Category: Social Justice

News from the Social Justice Committee or related to social justice and posted by another group

Reconciliation “Network” — We Are All Part of the Network

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Why a Reconciliation “Network”?

Many of us are actively involved with reconciliation.  Many of us have questions and aren’t sure where to turn for answers.  Many of us would like opportunities to learn more and to have dialogue with others. In acknowledging all of this, our Reconciliation Network reflects the fact that we have no special committee or group responsible for reconciliation. We are all part of the network.

A fluid working group is meeting at various times (rather than a set time/day) to nurture this network and you are welcome to join us. The Reconciliation Network webpage and working group will be evolving and changing.  For now, Melody Mason and Lynn Armstrong are co-facilitating meetings of the working group.

You are welcome to contact us with questions, ideas and suggestions.

Amnesty International Letter Writing Group

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An Amnesty International letter-writing group is hosted at the church on the second Tuesday of each month 7 – 9 pm

Meeting location: alcove in Hewett Hall

Everyone is welcome!

If you’d like more information, contact David Buchanan. davidfbuchanan@gmail.com

Building Bridges Workshop – Mar 30, 2019

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Save the date of March 30, 2019, for an experiential workshop at UCV, “Building Bridges Through Understanding the Village,” to help us learn more about First Nations ways and values and the impact of colonization with facilitator, Kathi Camilleri.
Learning outcomes include:
– A cognitive and emotional understanding of traditional First Nations values
– A deep and emotional insight into the depth and inter-generational effects of colonization
– Methods for creating supportive relationships in a positive way
Registration details will be available soon.
This event will be co-sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of UCV and the Quakers.

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 

News from the Environment Team!

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The Environment Team, also known as the Environment Committee, met in September to plan activities for the new year. Topics discussed ranged from  pipelines to Sunday lunches, exciting new monthly Forums, another Intergenerational gathering of old and young activists, educational events on Alternative energy sources, a  small appliance repair table, Religious Education workshops on new ways of talking about Climate change and other controversial topics, and brainstorming ideas for Earth Day 2019! We tossed around a lot of ideas for one year  but the Enviro Team is a community with a range of different skills, connections, passions, and experience.

From left to right. Back row: Mary, Cindy, Dianne, Elizabeth, Karl, Hanno. Front row: Olga, Catherine, John, Rob, Tamiko

Keep an eye out for announcements in the Order of Service, on the UCV website, and on posters in Hewett Hall this fall as we put on some highly entertaining and educational events!

One more thing–We are high energy but we are also friendly and welcoming! If you want to join us or just learn about what we are up to, come to our monthly meeting in Biddle room every third Sunday at 12:30 pm.

Rental Discount for Not for Profit Groups

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We have a variety of room sizes and arrangements available for rent when the congregation is not using them.

We offer a special discount of 10% for not-for-profit groups. Contact Marcus.  More details here.

Some of the organizations who rent space with us are:

 

Note: to be eligible for discount, the organization must have a charity number or registered society number.

Outreach Opportunites Fund Nominations

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Every year, the Outreach Opportunities Fund (OOF) Committee selects three recipients to be given 25% of the funds from the Sunday collection. For more information and a list of past recipients please go to this page.

Recipients receive the funds for four straight months: the average amount awarded is about $1,800. The Committee seeks nominations from the congregation.

Nominated organizations must comply with OOF’s selection criteria: registered charities that undertake social justice or environmental sustainability work with a focus on vulnerable or marginalized communities. Priority is given to smaller charities in the Vancouver area rather than large national ones. The charity must not have a formal affiliation with a religious organization or political party. Only nominate a charity with which you have some connection, e.g, donor, volunteer, board member, etc.

Please click below to fill in form.

OOF Nomination form

Submit the form to Melody Mason or leave it in the OOF mail box in the UCV office.

Rise For Climate International Day of Action

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UCV Joins Rise for Climate
the International Day of Action
September 8th, 2018

Rise for Climate is organized world wide by 350.org

When: September 8, 2018

Where: Different events at different venues.

Go to the link above and type in your city for local events or check out the following events:

  1. At UCV, faith leaders and community from Metro Vancouver will gather for a meaningful, multicultural dialogue on the power of ‘spiritual activism’ to engender global peace, sustainability and harmony in the face of an uncertain future. Sat. Sept 8, 9:30am,-3:30pm.

