First Nations - Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice

UUCSJ By The Numbers

by Heather Vickery | Oct 27, 2017 | Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, First Nations, Florida, General Assembly, Haiti, Immigration, India, Internship, Nicaragua, Racial Justice, RAICES, Religious Professionals, Sanctuary and Solidarity, Volunteering, West Virginia, Young Adult, Youth

The UU College of Social Justice was jointly founded in the summer of 2012 by the UUA and UUSC, so this year we are celebrating a big anniversary. We are grateful for all of our alumni and supporters who have made our work possible!

In honor of of all of you and our anniversary, here is CSJ by the numbers (as of October 2017).

UUCSJ has been inspiring and sustaining faith based action for social justice for 5 years!

During our 5 years, we have run 39 immersion journeys for adults, with a total of 470 participants (78 of whom were ministers, DREs or seminary students).

Through 18 week-long youth focused immersion learning journeys and training programs as well as three one-day offerings during General Assembly, 392 youth have experienced how Unitarian Universalism can inform their work for justice.

We have placed 65 interns in summer-long immersion internships in over 15 different grassroots justice organizations.

We have sent 53 skilled volunteers to placements with partner organizations for between one to 8 weeks. Most of those placements were lawyers and Spanish speakers working with RAICES in San Antonio Texas to help the women and children detained in Karnes.

Total participants across our programs totals 1,063. This number does not include collaborative training programs like the UU-UNO Spring Seminar and the Goldmine Youth Leadership program which extend our reach even further!

Of the participants who have completed an impact assessment form, 88% said that, as a result of their journey, they have a deeper sense of the connection between their faith and the role it can play in social justice.

Participants – both those who came as individuals and those traveling in a congregational delegation – came from 260 congregations representing nearly every state in the country.

Let’s Get Ready – to March, to Resist, to Declare Our Conscience!

by Heather Vickery | Jan 19, 2017 | Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, First Nations, Immigration, Pastoral, Sanctuary and Solidarity

by Angela Kelly

Ready or not, here we are, on the eve of an Inauguration so many of us are dreading. We are painfully aware of the threats posed by the incoming President to the rights, safety, and dignity of so many, to the future of our planet, and to values we cherish deep in our hearts. We know that many of these threats are not new for immigrants and refugees, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and so many others.

And yet we know that there is also much that is unprecedented about this moment. It demands something new of all of us: increased clarity and resilience; a renewed commitment to anti-oppressive learning and practice; and greater courage amidst uncertainty. We are also called in a new way to build beloved community, and to dedicate ourselves to centering practices that will sustain us through the tough times to come.

Whether in our home communities or in the nation’s Capitol, many of us will take to the streets this weekend. We will raise our voices with millions more, to counter and disrupt bigotry in all its forms. We will stand up to defend critical social programs and the laws that protect our environment. UUCSJ staff and our colleagues will be among the ranks marching in DC and Boston, joining with the powerful network of UU activists across the country, embodying faith-based resistance in the days ahead. There are UU Convergences being organized at several of the actions, including the Women’s March on Washington.

If you are looking for an action near you, please check out the latest listing at the UUA’s Show the Love page for several links that will help you get plugged in. Before you set out to march and rally, take some time to watch or listen to this excellent webinar with our colleagues Rev. Ashley Horan (MUUSJA), Lena K. Gardner (BLUU), Caitlin Breedlove and Nora Rasman (SSL): “Get More Out of the March: Mobilizing for Resistance”. Take some time to center yourself before hitting the streets, perhaps with this beautiful Blessing for the Women’s March by Rev. Erika Hewitt. Be sure to fortify your mind, body, heart and spirit, and consider how the signs you will carry, slogans you will chant, and voices you will hear and amplify will effectively lift up intersectional messages that reflect your values and commitments and the leadership and wisdom of those likely to be dos adversely affected by the incoming Administration. A recent webinar from the Icarus Project on Street Therapy: Emotional Resistance also offers a powerful framework and some timely tips for attending to our own self care and the wellness of those around us while taking mass action.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, sustain the momentum of this weekend’s actions by joining us for a public webinar on Sanctuary & Solidarity, with leaders of UUSC and the UUA, and grassroots movement organizers from across the country. Register here to get the link to join live on Sunday and/or the recording and follow-up resources. (And if you are particularly interested in exploring becoming a Sanctuary congregation as one pathway toward solidarity, mark your calendars for two more upcoming webinars on January 30^th and February 27^th, hosted by UUCSJ and UURISE; details and registration at this link.)

