Social Justice at UUCS 2011-2012
In May 2010 at the Annual Congregational Meeting, we voted YES to affirm a name change from Social Concerns to Social Justice. This change reflected our church’s stronger mission statement, “We embody and promote religious freedom, caring community and social justice…” We also made a transition to our new Social Justice Plan by electing one local & one global issue as focal points of our plan.
Appalachian Tragedy: Mountaintops and Miners was our global issue. Our congregation held educational sessions, showed movies, and wrote letters calling for political action. Several SJ members participated in the D.C. “Appalachia Rising” mobilization and march, and brought material (and enthusiasm!) back to share.
When a Christmas toy fund in a WV community was robbed, we participated in a campaign to replenish it, publicizing the need as well as contributing toys and donations. A Sunday service in February focused on mountaintop mining and one incredible woman, Judy Bonds, who helped forge the local and national movement against it. In June, a dozen youth and adults took a 3-day trip to West Virginia to see mountaintop removal, tour a coal mine, and participate in the March on Blair Mountain. This completed our focus on this issue. However, much of our work here helped inform and motivate us to work on our local issue.
The UUA Green Sanctuary Program was our local issue for 2010-2011. This is a three-to-five year project, so we continue this for the 2011-2012 year. This is a comprehensive program –a journey—towards a more earth-aware and earth-caring lifestyle for our church community, bringing in everyone from the pagan to the tech-savvy. During the first year, many of us worked on reducing our environmental impact and recycling more of our waste products. However, a professional environmental assessment is a requirement for the Green Sanctuary Program. The SC Dept of Energy gave us a grant for this ($1700), which paid 100% of the cost, but was not completed until April 2011. We will work on our application and action plan this year. The Green Sanctuary Program has both local and global aspects.
We want to involve everyone in our action plan. The action plan includes two projects for worship and celebration, two for religious education, and four sustainable living projects, to be carried out in about a two-year time frame. We have several members who have interest and expertise to share with us, and each group or committee has the opportunity to decide how they would like to participate. These projects can involve every church member, regardless of age or abilities. “The formation of a Green Team was the spark that set into motion a wide range of progressive environmental movements within the church” UU Charleston, SC
In August 2011, UUCS joined the UUSC Fair Trade Coffee Project, which promotes fair wages and environmental preservation on coffee plantations. This is both a Green Sanctuary and Hunger project for us (“double-dipping”?), as it helps the tropical environment as well as the workers there. This is NOT a fundraiser—we want maximum member-participation for maximum benefit to the environment & coffee plantation workers! We look forward to learning more about the issues associated with Fair Trade Coffee and finding opportunities to help.
2) For our second issue during 2011-2012, we chose Hunger, an ongoing concern here, also with both local and global efforts. As a church, we have filled our food barrel repeatedly, collected groceries for Park Hills School families, and donated monetary contributions to TOTAL Ministries (the Spartanburg area, church-based NPO which assists local families) through Christmas Eve and Share the Plate collections. During 2010-2011, our youth and adults attended a vigil for Homelessness, collaborated in preparing meals for the SPIHN program (combating homelessness in SPTG) and participated in a Mobile Food Pantry event, packaging & handing out food for 300+ families. In August 2011, we again participated in a Mobile Food Pantry.
Hunger is a heartbreaking problem. Why is there so much hunger in a world that has more than enough food to feed itself? This issue requires education and thought, as well as action, and lends itself to large and small-scale efforts for both youth and adults.
Social Justice and Lifespan Faith Development work to coordinate activities and share ideas. SJ presents several Sunday 9:30 am programs, Wednesday evening programs, and at least one worship service a year. SJ research on homelessness last year (one of the local issues presented for congregational vote) motivated our teens to chose homelessness for study and action last fall. The younger group, children in K5-5th grade, are in the ‘EARTH SCOUTS,’ a program for children to become empowered to make a positive difference in their homes, schools and communities." This coordinates well with the Green Sanctuary focus.
Continuing Activities
Consistent, continuing involvement in our local community has been the cornerstone of our Social Concerns program, and we remain committed to this even while our Social Justice program takes a more activist approach.
