trips in January 2011. Interested in participating? Let us know!

Sunday, October 24 3:30pm-4:15pm
DC Convention Center

A panel representing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities, moderated by a Unitarian Universalist minister, will address why and how these faith communities are responding to the environmental crisis, especially with regard to environmental justice issues. The “why” will address the basic theological and ethical grounding for taking action. The “how” will provide concrete examples of what various congregations are doing. And environmental justice will provide a focal point, ala Van Jones, for the responses. There will be ten to twelve minutes for questions and responses at the end.

Particpants are: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik serves as the director of Community Outreach for the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center. He was the first Muslim Chaplain installed at Howard University. The imam is the former chair of Government Relations for the Muslim Alliance in North America [MANA founded by Imam Siraj Wahhaj] and is the founding President of the Muslim Society of Washington, DC Inc. He is a leader in Northern Virginia on environmental issues.

Joelle Novey is the director of Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, which helps hundreds of local congregations to save energy, go green, and respond to climate change (www.gwipl.org). Joelle helps to
organize two of DC’s independent Jewish communities, Tikkun Leil Shabbat and Minyan Segulah, and is the co-author of “Green and Just Celebrations: A Purchasing Guide for Washington’s Jewish Families,” from Jews United for Justice (JUFJ) which offers specific suggestions for how families can make purchasing choices for weddings and bar and
bat mitzvah celebrations in ways that are mindful of environmental impact and workers’ rights (www.jufj.org).

The Right Reverend Eugene Taylor Sutton is Bishop of the Diocese of Maryland of the Episcopal Church. He previously served as Canon Pastor of Washington National Cathedral and Director of its Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage.  He is working to be known as “The Green Bishop.”

moderator: Rev. Cynthia Snavely, UUSJ Administrator

An event featuring the 2007-08 upheaval in Prince William County as captured on filmand a discussion of just and humane policy options for the region and the nation 

Panel to include Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada

 Event:   Award-winning film documentary “9500 Liberty” (with Spanish subtitles) and panel discussion on immigration conflict in Northern Virginia

When:  Wednesday, September 15, 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., $10 suggested contribution, childcare provided

Where: Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, 4444 Arlington Blvd (southwest corner of Route 50 and George Mason Drive, entrance on George Mason Drive), Arlington, Va.

 Film co-director Annabel Park, also a co-founder of the Coffee Party, will attend.

Prince William County residents clashed with each other and their local government in 2007 when the county board, under pressure from a wave of anti-immigrant protest, adopted a rule–closely related to the recently adopted law in Arizona–to involve local police in federal immigration law enforcement.  The award-winning documentary film “9500 Liberty” tracks the drama as the crisis evolves:  from the highly charged rhetoric on the street and on the Internet, to blunt confrontations between the county board and voters who bitterly rescinded their support of officials they believed had violated basic rights. In the film’s vivid portrayal of anger and fear, and the backlash of protest against perceived government overreach, former Washington Post movie reviewer Desson Thomson found “as powerful a booster of the democratic process as anything Frank Capra ever imprinted into our collective memory.”

A panel discussion following the 80-minute film will probe for regional lessons from the battle in Prince William County.  The panel will include representatives of the immigrant rights group Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, as well as Walter Tejada, a member of the Arlington County Board and chairman of the National Association of Counties 2009-10 Immigration Task Force.  Representatives of the news media are invited to attend. 

Prince William County residents clashed with each other and their local government in 2007 when the county board, under pressure from a wave of anti-immigrant protest, adopted a rule–closely related to the recently adopted law in Arizona–to involve local police in federal immigration law enforcement.  The award-winning documentary film “9500 Liberty” tracks the drama as the crisis evolves:  from the highly charged rhetoric on the street and on the Internet, to blunt confrontations between the county board and voters who bitterly rescinded their support of officials they believed had violated basic rights. In the film’s vivid portrayal of anger and fear, and the backlash of protest against perceived government overreach, former Washington Post movie reviewer Desson Thomson found “as powerful a booster of the democratic process as anything Frank Capra ever imprinted into our collective memory.”

