In this month where the spiritual theme is “Commitment”, I want to celebrate all the folks who show such commitment to putting our Faith into Action in the world. Our Faith in Action ministries are active and vibrant, and individual members of OUUC also act on their faith, showing up as volunteers, advocates, leaders, activists, and more in the community.

Within OUUC, Faith in Action has been getting re-organized a bit. One change was that after a visioning process two years ago we organized our efforts into three major focus areas:

1. Environmental/Climate Justice
   
   
2. Economic Justice
   
   
3. Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression

Now each of these focus areas also have official OUUC teams to tend to them and help equip folks who have a project or idea, and then the teams are coordinated by the Faith in Action Leadership Team, which also includes representatives and liaisons with our community partners and affiliated teams (such as Learning Right Relations).

Here’s a rough chart to show the organization:

Within this loose structure, we have folks showing their commitment to our shared UU values and our OUUC mission and vision in a variety of ways:

• Engaging with their own learning around anti-racism and unpacking white privilege and white supremacy culture
  
  

• Creating educational resources and opportunities for others
  
  

• Showing up for protest, activism, and testimony (often finding out about these on the Faith in Action Alert List)
  
  

• Engaging with active citizenship and advocacy by contacting legislators, local elected officials, agency heads, and other decision makers (often finding out about issues to contact them about from the Faith in Action Alert List)
  
  

• Attending lobby days or other events put on by community partners or state or national UU justice organizations (such as Faith Action Network or JUUsticeWA or Side with Love)
  
  

• Fundraising to support community partners (such as with the booksale)
  
  

• Building relationship with indigenous peoples (Learning Right Relationship)
  
  

• Encouraging the congregation to take personal lifestyle actions, such as recycling and using alternative transport
  
  

• Volunteering directly to serve and care for others (cooking meals for the hungry, building tiny houses, etc)
  
  

• And more!

A big shout out to all the folks who do these things, showing their commitment to their values!

If you are interested in getting more plugged in to our faith in action ministries, there are a few things you can do. First and foremost, you can join the Faith in Action Alert List. This is an opt-in group for communication about faith in action opportunities. It’s very busy right now with legislative session in full swing.

You can also engage with one of our teams. If you are interested in joining the Environmental Action Team, the Economic Justice Team, or the Anti-Racism Team, contact me and I can connect you with the team.

This short blessing for all our siblings being targeted by transphobia and hate, and for everyone living out our faith by organizing, advocating, and mobilizing for justice, from the Unitarian Universalist Association and Foothills Unitarian Church. We see you and we love you.

At a moment when so many legislatures are debating hateful laws, Unitarian Universalism affirms what is true yesterday, today, and every day:

Trans people are divine.

There is no such thing as other people’s children.

We join together in fighting for a world in which all of us are free and thriving.

As we move into the season of Spring, Easter and Passover, Mary Ellen Johnson, long-time labyrinth facilitator, will bring her labyrinth to the OUUC sanctuary to help us mark these holy days.

All ages are welcome to an open labyrinth walk on Friday, March 31 from 4 - 7pm.

Everyone is invited to a workshop titled “Labyrinth 202 – Further Along the Journey” on Saturday, April 1 from 9:30am - 12pm. No experience with a labyrinth is required, everyone welcome.

You can register here.

Please take a bit of time to fill out our new survey about the offerings on Sundays and Thursdays. We want to hear from you!

Click here to access the survey and share your thoughts on second services and scheduling.