Running for Someone Else’s Life
We re-post an excerpt of this story from the Standing on the Side of Love blog, reminding us how much stronger are the bonds of love than of hate. – Ed. May 07, 2013. This post was written by Helene Newberg. Helene is an avid runner and a member of First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Arlington, Massachusetts. Marathon 2012 In 2012, I was out of town on Patriot’s Day. Watching social media for Boston Marathon news, I started seeing reports that a student was found drowned in a local pond, less than a mile from our house. My heart sank; I did not want to believe that a child maybe from my community could die…
Youth Civil Rights Pilgrimage July 6–13
Summer trip, spring deadline The UU College of Social Justice has teamed up with the UU Living Legacy Project to offer this special social justice pilgrimage for high school youths. This experience begins and ends in Atlanta, Ga., taking us to the key civil rights cities of Birmingham and Selma, Ala. As we explore a few of the most important sites of the civil rights movement, we’ll also meet some of the people who helped change the the United States in ways that still inspire our world today. Read more about the program. Group discount available. APPLICATION DEADLINE SUNDAY, MAY 5. APPLY HERE.
Leadership Con
Earlier this month, from Friday, April 12th to Sunday, April 14th young adult leaders from across the country gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, NY for a leadership conference. Many were from the greater Metro NY area, with some traveling from Pennsylvania, and one participant from each Maine and Washington State! We came together for a weekend in learning community, knowing that our connections with one another provide support and catalyze our own growth. Participants reflect: “It was great to connect with other young adults from around the country. It’s easy to forget as a young adult away from my home church that there’s this whole community out there just waiting to be…
Bidder 70 Speaks for the Earth
This story is re-posted from Democracy Now. – Ed. UU Tim DeChristopher, Bidder 70 In a Democracy Now! exclusive on Earth Day, climate change activist Tim DeChristopher joins us for his first interview since being released from federal custody after serving 21 months in detention. DeChristopher was convicted of interfering with a 2008 public auction when he disrupted the Bush administration’s last-minute move to sell off oil and gas exploitation rights in Utah. He posed as a bidder and won drilling lease rights to 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from oil and gas extraction. Read the Full Story and Watch the interview with Tim DeChristopher here.
A Shelter in the Storm
On Tuesday night I, like the rest of this city and the country, was struggling with what do in the wake of the tragic bombings of the Boston Marathon. Boston is my adopted hometown for now, and I felt a very strong connection to Monday’s events, even though I did not personally know anyone who was injured. I’ve walked down Boylston St. where the bombs went off many times, and could easily have made a fateful decision to go down to watch the marathon that day; also, a young boy who was killed lived only a few blocks from me. So I attended one of the candlelight vigils that were blossoming around the city in…
For Survival of the Best in Us
Hello Family, I have not written a Pastoral Message in a few months for a number of reasons, primarily because I have not had a burning desire to write. However, something has happened recently that has compelled me to communicate with you this month. On Sunday, March 17, two high school football players were convicted of raping a 16 year-old girl after attending a party where alcohol was being used/abused, following a football practice game. The crime came to the attention of the world after photos and video footage was posted online. As I have read blog posts and watched pundits on TV talk about the case, I have been thinking about how…
After Being Protested by Westboro Baptist Church
This insightful reflection is from Katie Carpenter, co-president of the Unitarian Universalist campus ministry group at Vassar about their visit from Westboro Baptist Church on February 28th. -Kayla The Westboro Baptist Church protested Vassar College February 28th, for supporting LGBTQ rights. In response Vassar’s current and alumni community came together amazingly to denounce Westboro Baptist’s views, in part by raising over $100,000 for The Trevor Project, which provides crisis support and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Seeing people rise to meet the challenge made me incredibly proud of my community, and what it strives to stand for. But what made me prouder was to hear Vassar alum Joseph Tolton, the National Minister of Social…
Defying Unreason of Westboro Baptist
Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Vassar College on Thursday, February 28. Students at Vassar are mounting a response (read how you can help them here). – Ed. Illogic of Westboro Church Teachings provokes defections Earlier this month, Megan Phelps-Roper, grand-daughter of WBC founder Fred Phelps explained in an interview why she and her sister Grace left the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC homepage, WBC on Wikipedia) congregation in November, 2012, declaring, “The idea that only WBC had the right answer seemed crazy. It just seemed impossible.” (Read the full interview here.) At WBC Megan Phelps-Roper managed the protest schedule and pioneered the use of social media to get their message out, but states, “I definitely…
PCD YA Climate Justice Workshop
The UU young adult network of UU Ministry for Earth is hosting our first PCD regional young adult gathering on climate justice this March 1-2 in Berkeley, at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. Join other UU young adults for this mini climate justice training and organizing workshop. We will explore how UU values call us to ecological justice work: How does the climate crisis intersect with race and class? How are we connected to climate-changing, community-destroying resource extraction and energy production processes? What economic, political, and social dynamics are at work? Come strategize with us for a more powerful, inspiring and effective movement and explore what we can do together as a community in…
The Future of GA
Tweet in on the discussion on Twitter at #futureofga Do you know about the 5th Principle Task Force which was commissioned to examine how to restructure the Unitarian Universalist Association’s annual business meeting General Assembly (GA)? In 2009, this group issued a report with some big recommendations for how to restructure this Unitarian Universalist event. Commissioned by the UUA Board of Trustees, the report describes the governance activities of the GA Plenary Sessions as “dramatically broken,” “not really democratic” and “economically discriminatory.” In place of the current GA structure, the task force recommends a more focused business meeting every other year buttressed by intentional local engagement throughout the two-year process, with or without an additional program assembly….
