Gratitude: More families Together

Gratitude: More families Together

Side With Love

One week ago, President Obama issued an executive order that would stop the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants. We asked several justice partners and UUs to share their thoughts, especially those who would be directly affected by this administrative action.

Whether or not you observe Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to think about families and communities who can now stay together. While many of the reflections below mirror the sentiments of people across the country who had hoped this action would include more people, there is recognition that there are glimmers of hope for many families who will now no longer live under fear of deportation.

Statement from Rev. Peter Morales on International Transgender Day of Remembrance

Statement from Rev. Peter Morales on International Transgender Day of Remembrance

Side With Love

“Living authentically takes courage, strength, and above all, faith,” said Rev. Paul Langston-Daley, in an email to supporters of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA) Standing on the Side of Love campaign.

His words resonate with me, because they are at once encouraging, yet terribly sad. Sad because as Unitarian Universalists and other people of faith commemorate International Transgender Day of Remembrance, I am reminded that in a society still clinging to rigid ideas about gender, our brothers and sisters who are gender non-conforming risk their very lives just to honor their authentic selves.

Reflections from the Border

Reflections from the Border

Side With Love

This email is part of our Voting Rights Campaign blog series. Today Jennifer Toth, Campaign Manager of Standing on the Side of Love, chats with Monica Dobbins and Bob LaVallee, seminary students from Meadville-Lombard Theological School. Jen, Monica & Bob just traveled to the U.S./Mexico border on a Border Trip sponsored by Standing on the Side of Love (SSL) and the UU College of Social Justice. With the mid-term elections just a week away, and just returning from their trip, they share what calls them to take action for justice. Click here to see more about the Campaign.

SSL: First, I would love to hear from you what called you to join this trip, Monica and Bob, what you hope you will get out of it, and where we go next.

Monica: I saw an announcement for the trip in a church newsletter, and saw that there were scholarships available for seminarians, so I thought I would apply! I’m in my first year at Meadville-Lombard Theological School and being a student, I knew I would need additional funds to pay for the trip, so I started a GoFundMe account. People all throughout my congregation, Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham chipped in, five or ten dollars here or there, and in the end, they paid for all my expenses. So I came to this journey with the support of my whole congregation, and I’m here really representing them.

Transgender Day of Remembrance: Living into Solidarity

Transgender Day of Remembrance: Living into Solidarity

Side With Love

On the eve of Trans Day of Remembrance 2014, Standing on the Side of Love’s Campaign Coordinator Nora Rasman sat down with Lourdes Ashley Hunter, co-founder and National Director of Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC) to talk about action, solidarity, healing and more. To see resources as you reflect and take action for Transgender Day of Remembrance click here.

Tell us about yourself. Who is Lourdes Ashley Hunter?

Well, just a little.  I am originally from Detroit, MI and recently relocated to Washington D.C. from NYC where I spent 12 years working in grassroots community organizing and non-profit management.  I’m an orator, researcher, dismantler of oppressive systems.  I have a degree in Social Theory, Structure and Change with concentrations in Race, Class and Gender Studies and a MPA.  I also love to cook, watch science fiction movies and drink wine.

We are Still Fighting for Justice: #GOTV

We are Still Fighting for Justice: #GOTV

Side With Love

This email is part of our Voting Rights Campaign blog series. Today we hear from Willie Nell Avery, from Perry County, Alabama, who is a stellar and inspiring civil rights veteran who had to fight for her right to vote in the early 1960s and today works in the Board of Registrar Office.

Interviewed by Dr. Janice Marie Johnson,  Multicultural Ministries and Leadership Director, and Annette Marquis, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director from the UUA’s Multicultural Growth Witness staff team on the road with the Living Legacy Pilgrimage.

My People of Faith: Will We Answer?

My People of Faith: Will We Answer?

Side With Love

When I was nine, a white UU adult told me after the service he loved that my black family worshipped at “his” church. “It shows how far your people have come.”

That confused me—I thought the folks at church were my people.

I am a proud, lifelong Unitarian Universalist. Some days I sing Spirit of Life to myself as I make breakfast. Coming of Age and YRUU (youth group) summer camps brought me ever-mingled comfort and stress. I am also black. The struggle for black freedom has long held a grip on my soul.

Growing up, I learned that Unitarians and Universalists traveled from near and far to Selma, Alabama in 1965, answering Dr. King’s call for clergy to join him in a march to end segregation. It was one of our young movement’s finest—and most tragic—hours. The Rev. James Reeb answered Dr. King’s call; just after arriving in Alabama, he and a small group were attacked. His companions survived; the young, white Unitarian minister succumbed to brutal injuries.

Standing on the Side of Love in Ferguson

Standing on the Side of Love in Ferguson

Side With Love

It is now Day Thirteen after the senseless death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. In the words of UUA President Rev. Peter Morales, “Ferguson is not about Ferguson. It is about the systematic dehumanizing of people all over America. As Unitarian Universalists, we have faith that it need not be this way. We can create a world that is accepting, fair, loving, and diverse.”

In the last thirteen days, UUs have joined many thousands of other people, both on the ground in Missouri and throughout the country, in calling for justice, peace, and love. Just yesterday morning Bi-State UU Ministers, the St. Louis area UU ministers’ association, gathered in Ferguson to deliver supplies and offer pastoral care to residents of the community, working with the group Praying With Our Feet.

Worship online with the Church of the Larger Fellowship

Worship online with the Church of the Larger Fellowship

Side With Love

“Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What does it mean to harness love’s power to stop oppression, exclusion, and violence? How do we stand on the side of love, bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice? Those are questions people of faith have been asking for thousands of years. Each of us, in our own day, must try to find and live our own answers.

I was privileged to be the founding director of the Standing on the Side of Love campaign, working closely with Campaign Manager Adam Gerhardstein and Helio Fred Garcia, who took our dream and created a strategic plan. But, ultimately, it was thousands of people like you who brought love’s power into the public debates on issues where, too often, fear and a desire for punishment dominate. So many different kinds of people have said: “Love’s people: Yes, that’s who my people are!”

UU RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONALS OF COLOR WITNESS WITH YOUTH FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE

UU RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONALS OF COLOR WITNESS WITH YOUTH FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Side With Love

On Thursday, March 13, participants in the Finding Our Way Home retreat joined leaders of Boston Mobilization in collaboration with Youth of Massachusetts Organizing for a Reformed Economy (YMORE) and Sub/Urban Justice to witness for economic justice and call for an increase in the minimum wage.

Finding Our Way Home is an annual retreat for Unitarian Universalist religious professionals of color, hosted by the UUA through the Diversity of Ministry Initiative. This year’s event, held in Boston, was attended by nearly 80 ministers, seminarians, religious educators, directors of music, and church administrators from across North America. In addition to community building, spiritual reflection, and collegial support, the retreat includes a service project—and this year, participants partnered in solidarity with YMORE, a cross-race, cross-class, and cross-neighborhood community of youth, as they shared their stories and demanded policies grounded in equity and justice from their government.

Load More