Tag: social justice

Four National CUC Online Gatherings – Victoria Day Weekend

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Thursday, May 14: Informal Plenary

3:30 pm PDT | 4:30 pm MDT | 5:30 pm CDT | 6:30 pm EDT | 7:30 pm ADT  – 1.5 hours
Prior to the AGM on May 16, the CUC Board invites you to an informal dialogue amongst congregational delegates, leaders, board members, and CUC staff to discuss issues of importance to congregations, in support of the CUC’s vision, goals, and strategic priorities.
Register in advance at  https://bit.ly/CUCPlenary to join the plenary.

 

Friday, May 15: National Gathering
3:30 pm PDT | 4:30 pm MDT | 5:30 pm CDT | 6:30 pm EDT | 7:30 pm ADT  – 1.5 hours
We will gather across the country, virtually, on the Friday of what was to have been the start of the National Conference. Come, we will join together to celebrate our connections and our faith. All welcome!

Register in advance at https://bit.ly/CUCGathering to join the gathering.

All are welcome.

Saturday, May 16: 2020 Annual General Meeting

9:00am – 12:30pm PDT | 10:00am – 1:30 pm MDT |  11:00am – 2:30pm CDT | 12:00pm – 3:30pm EDT |1:00p.m. – 4:30 pm ADT

WHERE: Online via Zoom. All members of CUC member congregations and fellowships can participate but only registered delegates can vote.

Register in advance at https://bit.ly/CUCAGM to attend the meeting.

 

Sunday, May 17: Cross-Canada Sunday Service – Live Online
9:30 am PDT | 10:30 am MDT | 11:30 am CDT | 12:30 pm EDT | 1:30 pm ADT | 2:00 pm NL
Join UUs from across Canada for a unique opportunity to celebrate in a national Sunday Service together. Rev. Norm Horofker from the Universalist Unitarian Church of Halifax, with his ministerial colleagues, will lead a worship service for Canadians across the country and worldwide. Let’s come together virtually to celebrate our national connection and our national conference. Join us on Zoom or watch on the CUC’s YouTube channel. We welcome you, wherever you are. Register in advance at https://bit.ly/UUSundayService to join the service.

 

Outreach Opportunities Fund Update

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Outreach Opportunity Fund Recipients (Feb-June)
 
Normally, the Outreach Opportunity Fund (OOF) donates a portion of the Sunday service collections to a registered charity over a four month period. Given the current circumstances, the OOF Committee took the decision to send a cheque for $2,000 to the current recipient, the Aboriginal Mother Centre (AMC), in mid-April rather than wait until the end of May. The funds are urgently needed to assist AMC extend its outreach services during this covid-19 crisis.
Even though OOF donations have decreased over the past few weeks due to having virtual services, we still found that there were sufficient funds in our OOF  account to offer an additional $2,000 to another recipient. Our focus was on the Downtown Eastside (DTES), given the critical situation the homeless and other vulnerable groups are facing in that community. The Committee decided to award the funds to PHS Community Services Society to help meet the demand for more meals in the DTES as so many kitchens have closed down because of covid-19 restrictions. Meanwhile, we will continue to ask congregants to send in their donations to OOF to replenish our fund. A new recipient will be selected for the four month period beginning in June. All contributions are gratefully received. Donate Here

Dismantling Racism Survey

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A future where Unitarian Universalist congregations actively work on dismantling racism: that’s what we’re focusing on. The CUC’s Dismantling Racism Study Group needs your help. We’ve put together this short survey to find out where we’re at, and where we could go. Give us 15 minutes of your time today to honestly tell us about what you’ve observed in your own congregation – we’d really appreciate it.

Click the link to go directly to the survey!
–> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRSGSurvey <–

UCV’s Tamiko Suzuki and Doug Ennenberg are both part of the CUC Dismantling Racism Task Force.

New Outreach Opportunities Fund Recipient, Aboriginal Mother Centre

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The Outreach Opportunities Fund Committee has selected a new recipient, the Aboriginal Mother Centre (AMC). It is dedicated to taking at risk mothers and children off the streets by providing housing  in 16 suites for mothers and up to three children under nine years old. The Centre is able to offer all the support, tools and resources a mother needs to regain and retain her child. These resources include counselling, advocacy, education, training, and spiritual and social support. AMC also carries out homelessness outreach, a family wellness program, licensed daycare and a community kitchen. Nominated by a congregant, AMC will receive funding from the Sunday Collections starting 1 February.

CUC Dismantling Racism Study Group

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Members of the Canadian Unitarian Council’s “dismantling racism” study group are preparing for their audit of anti-racism work in Canadian congregations. The group plans to distribute a survey on this topic to Canadian Unitarians, with its release tentatively set for January. Rev. Julie Stoneberg of the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough, co-chair of the eight-person group, says they are hoping for the broadest possible participation by Canadian clergy and laypeople.

Doug Ennenberg and  Tamiko Suzuki from UCV, and Catherine Strickland from NSUC, are the western representatives in the group.

https://cuc.ca/enews-november-26/?utm_source=Canadian+Unitarian+Council+List&utm_campaign=0ac6efa9c1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_15_08_49_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9434666947-0ac6efa9c1-328231665#dismantling

Outreach Opportunity Fund Nominations

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Every year, the OOF Committee selects three recipients to be given 25% of the funds from the Sunday collection. The Committee would welcome nominations from individuals or a group in the congregation for the next recipient of OOF funding. Nominated organizations must comply with the selection criteria: priority is given to local organizations undertaking social justice, refugee support and settlement and environment sustainability, with a focus on vulnerable or marginalized communities. For more information go the UCV website, or check the notice board in Hewett Hall for nomination forms.