“Share the Plate Sundays” are the second and third Sundays of every month. We donate half of the undesignated money as well as designated checks to one special need each month. While most of these are local causes, some are for national and international needs or crises. For 2010-2011, special collections and “Share the Plate”collections were:
October: Association Sunday $180.
November: Park Hills Christmas total: $810 plus “adoptions” of nine children plus LOTS of food for 18 children
Dec. SPIHN total: $312.54, add from Soc. Jus. to make $325.
Christmas collection: $1337.33 to split between Total Ministries and The Mountain,
$668.67 increase from Soc Jus to $675 each.
Holiday dinner, etc: Wyoming Co. West Virginia Toys for Tots: over $400 from our
congregation & friends, but amt. really is unknown.
January (medical supplies for Haiti) $769.89;
February (baby supplies & nurse-midwife expenses for Haiti) $338.77
Total: $1108.66 -- a lot of congregational support for this trip!
March: Check for $165 Given to Upstate Pride to help with Gay Pride Festival
UU Uganda LGBT fund $110.00
April: Youth Trip to WV $328.54 (also WW supper fundraiser for this)
This includes a $100 donation to Keeper of the Mtns Foundation
May: Check for $440 to UUC-Tuscaloosa after the tornado damage
June: National Alliance for Mental Illness, Spartanburg Office $330
Park Hills School (PH), in our church neighborhood, has had the greatest percentage of poor and minority children in the county. For several years, our church partnered with PH, and many church members volunteered there in countless ways. We served as tutors and classroom aides, and helped on field trips and field days. One church member helped students in a school garden. We provided school uniforms and “adopted” needy families for Christmas gifts and bags of groceries. Now, this school has been closed, and we plan to continue volunteering in the elementary school serving the neighborhood, Mary H. Wright School.
SPIHN (Spartanburg Interfaith Hospitality Network) works with numerous religious congregations and social service agencies throughout Spartanburg County (SC) to provide temporary shelter, food, and support to homeless families. UUCS partners with Fernwood Baptist Church four to five times a year when they host the homeless families in the SPIHN program, by providing one meal and hosts for that meal. Our youth group and other groups take turns meeting this responsibility.
Love Knit & Crochet, akin to a Prayer Shawl group, began in 2010. We make shawls for very elderly church members who are no longer able to come to church. In the fall, we make scarves for the homeless; last fall, we completed 13 in time for a Christmas donation to The Haven, a Spartanburg refuge for homeless women and families. We made baby blankets and bibs for our nurse midwife’s trip to Haiti (more below). And, of course, we teach crochet and knitting to any who want to learn.
UUCS is involved with other local activities, and the SJ committee is often responsible for coordinating or publicizing them. We participate in the South Converse Neighborhood Assoc., helping plan a revitalized park, and in basics such as trash pick up days. We collect newspapers for Animal Allies, a low-cost animal clinic. We have a goal of one barrel of food a month for TOTAL Ministries’ food pantry. Several members provide clerical support once a month at St. Luke’s Clinic, the free medical clinic.
And More
When an unexpected opportunity for congregational learning and action in Social Justice arises, we may take it! One church member, a nurse-midwife, wanted to go to Haiti for a week to teach in a school for midwives there, and UUCS supported her; she plans a medical mission to Nicaragua this fall, and we will support her again. The SJ committee and LFD are likely to work together, as we did in July 2010, hosting four student activists on their tour publicizing the tragedy in North Korea and what LiNK (www.linkglobal.org) is doing. SJ members also walked with and hosted the Dreamwalkers, four students walking from Miami to DC, publicizing the plight of undocumented immigrants. We believe that actions speak louder than words. We look for ways for all church members and friends to get involved and feel good by doing good.
Social Justice History
UUCS has been active in many social concerns throughout its history. We have lent our church facility to groups who would not have been able to find another home. To mention a few examples, church members were active in founding the Spartanburg chapters of PFLAG and NAMI Connection. We worked to found Upstate Pride SC and bring about the Gay Pride Festival (the first one was held on the church grounds). We had the first openly GLBT minister in Spartanburg. We have a strong focus on our home community and an understanding of our place in Spartanburg as a beacon of liberal religion.
Online
For up to date details, please check out http://uucs-socialconcerns.blogspot.com/ directly or access it and the Social Justice page from http://www.uucs.org/
Work is Love Made Visible
~
Khalil Gibran