A panel discussion following the 80-minute film will probe for regional lessons from the battle in Prince William County.  The panel will include representatives of the immigrant rights group Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, as well as Walter Tejada, a member of the Arlington County Board and chairman of the National Association of Counties 2009-10 Immigration Task Force.  Representatives of the news media are invited to attend.

Sunday, Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m.
UU Church of Arlington 4444 Arlington Blvd. Arlington, VA

Just what is “Ethical Eating” that UU’s around the country are currently exploring as a UUA Study Action Issue? The answer is complex, and depends on who is answering, but a group of members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (VA) are looking into the question and is considering answers. We’re starting with the movie, “FRESH,” on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m.
“FRESH” looks at the environmental aspects of our food chain. It features a Virginia farmer that Michael Pollan made famous in “The Omnivore’s Dilemna,” who is blazing a profitable, sustainable way of stewardship on land that his family has farmed for 3 generations. And of course Mr. Pollan appears throughout.
After the movie, there will be a surprise speaker who will take questions and lead a discussion. We will also have some local, organic foods to sample. In the meantime, you may review the UUA’s excellent Ethical Eating study guide online at: http://www.uua.org/documents/washingtonoffice/ethicaleating/studyguide.pdf . For further information please contact Bob Denniston at justdoitbob(at)hotmail.com or go to www.UUCAVA.org.

Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church [MVUC] planted an organic garden on its property in order to deliver fresh produce to organizations working with the low income and at risk populations on Richmond Highway [Route 1]. The project is part of the church’s food ministry and is funded by a grant from UUSJ. It is supported by the entire church community, particularly but not exclusively the social justice program, Green Sanctuary, the religious education program, and the green house group.

 The rationale for the project is that low income and at risk populations cannot afford expensive, organic vegetables. Thus those less fortunate suffer from economic injustice on multiple levels. MVUC also launched an inter-faith call to other churches that might own sufficient land to cultivate similar gardens, to enhance the quantity of vegetables that are being delivered to organizations working with at risk populations.

 In the summer of 2010, MVUC delivered an average of seven to ten pounds per week starting in mid-July, to two organizations working with the homeless on Richmond Highway: United Community Ministries and Rising Hope Methodist. They both feed low income families and homeless to the tune of over 500 a week. The need for food has quadrupled in the last few years due to higher levels of unemployment and home foreclosures. People found themselves in the streets and turn to these organizations for help.

Recently, Fall vegetables were planted based on these organizations’ areas of need. Over 40 people were involved in the care of the garden, including families with children. Interestingly, kids who previously had no interest in [organic] gardening are now asking their parents why they do not have a garden at home. The project was thus a winner on several levels.

 The project made the local news and the call to other churches to grow organic food for at risk families has been reinforced, see link http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=343675&paper=88&cat=104.

 For information, contact Isabelle Arnold,mi_arnold(at)msn.com

 
November 4–16

Participants will learn about UUSC’s unique eye-to-eye partnership with Caritas Pader, which has empowered thousands of people to return to their villages and rebuild their lives after a brutal 20-year civil war. Participants will also meet with the UU Kampala congregation; talk with Ugandan leaders of the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people’s rights; and visit the school and orphanage the Kampala congregation supports near Masaka. Early registration discount end on September 1. Find out more and download an application.

Suggested films for Social Justice Film and Discussion 
 

Please help create and edit this list.  Send comments to info(at)uusj.org

Due to the federal injunction blocking the most controversial aspects of Arizona’s SB 1070, Prince William County, Virginia remains the only jurisdiction in the United States to implement a law requiring police to check immigration status based on a subjective standard of suspicion.  9500 LIBERTY examines the climate under which the “Probable Cause” mandate became law, and reveals how the residents of Prince William County came together to repeal the measure after two months of implementation. Depicting a combination of traditional civic participation and new media tools, 9500 LIBERTY provides a blueprint for ordinary Americans seeking a fact-based, solutions-oriented approach to civic discourse, and a more informed and involved citizenry with regard to immigration and other critical issues. Purchase the DVD for $25.