Home » soundings » Thirty Days of Love, Day 28: Craft Your Story

Thirty Days of Love, Day 28: Craft Your Story

Posted by Carey McDonald // February 12th 2012 // soundings, Stories and Voices // no comments

Date: Feb 12– Craft your congregation’s Story of Us, Story of Now.

Staff Member: Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries Carey McDonald

Description: Share with us how your congregation has and will be spreading the love. Whether it’s starting an SSL rapid response team, meeting with a local elected official, holding an event with interfaith partners, or engaging conversations with community organizations working on shared goals, let us know where you are going next.
Use this form to share your story!

 

At the First UU Church of Columbus, Ohio, the congregation I grew up in,  members have just started to engage in a new approach to social justice called JAM: Justice Action Ministry. Here’s the description of JAM’s mission and organization:

 

“At First UU, justice work is undergoing a major transformation with the Justice Action Ministry (JAM), a multi-generational, multi-racial, and often musical celebration of the work of justice.

We’re jammin’!

What JAM is about…

Our spiritual lives are inseparable from the struggle for equal access to food, clean air and water, housing, education, employment, health care, and legal defense as well as respect for the rights of women, people of color, immigrants, religious minorities and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered humanity. This is based on our belief in inherent worth and dignity of every human being and in the interdependent web of life. Working for justice is therefore as much a spiritual practice as prayer and meditation.

Toward this end, JAM is the unified work of the Board of Trustees, committees, youth, choir members and musicians, covenant groups, members, friends and staff of First UU, will boldly engage the justice issues of the day and will provide church members ample opportunities for public witness of their faith.”

JAM’s current projects include (and this is just a sampling):

  • Athens County Appalachian Project – charitable food and donations
  • B.R.E.A.D. – local interfaith consortium of 50 congregations pushing for more compassionate public policies
  • Care and Share Time Bank – community organization to share in-kind and skill-based contributions
  • Empty Bowls – city-wide program to feed homeless families by selling soup and handmade pottery
  • Unitarian Universalist Service Committee member
  • YWCA Family Center volunteers
Rock on, JAM!
– Carey.

About the Author

Carey is the Chief Operating Officer for the UUA.
Leave A Comment