One action you can take right now is signing onto a Declaration of Conscience, jointly issued by UUA and UUSC earlier this week. The Declaration can be signed as an individual and/or as a congregation, as a way to register your dissent as well as your commitment to an emerging campaign that uplifts the values of justice and compassion, all humans’ worth and dignity, and our vital web of interdependence.

However you march, resist, and/or reaffirm your values at this time, please know you are not alone! We are buoyed not only by the collective strength of one another but by the power of our ancestors, the many who tirelessly fought oppression before us, as well as the enduring spirit of those who will come after us. We at UUCSJ are grateful for and inspired by your continued activism and engagement and will continue to share resources and action opportunities for the long haul ahead. Stay tuned!

Declaration of Conscience

At this extraordinary time in our nation’s history, we are called to affirm our profound commitment to the fundamental principles of justice, equity and compassion, to truth and core values of American society.

In the face of looming threats to immigrants, Muslims, people of color, and the LGBTQ community and the rise of hate speech, harassment and hate crimes, we affirm our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

In opposition to any steps to undermine the right of every citizen to vote or to turn back advances in access to health care and reproductive rights, we affirm our commitment to justice and compassion in human relations.

And against actions to weaken or eliminate initiatives to address the threat of climate change – actions that would threaten not only our country but the entire planet – we affirm our unyielding commitment to protect the interdependent web of all existence.

We will oppose any and all unjust government actions to deport, register, discriminate, or despoil.

As people of conscience, we declare our commitment to translate our values into action as we stand on the side of love with the most vulnerable among us.

We welcome and invite all to join in this commitment for justice.

The time is now.

Let’s Get Ready: Resources for Finding Our Way Forward

by Heather Vickery | Dec 16, 2016 | Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, First Nations, Immigration, Pastoral, Racial Justice, Sanctuary and Solidarity

by Chris Casuccio and Angela Kelly

We’re a month in and a month out.

Golden Woods

It’s been a little over a month since the election, and we have a little more than a month to go before the inauguration. As we attempt to find our bearings and head towards the first 100 days of the new Administration and all the threats to social justice that confront us, we recognize how much we need each other right now. With that in mind, this blog post, and the ones that will follow in the coming weeks, are intended to help us get ready: grounded in our analysis, nurtured in our spirits, and prepared to step into action.

This week, members of the UUCSJ community, including staff and Program Leaders, gathered on a video call to discuss how and what we have been doing since the election. It became clear that we, like many people across the country and world, are experiencing a wide range of reactions and feelings, and are finding solace and power in a variety of practices, actions, and communities.

In the face of the daunting tasks ahead of us, and the weight of this historical moment, many of us are struggling to balance the accompanying despair and fear with the need for hope and determination. While many of us are united in our distress about what will happen in the months to come, we also recognize that the specific ways in which we are likely to be directly impacted by the incoming Administration are largely influenced by our identities, our backgrounds, and our relationships to privilege and power. While some of us will face very direct threats to our safety, and to the safety of those we love, others of us will be called in new ways to consider how we can deepen and sustain concrete practices of solidarity.

Regardless of who we are, and how we are feeling in this moment, there is a growing consensus that these times demand something new of us all, and that we need to continue turning to one another for wisdom, guidance, and collective strength. In that spirit, we want to lift up a collection of articles and resources we’ve been compiling since the election, as well as offer a framework for checking in with how and what we are doing, on multiple levels: the head, the heart, and the hands.

Head
Questions: What are we thinking about and how do we go about analyzing and understanding the current moment? How does intellectual analysis orient us during a moment like this which can provoke confusion and disorientation?

Resources: There has been an explosion of critical thought and debate in the past month, ranging from historical and structural analyses of our current moment to suggested frameworks and strategies for how we forge our way ahead as a movement. As we have sifted through the post-election analyses, we are reminded that it is always powerful to hear what these public intellectuals have to say: Naomi Klein, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Toni Morrison and Noam Chomsky. There is no shortage of excellent analysis by other public figures, such as these recent articles by Charles Eisenstein, Robin DG Kelley, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Christian Parenti, Pankaj Mishra, Van Jones and Immanuel Wallerstein.

If you’re wanting to dive even deeper, there have been a handful of reading lists compiled for understanding the election results (another here), preparing to stop Trump, navigating the times ahead, understanding neoliberalism, and some general post-election theological readings for religious progressives. Don’t forget that some of the most relevant analysis and deepest understanding is achieved offline: by delving into long discussions with trusted friends and family, asking people we don’t ordinarily interact with what they think about the times we are entering, attending forums, classes, and teach-ins, and going for long walks to process one’s thoughts!

