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.
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 Continues
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.
Week 2: Democracy & Voting Rights – live events this week include:
Action: Phonebank for Voting Rights on Sunday, January 30.
Political Education: January 27: Webinar: Building Power and Democracy.
Worship: Friday, January 28: [http://Friday Songs of Joy.] – Friday Songs of Joy.
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
AN ACTION OPPORTUNITY from MOUNTAIN TRUE
Tell the City of Hendersonville How You Want Them To Invest ARPA Funding!
The City of Hendersonville has been awarded $4.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. City Council’s vision is to use ARPA dollars to fund transformative projects that address challenging community needs. Before selecting specific projects to support, City Council wants to hear from the community to help determine priorities. Learn more and Take the survey.
UPCOMING EVENTS at UUFH and with our partners in Climate Justice:
(chronological order)
Program: Voter Suppression
February 8, 4:00 PM via Zoom
Join us to explore the kinds of activities usually identified as voter suppression. Context will be provided on the justification both for and against these voting measures. The program will also explore the evidence on the effects of implementing recently adopted voting measures.
Presenter:
Dr. Ashley Moraguez, Associate Professor in Political Science at UNCA. Dr. Moraguez’ expertise lies in American politics, particularly Congress and the presidency.
Register for this program HERE
After registering you will receive a Zoom link to attend the meeting.
“Environmental Injustice: Race, Class, & Climate Change”
Environmental Injustice: Race, Class & Climate Change with Will Barber III
Sunday, February 20, 2022: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET
Join us on Sunday, February 20, at 4:00pm for “Environmental Injustice: Race, Class & Climate Change” with Will Barber III. Barber’s presentation will focus on the many social justice implications of climate change and will be followed by a conversation and Q & A period.
[This event is co-sponsored by UUFH.]
This will be an opportunity for participants to consider deeply how environmental racism and climate injustice can be addressed systematically and within their communities, congregations, and lives to create a just, sustainable, and compassionate future. This event is being sponsored by the Creation Care Alliance of WNC, MountainTrue, Conserving Carolina, First United Methodist Church of Hendersonville, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hendersonville, First Congregational Church of Hendersonville, Trinity Presbyterian Church of Hendersonville, St. James Episcopal Church of Hendersonville, and Grace Lutheran Church of Hendersonville.
This conversation will be offered via Zoom as well as streamed in two in-person locations, Contemporary Baptist Church in Hendersonville and Grace Lutheran Church in Hendersonville. At Grace Lutheran, there will be two streaming rooms: one in English and one in Spanish. We hope you will attend this important event!
A bit more about Will Barber III:
William J. Barber grew up in eastern North Carolina, where, under the tutelage of his father, Bishop William J. Barber II, and mother, Rebecca Barber, he developed at an early age a deep commitment to social justice and environmental stewardship. He now works as an environmental and climate justice scholar and advocate, with nearly a decade of social justice organizing experience and deep academic training in both the science and the law behind environmental and climate issues.
William received his B.S. in Environmental Physics from North Carolina Central University and earned his juris doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of law, where he focused on environmental law and policy.
He currently works as the Director of Climate and Environmental Justice at The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis. He also serves as a member of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary’s Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board, as well as co-chair for the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign Ecological Devastation committee.
The more that we work together, the greater impact we have.