Dwayne Eutsey, a UU resident of Easton, writes a blog for Mid-Shore Life entitled Spiritual Currents. Visit his blog here.

I have been reflecting on the question I’ve heard several times recently from friends, activists and donors: “How can you hold on to hope when things are so bad?”

I have to admit that sometimes it can be hard. But because of the work I do, I get the privilege of seeing huge victories and changes happening when people join together and follow their vision toward their biggest dreams.

At the organization I lead, Spirit in Action, we have recently been helping to facilitate this process by leading collective visioning training through a series of webinars for diverse groups across the country, including Occupy groups. These trainings have empowered many people to lead collective visioning within their own communities in over 20 major cities. Occupy has brought the inequality and injustice in this country to the forefront of the public eye and put it in the news. Many people want to support this work even if they aren’t able to participate in marches and Occupy events.

I would like to invite you to participate in a training webinar on collective visioning next week specifically for National Standing on the Side of Love Month. You can sign up to participate here:

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1272/signup_page/collective-visioning

The webinar will take place next Thursday, February 26, 2012 from 5pm to 6:30pm EST.

Last Saturday, I led 40 people involved with Occupy Boston in a collective visioning workshop, followed by a training for those who want to lead these workshops on their own. Many people expressed that they had come into the workshop with a lot of hopelessness, with some even ready to give up. The visioning process renewed their hope and commitment in a way that was joyful and creative. I have found that people are looking for “different” ways of approaching huge societal problems and wishing for a pathway to join together to make big leaps into the unknown. For the 20 people who participated in the training for trainers, they now have the tools and experience to continue the collective visioning process in their own community.

This is a time for boldness — not giving up. It is a time for great courage — not letting our fears stop us. If we just work on small changes, though they are fulfilling and valuable, we will not make long term, big changes in the world. We have to bring all the puzzle pieces together — small changes, individual work, and big ideas — in order to create a different world.

Please join us for this webinar training tailored especially for Standing on the Side of Love on how to lead a collective visioning process on Thursday, February 26, 2012 from 5pm to 6:30pm EST.

Click here to sign up for the webinar.

You should also download the Occupy the Present: Change the Future Collective Visioning Guide along with other resources here:

In 2011, we claimed our collective power to gather peacefully, to protest and to raise national and international awareness about some of the most pressing issues facing humanity and our planet. As the Occupy movement enters a new year, we invite all people who are dedicated to social transformation to join us in a process of Collective Visioning. Join us during these Thirty Days of Love by visioning a just and sustainable world.  Working together we can make our visions a reality.

Linda Stout
Director
Spirit in Action
www.spiritinaction.n

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Dear Friend,

With the launch of our Choose Compassionate Consumption campaign this fall, UUSC supporters joined together to form a powerful block of consumer advocates.

In October, we targeted Hershey and the use of child labor in chocolate production, sending more than 1,100 letters to Hershey, along with samples of a competitor’s fair-trade chocolate. In November and December, UUSC supporters generated approximately $15,000 in sales for the Southern Agricultural Alternatives Cooperative, a socially responsible pecan-processing cooperative that creates jobs in southwest Georgia.

Now let’s use our power to make a positive difference in the lives of restaurant workers, by choosing where to eat based on how restaurants treat their employees!

The U.S. restaurant industry employs over 10 million workers nationwide and is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. But sadly, the restaurant industry also has a very high rate of workers’-rights violations.  

That’s why the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United), a UUSC partner organization, has released the ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012: A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants. The guide rates restaurants throughout the country based on how they treat their workers, listing responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick.

Download the restaurant guide today — and use it to choose compassionate consumption when you dine out!

Thanks,

Kara Smith
Associate for Grassroots Mobilization

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‘Gathered Here’ helps UUs share experiences, hopes

UUA initiative encourages community conversations to strengthen denomination.        
By Donald E. Skinner
1.16.12

Gathered Here invites congregations and individual UUs across the country to share hopes for the faith through “Community Conversations” and one-on-one interviews during the next eight months. The board and administration will use that information to help determine the UUA’s future.

