All members & friends are welcome to join the efforts of the Social Justice Outreach Team
SOCIAL JUSTICE & ALLIES FOR RACIAL EQUITY TEAM MEETINGS
We meet on the first TUESDAY of the month 1:00 to 2:30pm. via ZOOM
Our next meeting is TUES, FEB 1, 2022
All are welcome to attend; these meetings are your chance to provide input and contribute to our UUFH justice efforts. Contact Charlotte Corrigan for more information – i.e., agenda, prior minutes, Zoom link – if you would like to participate.
ARE updates and news can be sent to Charlotte Corrigan for inclusion in emails, eBlasts and Justice Worker News.
Want more JUSTICE NEWS? UUFH JUSTICE WORKER NEWS Contact Charlotte Corrigan to join the email list.
INPUT NEEDED: 2022-2023 CONGREGATIONAL PROJECT
Ready to take on a new Congregational Project?
Planning begins now so we can present options to the Fellowship and approve a Project at our Congregational Annual Meeting in June.
For guidance, see “the GARDINER MODEL” which Rev. Don Rollins introduced to the Social Justice Team early in his interim ministry.
The primary goals are to engage the greater congregation in designing, delivering, and assessing its justice programming; to give direction and focus to the committee(s) charged to lead the congregation in its justice ministries; and to better utilize justice resources – human, financial, or otherwise.
The project should be designed to involve all UUFH members in some of the offered activities or actions. If you wish to make a proposal, start with the example in the model document and then send your draft to the SJ-ARE team (Charlotte Corrigan). If you submit a proposal, you are expected to play a major role in project selection and implementation with your active participation and leadership.
Outreach Collection – “GROW OUR OWN”
New date to be announced
The “Grow Our Own” Scholarship Collection launch presentation was snowed out on January 16 but will be rescheduled once a new date is selected.
Our annual Dream Scholarship Collection was already on the calendar for February 6 which is a bit too close to be fair to both causes and to prevent any confusing overlap of incoming contributions.
UU Justice NC
Subscribe to UUJMNC to receive the monthly newsletter and action alerts at www.uuforwardtogether.org
DONATE to UU Justice NC HERE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION
from Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson, Executive Director UU Justice NC
FRIDAY ACTION HOUR
Every Friday at 11:00 UUs from across the state gather to recap the past week and take action on the issues impacting our state and country. In the coming month, we’ll Be Keeping the pressure on our elected officials to better promote the HOPE program. We always have good music to help us feel the justice movement in our bones! Join us via this Zoom link. If you can’t make it on Fridays, you can still take action at any time – just check our Weekly action list.
SIGN-UP MAKES IT EASY: e-mail sign-up – receive weekly updates. You can now sign up to receive UU Justice NC’s NEW Friday Action Hour Weekly E-mail that will include a promo of the week’s actions, the Zoom link, and the link to our Actions Google Doc. Click Here to Sign Up!
MORE Opportunities for Action
Per UPDATES from Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson, Executive Director, UU Justice NC:
30 Days of Love Begins This Week!
30 Days of Love is our faith’s annual season (From MLK Day to Valentine;s Day) of spiritual nourishment, political deepening, and collective action to embody our values and work for collective liberation. Over the next month, you can enjoy weekly offerings including spiritual nourishment programming, weekly opportunities to take action for justice, both individually and collectively, through Side With Love’s Action Center and weekly Political Education Events to help us sharpen our analysis.
Voting Rights – Call to Action!
Call Sen. Burr (336-631-5125) and Sen. Tillis (202-224-6342) and tell them to vote for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. This bill would strengthen our democracy by making it easier for every citizen to vote and by restoring protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act against discriminatory voting laws.
Gerrymandering Appeals
— The NC superior Court panel last week upheld the constitutionality of our existing voting district maps; on February 2 oral arguments begin of appeals to the state Supreme Court.
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE – RESCHEDULED
Saturday, January 29 at 1:30 PM
St James Parish Hall, 766 North Main, Hendersonville
***Face masks required***
There will be a brief program, then we bag the beans and rice to be handed out by The Storehouse. All ages are welcome. It’s fun and for a good cause. The event honors Dr. King with a community effort to help our neighbors.
Charlotte Corrigan is accepting monetary donations to pass along to the organizing committee. Donated funds are used to bulk purchase of beans and rice.
Donations of food pantry ITEMS will be collected at The Storehouse (1409 Spartanburg Highway) from 11:00am to Noon.
CLIMATE JUSTICE CONGREGATIONAL PROJECT
Having received UUFH approval to continue with this vital project, we can now move forward with some on-hold activities and seek new opportunities for congregational education and action, including use of UUA/& UU Justice NC resources, and continuing UUtheVote advocacy, with a focus on fair redistricting and voter rights.
We’ll add a new emphasis on the 8th principle per a separate congregational vote held at our Annual Meeting.
The 8th Principle states: “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
For more information about the 8th Principle, see 8thprincipleuu.org/background. This UUA site is organized by responses to these key questions:
what is the origin?
why now?
why single out racism?
what is beloved community”
what does it mean to be accountable?
The Fall 2021 UU World contains several articles of interest:
“Our Faith Calls Us to Antiracist Work” – by Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, our UUA President
2021 Statement of Conscience, “Undoing white Supremacy: A Call to Prophetic Action” – adopted at the 2021 General Assembly
“A Theology of Darkness” – by Rev. Kristen L. Harper
Find your copy in your ever-growing “to read pile” or look up the articles online at uuworld.org
UPCOMING EVENTS at UUFH and with our partners in Climate Justice:
The Story of Plastic Film Screening – a Virtual event JANUARY 26, 7 pm
Join MountainTrue and partners Asheville Greenworks, Environment NC, and the Sierra Club on January 26 at 7:00pm for a virtual screening of the film The Story of Plastic, followed by a live Q&A.
This documentary reveals the ugly truths behind plastic pollution and the false solution of recycling plastic. The Story of Plastic presents a timeline of how we ended up with our current worldwide plastic pollution crisis, as well as describing how the oil and gas industry has successfully influenced the narrative around it. From the extraction of fossil fuels to the global resistance fighting back, The Story of Plastic is a film describing one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues.
If you cannot attend the event on January 26, we still encourage you to register, as you will have the opportunity to watch this film between January 25-February 1 on your own time and listen to a recording of the Q&A after January 26.
The more that we work together, the greater impact we have.