Heart
Questions: What are we feeling, and how are we attending to our emotional and spiritual lives in these challenging times? Where are we finding sustenance and how are we cultivating communities that foster collective care and connect us to practices that restore and energize us to do what must be done?

Resources: Our friends and colleagues across the UUA have compiled a number of helpful salves for our hearts and spirits. You may find solace and spiritual grounding in these worship resources, a webinar on managing post-election stress response, another on resistance and resilience, or in this collection of practical suggestions for attending to the range of emotional reactions you and those around you may be experiencing. Weekly Braver Wiser offerings help us find courage and compassion and Standing on the Side of Love’s podcasts offer spiritual fortification for our organizing.

For insights into grappling with heightened fear and despair, recent pieces by Alice Walker, Parker Palmer, and adrienne maree brown may offer comfort. Rabbi Michael Adam Latz shares lessons in spiritual resistance for the times we face, Courtney Martin reflects on where to turn to be comforted and challenged, and Sandra Kim offers 20+ resources to help you process post-election. Edgar Rivera Colon reminds us that this is a time to slow down and discern, while several women of color answered Collier Myerson’s call to share self-care strategies for the times ahead.

Of course, many of the most powerful tools for our spiritual and emotional sustenance are also found offline: in the rhythm of our breath, in quiet moments of prayer, in stretching, moving, and nourishing our bodies, in joining others in worship, in making art, music, or good food, and in spending time in nature, in community, in the presence of beauty, the sacred, and with those we love.

Hands
Questions: How are we taking action? What are we doing that is tangible and concrete to resist and transform the current injustices facing our communities and the worsening crises to come?

Resources: A recent piece in Mother Jones reminds us that, with all hands on deck, it’s Time to Fight Like Hell. Our friends and colleagues in the UU world offer many helpful places to start. Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President, provides pastoral guidance for the work ahead, outlining an emerging campaign to provide sanctuary and resistance, in which UUCSJ is committed to actively collaborating and welcomes your involvement as it develops. Caitlin Breedlove, Director of Standing on the Side of Love, calls upon white progressives to do more than form opinions, and instead become transformers. The UUA’s Show Love Resource page offers a number of ways that your congregation can take action, lifting up powerful examples from across the country.

While there is no clear roadmap for confronting the multiple, interconnected, escalating, and yet-to-be-determined injustices facing us, several longtime organizers and movement analysts offer us pathways to consider, such as: On Pivoting: Ideas on Organizing During a Trump Administration, Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Era, Building Coalitions that Can Win, and America Needs a Network of Rebel Cities to Stand Up to Trump. Opal Tometi, a leader of the Movement for Black Lives shares this video about 5 Things We Can Do in the Wake of Trump’s Victory, while WhiteAccomplices.org offers a new toolkit on moving from Actor to Ally to Accomplice. Weekly Actions to Resist Trump is a new website that invites us to take a timely and concrete action each week and the new Safety Pin Box subscription program, co-created by Black Lives of UU lead organizer Leslie Mac, provides an opportunity for white allies to get a monthly “box” full of ways to take accountable action while helping invest in organizing for liberation led by Black women.

There is also a lot we can do at the interpersonal level, starting with talking with our families, as well as equipping ourselves to offer immediate support to those who may be facing harassment and to de-escalate incidences of injustice we witness and confront. And when we feel too daunted or overwhelmed by the work to be done, we can begin by considering our own spheres of influence and beginning there, resolving to remain engaged and undaunted.

These are some starting points for work that is unfinished, still emerging, and will be ongoing.

Our hope is that these articles and resources can encourage and nurture us on all three of these levels — the head, the heart, and the hands — so that we can continue to support and protect one another, resist the threats of increased oppression, and move forward in fulfilling our commitments to transforming ourselves and our society, with clarity, spirit, love, and community.

We welcome your stories, action ideas, and guiding wisdom, as well, and look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks ahead, as we continue to get ready to find our ways forward together. Please send us your thoughts!

Call to Standing Rock: Dec. 4th Interfaith Day of Prayer

by Heather Vickery | Nov 22, 2016 | Environmental Justice, First Nations

As the courageous Water Protectors at Standing Rock face escalated acts of violent repression, we at UUCSJ continue to be deeply moved by the power of the #NoDAPL movement. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Rev. Karen Van Fossan of the UU Fellowship of Bismarck-Mandan and other UU leaders who have been deeply engaged in on-the-ground solidarity with Native coordinators of the Oceti Sakowin Camp. Karen offers the following invitation to the UU community and to all people of faith and conviction to answer Chief Arvol Looking Horse’s Call to Standing Rock for an Interfaith Day of Prayer on Sunday, December 4th. Please read and circulate widely to amplify this timely opportunity for solidarity.

