{"id":24100,"date":"2021-07-12T12:32:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/?page_id=24100"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:47:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:47:46","slug":"congregational-membership","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/congregational-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"Congregational Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><strong>UUSJ Partner Congregations<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>and Affiliated Organizations<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"color: #c40000;\">Give UU values a voice in our nation\u2019s capital!<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-24115 \" src=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/uuchurches-420x230.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"386\" height=\"209\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>UUSJ<\/strong> is more strategic and effective than ever; we continue to build a UU movement for direct federal engagement: advocacy, witness, amplification, and related education and activism. We believe in powerbuilding towards beloved community, for our families, our faith and our futures.<\/p>\n<p>We welcome all congregations, churches, or fellowships that wish to participate and find alignment with our vision and mission. We also invite partnership with organizations of similar disposition, especially UU-affiliated organizations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vision<\/strong>: A just, compassionate, and sustainable world community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mission<\/strong>: Advance equitable national policies and actions, aligned with UU values, through engagement, education, and advocacy.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><strong>In our work toward mission fulfillment, we have:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>We founded the Advocacy Corps, which regularly visits Congressional offices and has held nearly 500 in-person or virtual meetings. We have delivered over 11,000 letters and messages to Congress from UUs.\u00a0 We have explained UU values and positions to legislators and staff, drawing their attention to bills that incorporate those values.<\/li>\n<li>As part of a multi-year strategic planning project, we have seated a board representing multiple generations, racial backgrounds, nations of origin, and geographic areas, all charged with embodying a new vision.<\/li>\n<li>We are working to develop the necessary relationships with frontline groups supporting environmental\/climate justice, immigrants, racial and economic equity, voting rights, and democracy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Partnership with UUSJ is viewed as a collaboration. Together we aspire to sharpen UU&#8217;s direct federal engagement and achieve an unremitting UU presence in the nation\u2019s capital. To that end \u2014<\/p>\n<h4><strong><span style=\"color: #c40000;\">UUSJ partners with congregations by\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expanded our engagement: Growing into relationships for the work across all our policy issue areas with both UU and non-UU communities, coalitions, and networks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ramped up our advocacy: Founding the Advocacy Corps, organizing our policy volunteers for in-person or virtual Congressional meetings, and launching our action hour series.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Showcased UU concerns: Explaining our values and positions to legislators and staff, drawing their attention to how our values are present in federal policy and legislation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased our education offerings: providing briefings, webinars, and lay-leader convenings to learn more about our views on the root harms and root causes at play in federal matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Restructured our approach to the work: Reorganizing our board and bylaws to embody a new vision as an intentionally national organization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aligned better with frontline communities: developing the capacities and attitudes, as ongoing work, that more effectively cultivate and support authentic solidarity with the impacted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Partnerships with UUSJ are viewed as a collaboration. Together, we aspire to sharpen UU\u2019s direct federal engagement and achieve an unremitting presence for Unitarian Universalism in the nation\u2019s capital. To that end \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><span style=\"color: #c40000;\">UUSJ partners with congregations and affiliated organizations by\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providing regular updates on issues, legislation, witnesses, and advocacy actions;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offering members information and training to strengthen social justice activities;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sharing background research on UUSJ priority issues and news updates regarding relevant legislation being considered by Congress;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Encouraging individuals to participate in the Issue Action Teams that provide our research and help discern our positions;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inviting participation in direct federal advocacy, especially making arrangements and providing guidance for meetings with Congress on UUSJ priority issues;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enabling congregations to learn from others through periodic meetings of social justice leaders or similar events and briefings;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offering a ready means for UU ministers and lay leaders to urge involvement in Federal social justice issues; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connecting our partners, moral owners, and others in the work.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><b>Partners may choose to \u2026<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engage in social justice education, witness, and advocacy activities and events;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disseminate our education, advocacy, and witness information to their members;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inform and update UUSJ as to the justice priorities important to their community and its members;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support our visibility among their networks;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Foster participation in our educational offerings and briefings;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Encourage their members to join UUSJ as individual members; and\/or,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guide volunteers passionate about federal matters into a mutually beneficial relationship.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No aspect of the partner relationship is obligatory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UUSJ asks Partners to make an annual contribution as they are able. The recommended amount is 0.25% (one quarter of one percent) of the annual budget, but we appreciate any and all contributions.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some Partner Congregations have a budgeted line item, others hold a special event, and still others use a share-the-plate or special collection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Affiliated organizations are encouraged to consider this guideline and discuss the feasibility with UUSJ staff.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our request is designed to be flexible and responsive to differences between partners in various circumstances. Whether your house of worship is newly founded or established and vested; be it growing and flourishing or rebuilding and reorganizing; whether it&#8217;s rural, suburban, or urban, or perhaps even virtual. Similarly, for organizations, we invite relationship and exploration of our capacities together.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Congregational-Partnership.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Click Here to Enroll Your Congregation as a UUSJ Partner!<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><b>Click Here for Consideration of Your Organization<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>Please contact the Membership Implementation Team at <a href=\"mailto:info@uusj.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">info@uusj.com<\/a>\u00a0to further explore congregational membership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UUSJ Partner Congregations and Affiliated Organizations Give UU values a voice in our nation\u2019s capital! UUSJ is more strategic and effective than ever; we continue to build a UU movement for direct federal engagement: advocacy, witness, amplification, and related education and activism. We believe in powerbuilding towards beloved community, for our families, our faith and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/congregational-membership\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Congregational Partnership<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24100","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24332,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24100\/revisions\/24332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}