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Several
Ways to Create A Social Justice Program
There are at least four ways to inspire a congregation to become active
in social justice work.
1. Hire a social justice director who will organize social action projects.
2. Inspire people through a passionate minister or volunteer.
3. Live in a place that's so socially conservative that to do nothing
is unthinkable.
4. Find just the right moment when the congregation is receptive to
a new way of being.
Many of us yearn for our congregations to be more involved in the world.
But making that happen can be a challenge. So we do what we can. And
we marvel at those congregations that seem to make social justice a
centerpiece of their ministries.
How did they get that way? There is no one answer. Often it was one
of the four factors above. More often it was a combination.
Five years ago the UU Congregation
of Columbia, Md. (369 members) had a few folks engaged in social
justice work, mostly on projects that interested them and on which they
could recruit other congregants to help. There was little funding for
social action and no congregation-wide projects. Previous ministers
and lay leaders had supported social action and urged congregants to
be involved, but it was not members' main focus.
Then came a convergence of events. The Rev. Richard Nugent arrived as
interim minister in 2001 to guide the congregation through a ministerial
transition. According to Steve Von Hagen-Jamar, current social action
chair, while Nugent was there the congregation "moved from being
preoccupied with internal matters including a building expansion and
a ministerial search and our own individual spiritual quests. Richard
began to challenge us to do more and to put more money into social action
efforts. This marked the beginning of a stronger focus outward than
we had had for the previous decade."
About that time the congregation began work on a new vision statement
and the result included a strong social justice component.
Things started to happen. The congregation joined with 20 other congregations
to form PATH (People Acting Together for Howard County). The interfaith
organization, a congregation-based community organization, focuses on
affordable housing, transportation, and youth issues. Forty to 60 friends
and members of the congregation participate in PATH, Von Hagen-Jamar
says.
UUCC also now has an environmental activities committee and the congregation
is beginning to focus on water issues. It's also working toward becoming
certified as a Green Sanctuary, and it's engaged with the issue of marriage
equality. Once a month the Sunday offering goes to a social action group
in the community, totaling $12,000 to $15,000 annually.
Von Hagen-Jamar is quick to point out that at various times in its history
his congregation has been very active in social justice work.
"What is changing now," he says, "is not the sense of
the importance of social service, but rather the idea of having our
efforts be a UUCC project rather than just an individual's project."
Nugent, who has been an interim minister for several congregations and
is former chair of the UUA Commission
on Social Witness, encourages the congregations he serves to look
outside themselves. And because that plea comes at a time when the congregation
is in the midst of other change, it is usually heeded. "I invite
congregations to actively engage in an outward focus," he says.
That means not only engaging in social justice work, but also "letting
the community know you exist" by publicizing events.
Marion Zenker, the longtime elected lay leader of the Black
Hills UU Fellowship in Rapid City, S.D. (44), laughs when she's
asked if the congregation is active in social issues. "I don't
think any UU can live in South Dakota and not be involved in social
justice," she says.
Six of the fellowship's 44 members ran for the state legislature this
fall. While none won, they gained valuable experience. Beyond that,
members are engaged with Habitat for Humanity, war protests, Native
American and bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender issues, and abortion
rights.
The South Dakota legislature's extreme conservatism is part of the reason
for this activism, says Zenker. It voted earlier this year to ban abortion
outright (voters rejected that ban November 7) and tried to prohibit
all "quasi-marriages" and to block a medical marijuana bill.
"You can't witness all that and not get involved," says Zenker.
So political climate is one reason for the fellowship's activism. Another
is that the fellowship supports social action and thus attracts like-minded
people. "To a person we are very concerned about what goes on in
the world," says Zenker. "People feel welcome, heard, and
supported here. That's why they come here and why they give back to
the community."
Social action has long been part of the life of the UU
Community Church of Santa Monica, Calif. (442). Its social justice
committee has been engaged with farmworker and immigrant issues.
When the congregation called the Rev. Judith Meyer in 1993 she encouraged
it to integrate social justice into the whole church, rather than locating
it in a committee that might involve only a few people. As a result,
the congregation took the unusual step of hiring a social justice intern
for nine months to help it develop a new social justice approach.
What it came up with was a 12-member Faith in Action Commission that
meets regularly to coordinate various task groups for specific issues.
Each fall the congregation votes on the issues it would like to pursue
that year. The task groups research an issue, bring an action plan to
the commission, and then implement it.
If the congregation approves an issue, the commission is empowered to
speak on behalf of the congregation. Otherwise it speaks only for itself
about that issue in the larger community. Controversial issues require
two-thirds approval.
There are task groups on hunger and homelessness, peace and civil liberties,
green living, and bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender issues. There
is an annual report to the congregation.
"The congregation has a growing sense that we actually are involved
in social justice work and that it's an integral part of the congregation,"
says Charles Haskell, Santa Monica governing board chair and the Faith
in Action Commission immediate past chair.
RESOURCES
For information on developing a social justice program
go to uua.org/uuawo and click
on "Inspired Faith, Effective Action" in the left column.
There is also information, and a new booklet, about working through
congregation-based community organizations, at uua.org/programs/justice/cbco.html.
Information on the Social Justice Empowerment Program, which helps congregations
develop social justice programs, is at uua.org/programs/justice/ep.
The organizational structure of the Santa Monica congregation's Faith
in Action program is at uusm.org.
Winter
2007 Index · Leadership Resources
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