Participants in Gathered Here will respond to questions about how being Unitarian Universalist helps them to think and act, and how UUs working together might bring about change in the world. Using “Appreciative Inquiry,” individuals and groups are invited to talk about their most positive experiences, including strengths, successes, values, hopes, and dreams. Community Conversations and individual interviews must be completed by August 31.

At the Berkeley event for Gathered Here, around 30 people paired up and interviewed each other, then formed larger groups for more sharing. The Rev. Jeanelyse Doran Adams, director of Congregational Services for the UUA’s Pacific Central District, was one of those who participated. “The interviews brought people to an energized and hopeful place,” she said. “By sharing information with another person, and learning about that person and talking about their faith, people came away truly inspired by each others’ stories. They also saw their faith in a new light.”

The Rev. Bill Hamilton-Holway, UUCB’s co-minister, added, “The process solicited stories of our experiences of Unitarian Universalism at its best and allowed us to name our hopes and dreams for the future. The experience deepened relationships and grounded people in their experiences of and commitment to Unitarian Universalism. The Appreciative Inquiry approach shifts people into looking for what is going well instead of always looking at what needs to be corrected.”

At Jefferson Unitarian Church (JUC) in Golden, Colo., two groups of 14 and 28 people convened for Gathered Here sessions. “We talked about our peak experiences with Unitarian Universalism,” said Sue Parilla, volunteer coordinator at JUC. “Through storytelling, we shared what’s important to us about our faith.”

She added, “People seemed to like the process. One of the big benefits I see, aside from the value to our association, is that people got to know each other better. We talked about what people love about our faith and where our strengths are as a denomination. From that, we can look at areas we want to make stronger.”

JUC member Leslie Light said her experience in the conversations was transformative. “And that was not what I expected. It challenged me to understand and express why I was a UU, why I participated at my church, why I made it a priority in my life. I was challenged to see what the future of Unitarian Universalism could be. Now, when I see small opportunities to contribute to this vision I am compelled, from this new understanding, to take them.”

Gathered Here was also piloted by a group of 15 youth at the Northern New England District’s Youth Assembly at the Ferry Beach Camp and Conference Center in Saco, Maine. The discussion was facilitated by the Rev. Karen Brammer, a Northern New England District staff member.

Kimberly Paquette, the district’s director of Multigenerational Ministries, said, “When we started, the energy in the room jumped by about 500 percent. Once the youth were asked to talk about their faith, they could hardly be contained. Each comment seemed to spark a similar thought in another youth. They were animated and energized by engaging in this process. They seemed grateful for an opportunity to reflect on the best our faith has to offer. When the session ended they still had more to say.”

One of the youth, Jessie Knight, said that the session helped her connect with a supportive community and gave her hope. “As a UU youth, I sometimes feel like the outcast among friends when the conversation turns to beliefs. This was a common view in our workshop, and it brought the group closer together.”

Knight, a member of the UU Church of Belfast, Maine, added, “Some things that people said were repeated over and over: `I feel accepted in this faith;’ `I can be myself in this faith;’ `This faith makes me feel supported and loved.’ An underlying theme of this was that Unitarian Universalism builds community, and we are strengthened spiritually through this community.”

Amanda Trosten-Bloom, with Corporation for Positive Change, has been retained by the UUA to serve as the project consultant for Gathered Here. She said that all UU congregations and non-congregational communities are being encouraged to participate in Gathered Here, starting this month and continuing through the end of August.

“All those who participate will be inspired and renewed,” she said. “People will form strong new relationships that will give life to their faith and their UU communities.”

