We are in a time of expansive attacks requiring vigilant and growing resistance—a time when we are each called to take a side.

Last Tuesday, a young Black boy, Antwon Rose, was murdered by East Pittsburgh police, and despite recent developments, we know there is no guarantee for justice when police murder young Black and brown people.

Yesterday, The Supreme Court sided with Trump’s white supremacist agenda as it upheld the Muslim Ban.

And over the weekend, UUA General Assembly (GA) delegates overwhelmingly approved an Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) to “End Family Separation and Detention of Asylum Seekers and Abolish ICE.” Just three years prior, GA delegates approved an AIW expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for the abolition of prisons.

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Hi again from Kansas City! Today we witnessed our faith’s ability to vision a freer future as our General Assembly heard a proposed Action of Immediate Witness on ending family separation and abolishing ICE.

“...Unitarian Universalists are called urgently to prophetic witness and concrete action that would stop the incarceration and separation of asylum seekers and to call for the abolition of ICE. We are called to do this work in relationship with immigrant-led organizers, and to support and amplify their goals and their voices, through monetary donations and by showing up.” (draft text as of June 23, 2018)

Abolishing ICE is a visionary demand. And we are required to match that vision with our commitment and risk. Mijente is offering that vision and sounding the call to direct action on July 2nd in San Diego to confront and address the immediate crisis of the criminalization of Black and Brown communities. Black liberation organizers, LGBTQ organizers and faith leaders are answering the call. We remember General Assembly 2012 in Phoenix and our long haul commitment to dismantle the systems that harm all of us who migrate. Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen reflects, “I am going to San Diego because my citizenship and father’s access to a refugee visa are privileges to leverage and wield for the dignity of our communities and the freedom of our future.” We called to respond today with the skills, power, courage and urgency of our commitment. 

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We just touched down in Kansas City, where we will gather with thousands of other Unitarian Universalists for this years’ General Assembly under the theme All Are Called. At the same time, the threats against those of us who are immigrants, People of Color, Trans and queer, poor continue to grow in violence and scope. As people of faith and justice, we answer to a higher law of love and justice than the failed laws of this land that are harming our communities. 

Earlier this week, national Latinx base-building movement organization, Mijente, issued an immediate call to action to #ShutdownSessions #AbolishICE and #FreeOurFuture. View it here, read the transcript of it below and answer the call directly at: bit.ly/actionready.

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This year we are so excited to be working with Black Lives of UU leadership to bring General Assembly 2018 attendees a Public Witness that is dynamic, creative and rooted in longer-term relationships and work. Whether you’re in Kansas City, at home or on the road, there are meaningful ways for you to plug into this work - both before, during and after General Assembly. Review Jailed for Being Poor: How the Money Bail System Criminalizes Poverty webinar and check out these resources on the movement to #EndMoneyBail. The opportunities for Public Witness this year offer a clear link between criminalization, community protection and beyond. To build with Black-led organizing locally creating solutions towards maternal health, community safety, and liberation. We look forward to you joining us in person and through these online opportunities. 

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rateful to bring you our next installment in our bi-weekly messages with a prayer, a contemporary spiritual and justice leader and a song speaking to our spirits. This is our third and last of several offerings featuring UUs in Chicago doing radical work for justice. One contemporary spiritual and justice leader to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

CHICAGO UU RADICAL CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUAL & JUSTICE LEADER

Upon attending First Unitarian Church of Chicago for the first time in 2012, Andrea Freerksen cried in the back of the sanctuary. In that space it became acceptable for her to be herself - an ever-evolving, 27 year-old, UU humanist, at least according to the spirituality test she had taken.

To live her faith Andrea needed to connect to more justice work in the community so she started showing up at local actions put on by the Black Lives Matter Chicago chapter along with other UU young adults: at vigils to mourn people murdered by the police, at rallies outside Chicago Police headquarters demanding accountability, at marches through the city bringing attention to an issue that many wanted to ignore. Because First U of Chicago is on the southside it was important for her to show up at these community actions, to listen to and learn from her neighbors, to use her privilege as a white, middle-class person in ways that might offer some protection from police and connection to well-resourced communities. Having other UUs present at these actions was a supportive experience that helped Andrea to connect her politics and faith, to grapple with the complex emotions and realities that were shared in these spaces.

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Grateful to bring you our next installment in our bi-weekly messages with a prayer, a contemporary spiritual and justice leader and a song speaking to our spirits. This is our second of several offerings featuring UUs in Chicago doing radical work for justice. One contemporary spiritual and justice leader to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

RADICAL CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUAL AND JUSTICE LEADER

Ronnie Boyd on imagining and honoring her ancestors: “I love books and I love reading and sometimes I forget that Black slaves were forbidden from learning how to read so centuries later to be a Black woman who can read, is educated, and works on political ed is fucking rad if I do say so myself.”

"I often feel I am trapped inside someone else's imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free." - adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategies

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