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, March 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 for DREAM SCHOLARSHIPS
The Social Justice team has put together a special service for this Sunday, February 6 to begin our recurring Outreach Collection for the Dream Scholarships.
To ensure that your donation is correctly credited:
- put your cash donation in the plate on February 6 (for the remaining Sundays in February, any cash donation must be labeled for the Outreach Collection),
- donate by check through March 1 – please put Outreach Collection in the memo line.
- donate online through March 1 at the UUFH website – select “Outreach Fund”.
Let’s make this another stellar Outreach Collection.
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!
FEBRUARY 11: A Special UU Justice NC Friday Action Hour about School Boards
On Friday, February 11 at 11:00am, we’ll hear from NC UUs about their experiences advocating for safety and equity in their schools during this volatile but important moment for school boards across our state and country. You will also get the tools and support you need to become a more informed and active participant with your own local school board. Join via this Zoom Link.
MORE Opportunities for Action
Per UPDATES from Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson, Executive Director, UU Justice NC:
POSTCARDS COMING SOON: A new postcard campaign is about to launch and we’ve made a commitment to complete kits for 1000 postcards to encourage voter registration in Union County, NC (southeast of Charlotte, NC). Watch for more information!
“National Popular Vote” Talk & Action Hour – Monday, February 7, 7:00-8:15pm.
For all but one of the 500,000 elected offices in our country, the candidate with the most votes wins. The exception is the President/Vice-President. In our century, the effects of “winner take all voting” and emphasis on the battleground states have led to two second-place presidents. Hear from Suzanne Fisher, President of the Asheville-Buncombe County League of Women Voters, about how the National Popular Vote, a constitutionally conservative approach that retains the Electoral College, will ensure that the President will always be the candidate with the most popular votes.
Co-hosted by the UU Congregation of Asheville, UU Fellowship of Hendersonville, and the UU Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley. Register here.
NOTE: This is the same event as listed for some weeks in Justice Workers News under the red, white, & blue VOTE buttons banner in a promo received from the Henderson County League of Women Voters. You do not have to sign up again if you’ve already registered there.
30 Days of Love continues!
The theme for week 3, January 31- February 6, is “Decriminalization and Racial Justice”
See: Week Three: January 31 – February 6 – Decriminalization & Racial Justice for the full text.
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
“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.
Upcoming UUFH WORKSHOPS
“OUR PLACE IN THE WEB OF LIFE” begins February 26
This multipart series from the UUA starts February 26 in the UUFH Sanctuary.
Join us for a four-session workshop designed by the UU Ministry for Earth ‘Our Place In the Web of Life’! At our annual meeting last year, our congregation voted to become more involved in Climate Justice, so here is your chance to deepen your understanding and explore this issue; and develop a greater awareness of our congregation’s impact on our local community and beyond. Through videos, music, participatory research, visual mapping and ethical reflection, we will discuss who is “upstream” and “downstream” from us, the consequences of our actions on other people and ecosystems, and what it really takes to embrace interconnectedness. Each session will be facilitated by a team of two facilitators.
To sign up, please contact Jan Partin at janpartin@nullhotmail.com or 828-606-9191
- Session 1 February 26 9am-12 noon, UUFH Sanctuary
- Session 2 March 12 10am-12 noon, UUFH Sanctuary
- Session 3 March 26 10am-12 noon, UUFH Sanctuary
- Session 4 April 2 10am-12 noon, location outdoors TBD
Masks and social distancing will be in effect for each of the sessions
This series culminates with our workshop from Rev. Fred Small, “GIVE LIGHT: SPIRITUAL SUPPORT for CLIMATE ACTIVISM”, on April 9.
Watch for REGISTRATION information in the coming weeks.
Rev. Small will also lead our service on April 10.
For more information about Rev. Small, see his website: revfredsmall.com
The more that we work together, the greater impact we have.