Author: Heather Vickery

We Can Do Better – Reflections From A Border Delegation

May 13, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Congregational Trip, Immigration
Kim Duncan is a CSJ program leader from Portland Oregon. She led a delegation from two churches in Oregon, including her own. Last October, a group from three UU congregations in Oregon went on CSJ’s Border Justice tour on the Arizona – Mexico border. On April 19th, we presented our experiences following the service at the […]

Earth Day Renews Momentum in the Movement for Climate Justice – Learn More at Activate Boston this Summer!

May 6, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Environmental Justice, Youth
Last month, hundreds of UU activists from across Massachusetts commemorated Earth Day by opening a new season of resistance to the Boston-area West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline, part of a sustained and growing climate justice campaign to disrupt the dangerous expansion of the fracked gas infrastructure and fossil fuel economy that threatens us all. Over the last year and […]

Different Expressions of Unitarian Universalism in the World

April 15, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Religious Professionals
Jennifer Ryu is a recipient of UUCSJ’s Ministerial Sabbatical grant which offer rich encounters with historic and emerging expressions of our Unitarian faith in a different cultural context.   Today I’m packing up to leave Cebu City which has served as home base for “part one” of my sabbatical journey to the Philippines. During these first two […]

Why I Love My Work

March 29, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Program Leader, Youth
A Program Leader Reflects on UU Youth as the Present and the Future; The Change We All Wish to See My name is Sam Wilson, and my primary job is to serve Winchester Unitarian Society (WUS) as their Director of Youth Ministries, which means that I feel incredibly blessed to count myself amongst those who […]

Operation Streamline

January 29, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Congregational Trip, Immigration
Tucson, Arizona – November 2015 “Sentencing” by Lawrence Gipe, ca. 2012-2014 Sixty two detainees, migrants from Mexico and Central America caught crossing the border illegally, sit in the large courtroom facing the judge. On his right is an interpreter. Our BorderLinks contingent sits in back to witness the proceedings, to keep the system “honest.” The […]

U.S. policies could be deporting women and children to their deaths

January 26, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Immigration
By Janey Skinner, guest commentary © 2016 Bay Area News Group Originally published – The Contra Costa Times on January 16th, 2016 While much of the world’s attention is focused on Syria’s refugees, there is another refugee crisis that no one is talking about: Central Americans fleeing the worst violence in the world outside of an […]

Answering an Apparently Simple Question – How Was India?

January 20, 2016 | Heather Vickery | India, Internship, Young Adult
Carmen Francesco was one of CSJ’s 2015 Global Justice Summer Interns. Carmen interned at Vidhayak Sansad in Usgaon, Maharashtra India along with another intern Tara Abhasakun.  Since I have returned to the states, I have gotten many questions about my trip. “What did you do?” “What was it like to be in another country?”“How was eating food […]

Answering the Call

January 6, 2016 | Heather Vickery | Religious Professionals
Rev. Carie Johnsen engaged in a three-month cultural immersion experience in Wales, United Kingdom. During this time, she lived in the village of her ancestors, engaged in a partnership building ministry with the Welsh Unitarians and attended a Welsh language program. In this article she describes how her commitment to racial justice ministries became grounded […]

My Return to Nicaragua

December 16, 2015 | Heather Vickery | Nicaragua
Nicaragua is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been – stunning landscapes of mountains, beaches, jungles, and patch-worked small farms sweep up and down the hillsides everywhere. The mountains surrounding Matagalpa But most beautiful to me is the spirit of the Nicaraguan people: though I know all the perils of generalizations, I have […]