—
This week, in below-freezing temperatures, unarmed water protectors just north of Standing Rock survived shocking assaults from water cannons. Many were traumatized, and some needed emergency room care. In the aftermath of these attacks, and in the months prior, my congregation has received countless messages from people around the country – and world – asking, “What can we do?”

Meanwhile, we have received one of the most important invitations we are ever likely to receive, as people of faith and conviction. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle, has called upon each of us to join him at Standing Rock on Sunday, December 4th, for an Interfaith Day of Prayer. In solidarity with indigenous people and mutual love for the water, it is my hope that you and your communities of faith will participate in this history-making day.

As those who have visited know, the nonviolent water protector movement at Standing Rock is deeply rooted in prayer. Each day I spend at Oceti Sakowin camp, I feel myself challenged and inspired to live a more prayerful and faithful life. We awake with prayers, dine with prayers, go to rest with prayers, and pray continuously throughout each day.

The camps at Standing Rock are based on the conviction that prayer, especially collective prayers, can protect our living water. Your prayers – and your presence – mean the world. I would be honored to see you here.

For more information and to register to participate, please visit:https://tinyurl.com/standingrockdayofprayer

To learn more about the Dec. 4th Interfaith Day of Prayer and other opportunities for solidarity, please join me in a conference call discussion on Wednesday, November 30th at 6:30pm CST. This call will be facilitated by Unitarian Universalists who have been working directly with Native coordinators at Oceti Sakowin Camp. People of any and all traditions are welcome to join this conversation. Please register here.

Please share this call to prayer and solidarity widely. Thank you.

If you aren’t able to be here in body on December 4th, please join us in spirit by praying for the water and the water protectors in the morning, before meals, before bed, and whenever you are able. Please invite others to join their prayers with yours – with all of ours.

In peace and faith,

Karen Van Fossan, M.Div.,
Minister, Bismarck-Mandan Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Standing in Solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux – What We Can Do

by Deva Jones | Oct 28, 2016 | Environmental Justice, First Nations

Over the last few months, many of us have been moved by following the powerful movement of indigenous leaders defending sacred land, and the earth and water we all share, from the threat of the dangerous Dakota Access Pipeline. In recent days, we have also watched with horror as our computer screens have increasingly filled with images of brutal aggression against and mass arrests of the courageous Water Protectors leading the #NoDAPL encampments in Standing Rock, ND. We have also been heartened by the reports of Rev. Karen Van Fossan, Minister at the UU Fellowship & Church of Bismarck-Mandan, who has been on the ground offering solidarity to indigenous leaders and amplifying their call for people of faith to mobilize public support for this struggle.

In a statement from Karen, issued via with our friends at Standing on the Side of Love yesterday, she writes: “We need you and we need you now. People of faith and conscience are being called to take immediate action and come to Standing Rock in solidarity. Unarmed water protectors have been met with militarized responses at every step. There is an opportunity for us to show up and affirm this prayerful movement. A movement calling for direct action to center Indigenous communities’ autonomy, history and spirituality. A movement working to ensure our collective future.”

There is also a specific call for clergy to join a faith-filled action in Standing Rock next Thursday, November 3rd, described in more detail here.

In response to these calls to action, UUCSJ has collaborated with a variety of partners to compile this list of links and resources to support UU involvement in this movement.

Whether you are in a position to travel to Standing Rock, to put pressure on decision-makers, or to donate to meet direct needs on the ground, we hope you will find a way to take action, and to ground your efforts in learning about and reflection upon the history of colonialism and systemic oppression of First Nations that we see continuing today.

As our friends at MUUSJA have reminded us through their #NoDAPL solidarity work:

Content goes here

Our Unitarian Universalist faith teaches us that we are all inextricably and radically interdependent; that we are part of an interconnected web of existence that encompasses all creatures and the earth. Following those deeply held theological values, in 2012, the UUA General Assembly passed a resolution repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, calling UUs to work in solidarity with native communities and to make reparations for the impacts of colonization, genocide, land theft, and continuing harms perpetrated against indigenous peoples. If we are to follow through with our pledge, we must acknowledge that we are called to show up in solidarity with our indigenous kin to protect the earth that gives us life, and to resist the legacy of colonization and genocide of the native peoples on whose land we all live.

The time is now. Please join us in taking action today.

The Earth is Alive

by Heather Vickery | May 20, 2016 | Environmental Justice, First Nations

Barbara Walden, a member of First Unitarian Church in Portland Oregon, was part of the College of Social Justice’s April Solidarity with Original Nations and Peoples delegation to the Lummi Nation in Bellingham Washington.

