Care for your neighbors: Heat waves, major wildfires, storms, and floods have caused widespread suffering in much of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic continues. Many religious buildings have been closed for more than 18 months. North America is moving into the cold-weather season.
A better way of living is needed. A better way of living is possible. Your congregation is needed as communities work for economic and social justice.
In the United States, many families are being evicted from their homes and many need food assistance, access to medical care, and other basics. Medical-care workers, food-industry workers, teachers, and other working people have often been abused during recent emergencies. Your congregation can be helpful during the next ninety days. Here’s what you can do for justice:
- Celebrate the harvest holidays in appropriate ways: Bring people together. Give thanks for blessings received and for opportunities to care for the whole community. For much of North America, the harvest season begins in September and it continues to the end of November. There’s a need for multiracial and multigenerational activities that all people can enjoy. Emphasize the need for personal, social, and environmental wellness.
Neighbors can work with each other to create a moral infrastructure for the whole community. Mutual aid and wellness activities are important. - Support Actions of Immediate Witness: During the last 5 years, the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly has endorsed several Actions of Immediate Witness in response to systemic racism, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Educate your congregations about these General Assembly statements. Sermons, newsletter articles, discussion groups, and announcements will do some good. Here’s a link to the new [2021] General Assembly statement about the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a link to a 1994 statement about environmental justice work in response to climate change.
- Work for justice: The General Assembly has expressed its support for Medicare for All (1992, “universal health care” and 2008) and ending its privatization, the Green New Deal, and the PRO Act (in the 2021 statement about the pandemic, linked above). Discuss these initiatives with your congregation. Contact members of Congress to express your support. Additional information for your congregation is noted below.