Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult MinistriesLiving Legacy Project Youth Civil Rights Pilgrimage
Energize this Legacy APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED | GRANTS AVAILABLE Announcing the Living Legacy Project (LLP) All Youth Civil Rights Pilgrimage, June 5th-9th, 2017! This 5-day pilgrimage will be led by LLP board members Reverend Gordon Gibson and Reggie Harris, beginning in Birmingham and continuing to Marion, Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. The vision of the LLP Youth Civil Rights Pilgrimage to create a connection with youth to the history of racial justice in the United States — so that they too, can become actively engaged in the Unitarian Universalist racial justice movement of today. Planning team members Jules Jaramillo, Director of Lifespan Religious Education at Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist and Tina DeYoe Director of Religious Education…
LGBTQ+ Youth Survival Guide: Trump Edition
by Rev. Evin Carvill-Ziemer LGBTQ+ Youth Survival Guide: Trump Edition Dear beautiful, fabulous gender creative and sexually non-conforming youth and teens–all those who are queer, trans, non-binary, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and a hundred other wonderful self-proclaimed identities, My heart breaks for you. This is not the future I wanted for you. This is not the future I have been fighting for. But I also know you are strong and I want you to have the information you need to survive. Because I need you to survive! I haven’t seen a “this shit is real” missive to you yet, so here’s what I’ve got. I don’t think it’s helpful to sugar coat this. Yes, you and…
How Your Youth Group Can Support Standing Rock
by Jaidyn Bryant and the 2017 General Assembly Youth Caucus Staff So, Trump was elected president. Black, Latinx, Muslim, Native, LGBTQ communities are under continued attacks. What does that mean for Standing Rock? It means that the threat to Native sovereignty will continue. That degradation of our environment will escalate. Trump and many people in his cabinet will personally profit (because of their investments) if the Dakota Access Pipeline is successful. The Dakota Access Pipeline puts the already polluted Missouri River at a major risk for for even more pollution. In an effort to transport oil 1,200 miles east from North Dakota to central Illinois, the DAPL will disturb sacred lands and burial grounds,…
Fiercely UU: Redefining Bravery
Fiercely UU is a blog series where Unitarian Universalist (UU) young adults tell stories about what our faith requires of us and how they follow that call. To be fiercely UU is to proclaim human worth and interdependence. In an individualist, greed-based, shame and fear fueled white supremacist patriarchy, we say no to isolation and oppression and yes to radical love and covenanted connection. – ed. Redefining Bravery by Em Kianka I’ve always been hard on myself about being brave. When push comes to shove, I generally avoid conflict, or “risky” situations, or I become passive. Public speaking, at least in the past, has been a completely draining exercise that I need an entire weekend from which…
Fiercely UU: Sitting in for Democracy
Fiercely UU is a blog series where Unitarian Universalist (UU) young adults tell stories about what our faith requires of us and how they follow that call. To be fiercely UU is to proclaim human worth and interdependence. In an individualist, greed-based, shame and fear fueled white supremacist patriarchy, we say no to isolation and oppression and yes to radical love and covenanted connection. – Ed. Our Fifth Principle and Sitting in for Democracy by Laura Williamson Last month I sat on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with 300 others singing, chanting, and eventually being arrested, to send a message to Congress: amend the Constitution to get big money out of politics and restore the right…
Multicultural Support Team Moves Toward Justice
In honor of the Standing on the Side of Love 30 Days of Love 2016 campaign, Steven Ballesteros speaks up about the important work of supporting Youth of Color. As a Unitarian Universalist young adult of color I have at times lacked a sense of belonging and of being in right relationship in this faith. I know I am not alone in this feeling. Luckily, there are places in which I can feel safe and ways in which I can apply myself. I currently live near Seattle, Washington, which places me in the Pacific North West District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. There I have helped create and serve on the PNWD Multicultural Support Team for…
Love set Ablaze
In honor of the Standing on the Side of Love 30 Days of Love 2016 campaign, Phebe Hawes speaks up about being a light of love in a time of hate. In order to love alike, we need not think alike ~Francis David. This quote got me thinking. I come from a suburban, mostly white, community. For the most part, we look alike. But we certainly do not think alike. And there’s not a whole lot of love either. So I turn to social media. Like many millennials, I spend most of my time online. I, however, spend a majority of that time defending my beliefs to people who don’t agree. I get the feeling…
A Studied Fight Against Oppression
Know it to Defeat it By Aija Jansone The Young Adult program at Westside Unitarian Universalist in Fort Worth, Texas gathers persons ranging from 18 to 35’ish years of age and is open to anyone in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The program started with a 6 month series focused on the various facets of privilege and oppression. Every month we come together to discuss how such aspects as race, gender, class, religion, sexuality and others influence ourselves and people around us. These meetings have been well attended, and we are expanding the current program as well as planning our next steps. What touched me the deepest during these discussions was an experience that illuminated how…
A Both/And Kind of Love
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again: Unitarian Universalism is a both/and faith. Both/and can be hard. It’s difficult to feel two emotions at once, to hold two positions at once, to affirm multiple realities at once. But if anyone can do it, I believe that UUs can. Friday June 26th 2015 was surely a both/and day. It was both the day that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) guaranteed the rights of same-sex couples to have their marriages legally recognized in all fifty states and it was the day of Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s funeral. A day of celebration and of mourning. That day I woke up to a text from my UU…
#Baltimore Uprising Didn’t Happen Overnight
Cause and Effect We present a collection of stories adding context and understanding to the #BaltimoreUprising. The Brutality of Police Culture in Baltimore What’s crucial to understand, as Baltimore residents take to the streets in long-simmering frustration, is that their general grievances are valid regardless of how this case plays out. For as in Ferguson, where residents suffered through years of misconduct so egregious that most Americans could scarcely conceive of what was going on, the people of Baltimore are policed by an entity that perpetrates stunning abuses. The difference is that this time we needn’t wait for a DOJ report to tell us so. Harrowing evidence has been presented. Yet America hasn’t looked….
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