“It seems to me that anyone who cares to really think about the planet today has to hold both of these things in mind, to remember to see the beauty, and to still take joy in that beauty but not shy away from the hard and often ugly reality…”

~David Gessner, All the Wild that Remains

When I saw the announcement of the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice’s forthcoming program in my church newsletter, something spoke to me. Do you know that feeling? Something just pokes you and says, you need to do this. The program was a journey to the Lummi reservation near Bellingham, Washington to meet the Lummi people and learn from them; the program was called “Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and Nations.” Part of the program was to learn the best way to be allies in solidarity with indigenous peoples as we face the coming of climate change. I had heard of the Lummi in connection with the controversy surrounding the proposed location of the Cherry Point Coal Terminal at the site of the Lummi sacred fishing grounds—just another chapter in the long sorry story of the degradation and theft of the lands and waters of the indigenous people of the United States. I knew that they were a small tribe, around 5,000 people living on the reservation, and I wondered if it would be possible for them to combat this threat even in alliance with others.

Earlier the Lummi reached out in a way that I had not encountered before. They made a totem pole and took it across the country to the source of the coal, to the indigenous people living in the Powder River country of Wyoming. All along the way they stopped at churches and asked all people to come forward and give their blessing to the totem pole. It was a sacred journey. I went to the St. Philip Neri Catholic Church with many others from around Portland, and we laid our hands on the pole to bless its journey and the hope and solidarity it represented. There we heard the pole’s carvers, who were leaders and elders of the Lummi Nation, as they spoke eloquently from heart and mind about their land and nation, and the interdependence of us all upon our living Earth. It made a deep impression on me.

Often when we are confronted with deep truth, it is hard to know what to do next. Sometimes you just need to wait for the next moment to arrive. I think that is why the brief announcement of the UUCSJ program struck me so hard. The deadline for applications was quite near, and by the time I did all the necessary figuring-out of things and crafting of my application it was the absolute last minute. I sent my application in and hoped for the best. I was so disappointed to receive a phone call saying that the program was overfilled, and I was so far down the waiting list that it was unlikely that I could go. So be it. I put it out of my mind. Then just a few days before the trip I received another phone call. A space had opened up and I could go. I madly read the book that was required reading for us: An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Wow. Already my mind was opened and I hadn’t yet left home.

I did not know it yet, but the next steps in the journey would open my heart as well as my mind. The Lummi people we met honored us with the heartfelt speaking and sharing that are at the root of their way of life. They taught me a lesson in the interrelationship of politics, diplomacy, treaty rights and traditional spiritual values as they stood proudly for their rights as a sovereign nation living as a government alongside international, federal, state, county and local governments. They showed me how they were working to lift up their youth, honoring and caring for their elders, providing for the economic development and social needs of a population with a 40% poverty rate and an ongoing burden of historical trauma, while at the same time preserving and passing on traditional spiritual culture, language, and way of life. It is an extraordinary task, and they work tremendously hard at it and do it admirably.

I quickly saw why the Lummi do not need our “help.” On the contrary, we have much to learn from them. The bonding of traditional spiritual and familial values rooted in the earth and waters with everything in life, and the strength and grounding this brings to their activities touched me profoundly. Many Lummi are able to live in two worlds. The carver of the totem poles is deeply versed in the law and speaks more knowledgeably than anyone to the intricacies of treaties, taxes, and other issues, as well as providing leadership as the Lummi play a role in national and international issues surrounding climate change. The tribe’s hereditary chief is not a political leader, but rather the carrier and teacher of the traditional language and culture in this holistic society. Well-educated tribal council members negotiate fearlessly and knowledgeably with international corporations to preserve their lands and waters. Lummi youth and elders traveled to the Paris Climate Summit to speak the truth of the peoples of the Salish Sea.

A pebble cast into water sends out ripples, the Lummi say. The pollution that has harmed the upstream waters of the river that flows through their land and closed their shellfish area affects other areas all around. The industrial overfishing of the shared waters diminishes not only the Lummi’s traditional catch but that of non-indigenous fishers as well. A coal terminal or other development at Cherry Point would endanger the whole Salish Sea which we call Puget Sound. I saw with my own eyes that at Cherry Point there is just a narrow passage between this land and the beautiful San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island. The loss of our animals and clean waters and the degradation of these places weighs on our spirits, too, and diminishes our lives. Their Earth is our Earth. It is not meant for our endless extraction, but for our care. We are one with the Earth. We need to stand together as we do our best to meet the changes our troubled Earth will bring us.

~Barbara Walden, First Unitarian Church, Portland, Oregon

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WcoApS02to[/embedyt]

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