Please click below to fill in form.

OOF Nomination form

You can submit the form to Melody Mason or leave it in the OOF mail box in the UCV office.

Contact Melody Mason with any queries.

Kids, Youth, and Justice

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What are UCV kids doing with Social and Environmental Justice?  

Justice work is integral to Unitarian Universalism; for many of us justice work—whether social or environmental—is spiritual work. When we take a good look at living the seven principles, we find that they call us to act for justice, equity, compassion, and democracy and we are called to take interdependence seriously.   

We bring these values of justice, equity, compassion, and democracy into our children and youth programs through stories, games, activities, discussion, and outdoor explorations. Our upper elementary students worked with the CUC’s Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Reflection Guide last year. We are looking for more opportunities to build relationship and learn about our indigenous neighbors. The Harry and UU Summer Theatre camp group chose to focus on “Waste” as the Horcrux (societal ill) they would fight, and we brought the Zero Waste Challenge to class in October under the theme of “Abundance.” We are continuing the challenge this month with “Courage.”  

The UCV Youth Group is currently exploring a focus for an Environmental Justice action project. Zero Waste and fighting the pipeline expansion are top of their list. Stay tuned for more information from our Youth! 

Justice Work Philosophy

My philosophy regarding doing social justice with children and youth is evolving. Sometimes we adults have a passion to bring knowledge and awareness of big issues to our kids; we want to make sure they are culturally, socially, and environmentally aware. I certainly have had this tendency with my own kids. However, I have recently noticed a sense of overwhelm in some of our middle elementary students. There’s a tendency to joke about wrecking the world which seems to be defensive humour in the face of very real problems. Adults are failing to protect the world, how are kids supposed to help? Why should they take on that burden? Where is the hope? 

Erin Leckie, from Be the Change, sent me a 1998 article from Yes! Magazine by David Soebel after I talked to her about kids and hope. I was inspired by Mr. Soebel’s perspective. He has important points to keep in mind as we feel excitement around bringing justice work into our programming with children and youth.   

What Shapes an Activist? 

“If we prematurely ask children to deal with problems beyond their understanding and control, then I think we cut them off from the possible sources of their strength.” 

“… there are healthy ways to foster environmentally aware, empowered students. One way to find the answer is to figure out what contributes to the development of environmental values in adults. What happened in the childhoods of environmentalists to make them grow up with strong ecological values? A handful of studies like this have been conducted, and when Louise Chawla of Kentucky State University reviewed them for her article, “Children’s Concern for the Natural Environment” in Children’s Environment Quarterly, she found a striking pattern. Most environmentalists attributed their commitment to a combination of two sources: “many hours spent outdoors in a keenly remembered wild or semi-wild place in childhood or adolescence, and an adult who taught respect for nature.” Not one of the conservationists surveyed explained his or her dedication as a reaction against exposure to an ugly environment.

photo: family plotWhat a simple solution. No rainforest curriculum, no environmental action, just opportunities to be in the natural world with modeling by a responsible adult.”  –David Soebel, 1998 YES! Magazine 

My takeaway goals for social and environmental justice with children and youth are: 

  1. Early Childhood: foster awe, wonder, and connection with the natural world/real people 
  2. Middle Childhood: Explore wider–neighborhood, city, learn about the world/people 
  3. Early Adolescence and up: Take initiative for Social Action–saving the world 

Within this outline, any idea for action that a child brings up independently is worth exploring and supporting. We believe in our ideas and act on them, that is our 5th principle after all! 

Go well, 

Kiersten E. Moore 

Director of Religious Exploration with Children and Youth 

UU Community in Europe 2019

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Berlin 2019, York, Global Social Justice initiatives…

Join this gathering in Berlin!

European Unitarians Together (EUT) – Retreat in Berlin, 7-10 June 2019

  • “EUT 2019 is a 4-day retreat and conference centered about the theme:

Vielfalt – Würze des Lebens? Variety – Spice of life?

  • We intend to explore the many faces of diversity: its challenges, its benefits and its potential for a better Europe. The event will be simultaneously interpreted into at least English and German.”

Past EUT Retreats (1983 – 2018)

Or visit one of these congregations 

  • Great Britain  170-180  congregations, from Aberdare to York

 

UU community elsewhere on the globe…in case you’re traveling (by sail boat, of course)

Some national UU social justice actions you can join

  • Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice – CUSJ is active on a wide range of social justice issues. Past action areas have included democracy, climate change, environment, peace, health, human rights, criminal justice, and more. And you can keep helping out in these areas.  Check out CUSJ current action areas and the CUSJ Archives of past actions.
  • CUC National Social Justice Team – email: Erin Horvath, CUC Social Justice Lead – Bringing together under one umbrella UUs across Canada who have been active in the CUC’s various Monitoring Groups (e.g., criminal justice, environment, racial justice, affordable housing…)

And if you’re traveling by social media…

The Rise and Fall of Unitarianism in America – YouTube Video 17 mins
Published 11 Oct 2018 by The Cynical Historian

And lest we forget – red and white poppies for remembrance and peace everywhere:

Angel of Mercy – Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, photo K Wilkinson