Rebuilding the Fire When Justice Energy Lags

Keeping a social concerns or social justice committee going can be difficult for some congregations. Interest waxes and wanes. Individual members are busy with their own justice projects, but sometimes there is little energy for congregational efforts. Yet we know that one of the prime reasons people join our congregations is a desire to improve the world in some small way. What to do?

At Tennessee Valley UU Church, Knoxville, TN (378 members), there was lots of activism but little of it was church-connected and there was no committee. The Rev. Lynn Strauss called a Saturday meeting of people interested in social justice work. Twenty-five possible interests were identified and people volunteered to lead efforts in several areas, global and local. With that as a beginning, a social justice committee was formed to be the umbrella for these task forces, which included supporting a food bank, a coffeehouse for gay and lesbian teens, and Habitat for Humanity.

"It took a meeting to find out what the congregation was interested in," says Mark Evans, who agreed to chair the new committee. "Then we created small groups of passionate people who now operate with the support of the committee."

If activism is lagging, stir the fires by asking people what issues concern them personally, says the Rev. Robert Murphy, minister at the UU Fellowship of Falmouth, MA (176 members). "I ask them, 'What's bothering you? What are the issues that keep you awake at night?' Maybe they're worried about local housing costs. Or Aunt Sally's home health-care arrangement. Personal problems quite often reflect problems in the larger world."

Murphy encourages congregants to pursue those issues. "At their best, social action projects help to bring individuals out of their loneliness and into healthy relationships with others," he says. "They also provide opportunities for reflection and spiritual growth, for being with different kinds of people, for learning new skills, and for reaffirming all of our UU principles." Murphy has also served small congregations at Greenville, Morehead City, and New Bern, NC, which all have had impressive involvement in social activism.

Social concerns committees are sometimes seen as separate from the church, observes Pat Marr, social concerns chair at UU Church of Long Beach, CA (241 members). "You're seen as a separate planet that circles around the church." She believes it's important for the governing board and the ministers to counter that by letting the congregation know they think social concerns are important. Marr is occasionally invited to speak from the pulpit about justice issues.

Sharing the job of committee chair is another way of keeping the committee vital. Marr is cochair with her husband, Chris. "We have different interests," she says. "He's interested in things like the World Trade Organization. My interests are more local. You need a variety of activities. Some people are afraid to go look that homeless person in the eye, but they'll do other things. And keep in mind that most people just want to do a couple things a year. They don't necessarily want to become activists at the front lines."

Sometimes having a committee is not absolutely essential. The UU Church of Loudon, Leesburg, VA, has only 42 members and no social justice committee, but that doesn't much matter, says member Ann Robinson. The church gets involved in community controversies, she says, just because it's so obvious that something needs to be done.

It challenged a Christian-right movement that tried to prevent the construction of an Islamic school. Before that it fought a takeover of the public school board by the same people.

The church's strength, says Robinson, comes from the congregation's community involvement. One member is on the school board, another is a county supervisor, and one is chair of the local Democratic Party.

Another is president of a Habitat for Humanity group. A former church president is a producer on a local radio station where the church is sponsoring an ad in support of public schools. Robinson was formerly on the executive board of the NAACP.

"We're just embedded in the community," she says. "You can't be involved in all those things and not do anything. We're members of everything, and when it comes time to act, we ask these organizations to participate. We've gone out there and gotten ourselves connected to everything we know how to connect to––organizations that lean toward our point of view. You support them, and when it's time for collective effort, they support you. I think of it as organic."

The Rev. Richard Gilbert, First Unitarian Church, Rochester, NY (777), and author of The Prophetic Imperative, reminds us, "Social action is not the central function of the church. It is one vital function that flows from a religious community, which also serves well the functions of worship, caring, and education. A church which ignores this function fails to understand its mandate to seek the beloved community. Social action is a necessary but not sufficient condition for Unitarian Universalism. Our church teaches by what it says, yes, but also by what it does."

RESOURCES

The Prophetic Imperative, by Rev. Richard Gilbert (Skinner House, 2000). Fresh look at the role of social justice work by UU congregations, including the connection with spirituality and models to help congregations mobilize. Second edition. UUA Bookstore (800) 215-9076. #7740 $18.

The UUA Congregational Handbook, by Lawrence Peers, p. 185, in your congregational office or from the UUA Bookstore; #7017 $20.

See also http://www.uua.org/actions/srcs.html (Guidelines for Local Social Responsibility Committees)

"Social Justice Programs Help Congregations Grow," InterConnections, Nov.-Dec., 1998, http://www.uua.org/interconnections/leadership/vol1-6-leadership.html