Trosten-Bloom said the Gathered Here program has been simplified since its pilot sessions. “A two-hour guided conversation with carefully crafted questions is the cornerstone of the initiative. This is ideal for members of a congregation who want to come together for an evening gathering or other small group sessions. And groups that can’t participate before summer can host conversations during a leadership institute or camp.” Another option, she said, is to explore one question a week as part of an adult education series or a weekly youth gathering. “The possibilities are endless and creative approaches are strongly encouraged.”

A Community Conversation can be facilitated by a member of the congregation with little preparation or training, she said, using materials that are free and available for download at uua.org/gatheredhere. The Gathered Here program also includes volunteer facilitators who will help congregations organize Gathered Here sessions if they would like assistance. (Email gatheredhere@uua.org.)

Jon Hassinger, chair of Jefferson Unitarian’s Strategic Planning Group, participated in one of the sessions at JUC. He said he believes that Gathered Here will help with strategic planning that’s currently underway at JUC. “There was a richness to the conversations I was part of. There’s nothing better than getting UUs in a room to talk about what binds us together and what our passions are.”

The Rev. Peter Morales, UUA president, encourages congregations to participate. “Gathered Here is an opportunity for us to share our deepest values and highest aspirations for our faith,” he said.

In addition to the participation by congregations, individual UUs are also encouraged to pair up with another person for a one-on-one Gathered Here conversation. Individuals can either pair with someone locally, using questions from the website, or the Gathered Here staff will connect them with someone in another part of the country. Using an interview guide downloaded from the website, conversations can take place by phone or video chat. At the conclusion of the interview the participants complete a Conversation Summary form, also on the website. All of the forms required for Gathered Here are available on the website.

Trosten-Bloom said she’s optimistic that many congregations will participate in Gathered Here this winter and through next summer. “The more people who participate in these conversations, the more likely we are to really grow and make a difference. We’ve made participation very easy. Gathered Here gives us a way to make Unitarian Universalism a real force for good in the world. May we make it so.”

I’d like to invite you to be part of a real secure community.

To me, we find security in each other’s open arms, in seeking shoulders to lean on instead of backs to stand on. Security is a mother’s love or a sibling’s smile; a family gathered around a table filled with daily bread.

 Unfortunately, such scenes are being threatened by a program that falsely shares the name, “Secure Communities,” but is better known as S-Comm. S-Comm is one in a series of federal immigration programs that enlists local police in the role of unjust immigration enforcement. It turns our public servants into “migra” and turns our local jails into check-points. It’s the main engine behind today’s deportation machine. Despite brave and bold actions and official opposition from governors in three states and condemnations from major newspapers, the Administration has pushed to make the deportation program mandatory nation-wide by next year.

However, the program can’t function without the voluntary participation of our local law enforcers. Places like Santa Clara, CA, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco have found ways to break ICE’s hold on our communities by treating all people who enter their jails equally regardless of documentation status and refusing to extend people’s incarceration just because ICE requested it.

Join us for a webinar next Thursday, February 2^nd, at 8:00 p.m. ET to learn how to keep our communities whole by breaking ICE’s hold on them. Our families deserve to stay together, it’s police and ICE that should be separated.

Click here to sign up for the webinar.

This webinar is a collaboration of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC), of which the UUA is a member, as well as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM). The 90-minute webinar is designed to help congregations create interfaith teams to advocate for change in their communities. Combined with a downloadable toolkit [links to downloadable PDF file], the webinar will give participants concrete tools to launch interfaith grassroots campaigns to demand their city or state break ICE’s Hold on them. Give us 90 minutes and we’ll show you how!

Sign up to participate here:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1272/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=6419

We stood firmly together in Arizona; now it’s time to face the Arizona in our own backyards. Sheriff Arpaio of Maricopa County may be the ugliest face of these federal programs but there are lesser known Arpaios at work in all of our towns. Together we can turn the tide from hate to human rights, from fear to courage, from intolerance to the side of love.

Looking forward to working together,

B. Loewe
National Day Laborer Organizing Network

 PS. To learn more about S-Comm and ICE Holds visit altopolimigra.com/detainers

                    When:  January 17th, 7pm.