    2. https://multifaithaction.jimdo.com/

  2. Burnaby, BROKE will have music, speakers, graphics on “Suffering Salmon” in streams on Burnaby Mountain at the Watch House , Sat. Sept 8, 11am-3pm

    3. https://www.facebook.com/events/328347781240170/

    https://actionnetwork.org/events/suffering-salmon-climate-change-and-trudeaus-pipelinetanker-project

  3. Downtown Vancouver, Climate Convergence and UBCC350  are organizing a rally and march at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Sat. Sept. 8, 4 pm

    http://www.ubcc350.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/events/328347781240170/

Why: We need people to step up and let leaders know what we are already doing to prevent climate catastrophe.  The Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Sept. 12-14 needs to hear from the grass roots: us. We need to join forces to fight the Kinder Morgan / Trudeau Pipeline Expansion (TMX).

Who: Everyone who cares about the impacts of Global Warming.

How: RSVP and show up!

Pride in the Metro Vancouver Unitarian Community

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Pride in Vancouver happens right smack in the middle of the summer. So although we at UCV are very proud of the fact we were officially certified as a Welcoming congregation for BGLTQ folk way back in 1995, we sometimes forget about planning to celebrate Pride Week. Last year when we did a vision survey, one of the comments struck me as significant: How would anyone visiting know about our positive support of queer issues?

We have a tasteful certificate hung in the sanctuary, but even if you notice it, it’s pretty subtle. Unless you’re already in the know, you wouldn’t know that “Welcoming Congregation” status had anything to do with awareness and support of diverse genders and sexual orientations.

North Shore Unitarians with the poster they created for their entrance way. They’ve generously shared the template and advice for when we decide to make something bigger.

Recently the Board supported an initiative to work with the other three Metro Vancouver congregations to recertify as Welcoming Congregations and share ideas and commitment around celebrating Pride.

We’ll be submitting an application to the West Bequest for financial support to produce and print a brochure and inviting speakers on educational topics into our congregations. To this end, we plan a couple of gatherings to share our own stories and discuss ways in which UCV can move forward.

Our UCV group is just getting started, but I’m pleased to say that along with myself, Mary Bennett, Martha Saunders and Leonie Armstrong have joined our team. If you’d like to be involved or have comments or suggestions, please send to me for forwarding to the team.

This year the South Fraser Congregation celebrated with bubbles at Surrey Pride.
UCV Congregational photo that was sent to Orlando, Florida, showing our support.

Because, as mentioned, the term “Welcoming Congregation” doesn’t mean much to any one who hasn’t already been involved in the Unitarian religion, we are considering a new and more explicit name for our team. Many schools and universities use the term Gay-Straight Alliance, but since “gay” often has a more specific meaning than the umbrella term “queer”, I found on wikipedia that some “GSA” groups are now using the term “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” and one (Christian) school in Alberta–probably others–use Gender and Sexuality Acceptance.

Beacon at New West Pride 2018.

We will be doing some preparatory work over the fall, and expect to offer some workshops and presentations in 2019.

Please do contact me with your suggestions or questions.

posted by Mary Bennett

Protect the Inlet Flotilla : No Tankers in the Salish Sea

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Above: Unitarians stand with the Tsleil-Waututh to stop Kinder Morgan’s diluted bitumen pipeline and tanker project. The rally took place at the ancient village site of Whey-ah-Wichen in what is now Cates Park, North Vancouver

At least 12 Vancouver (and Victoria) Unitarians gathered with hundreds of water protectors and families from across the Salish Sea to support the Protect the Inlet Flotilla on Saturday, July 14, 2018.

The flotilla of canoes and kayaks gathered and paddle together from the ancient village site of Whey-ah-Wichen, or Cates Park, North Vancouver, across the Slilwat or Burrard Inlet, to the razor-wire fence that Kinder Morgan had erected in the water without consent.

Tsleil Waututh elder, Ta’ah Amy George, led a water ceremony.

Back in Slilwat/Cates Park, chiefs and other First Nations activists from across BC waited for the flotilla and celebrated their return with shared stories, songs, dances, and inspiring words.