[JTWNews] Selma Anniversary, Iraq Actions, New-JUUST Change!

[Susan Leslie]

Dear JTW-News Readers:

 

In this issue you will find news and information about:

 

1) UUA President Bill Sinkford Named as One of the Nation's Most
Influential Black Spiritual Leaders by Beliefnet!

 

2) UUA Commemorates 40th Anniversary of Selma and the Deaths of UU
Minister Rev. James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, UU Civil Rights Worker, and
Jimmy Jackson, Selma Civil Rights Organizer

 

3) JUUST Change - A new transformational program for UU congregations
launches March 10th.

 

4) March 20th- - April 4th:  2nd Year of War in Iraq:  UUA Joins
Interfaith Activities - How to Get Your Congregation Involved.
President Sinkford Joins Interfaith Leaders at Riverside Church in NYC
for Culminating Events on April 4th - Anniversary of Martin Luther
King's Speech Calling for an End to the Vietnam War.

 

5) New Resource for Welcoming Back the Troops

 

6) Taco Bell Boycott is Over! Coalition of Immolakee Workers Declares
Victory as Historic Agreement is Reached

 

 

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1) REV. WILLIAM G. SINKFORD NAMED AS ONE OF THE NATION'S MOST
INFLUENTIAL BLACK SPIRITUAL LEADERS 

 

Beliefnet, a multi-faith electronic community designed to "help people
meet their own religious, spiritual and moral needs by providing
information, inspiration, and community," has named UUA President
William G. Sinkford to its list of the nation's most prominent and
powerful African-American religious leadership .The author of the piece,
Halimah Abdullah, writes: "Whether inspiring their congregations to
stand up against social injustice or urging a focus on God-centered
family values, African-American religious leaders are an influential
component of a rich and diverse spiritual landscape." This list of
leaders, Abdullah says, "represents some of today's most prominent
spiritual figures, as well as those whose lifelong efforts have earned
them a place history."

 

The listing for Sinkford notes, "The Rev. William G. Sinkford is the
first African American to head the Unitarian Universalist Association, a
largely white, liberal denomination. This Boston-based minister has been
a particularly vocal proponent of legalizing gay marriage, a position
that is in keeping with his organization's historical support of
same-sex couples and their families." See http://www.uua.org/. Also
included on the list are the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
the Rev. James Forbes Jr., and the Rev. Johnnie Colemon. 

 

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2) UUA Commemorates 40th ANNIVERSARY OF SELMA and the Deaths of UU
Minister Rev. James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, UU Civil Rights Worker, and
James Jackson, Selma Civil Rights Organizer.

 

See http://www.uua.org/ for historical materials and reflections today,
40 years later.

 

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3) UUA Launches new JUUST CHANGE Consultancy - A Program for
Congregational and Community Transformation.

 

JUUST Change Consultants are able to help congregations with a
developmental process of congregation based anti-racist, anti-oppressive
multicultural transformation and social action.  By this ministry to
congregations and their professional and lay leadership, JUUST Change
consultants can help identify internal leaders; facilitate group
processes in developing vision and mission, dialogue, problem-solving,
team development, developing capacities for building partnership in the
larger community, and goal-setting/action planning.

 

Our resources encompass a broad range of voices and experiences,
grounded in institutional/power analysis of racism,
heterosexism/homophobia, ableism, gender oppression, and classism; the
intersection of oppressions; and wisdom about congregational
change/transformation. Engagement in this work will require that we, to
paraphrase "Soul Work: Anti-Racist Theologies in Dialogue, "deepen our
discourse, and in light of new information, reconsider how we live out
our Unitarian Universalist principles." 

 

For more information about the program and for a congregational
application see
http://www.uua.org/programs/justice/antiracism/consultancy.html.

 

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4) March 20th - April 4th:  2nd YEAR OF WAR IN IRAQ: UUA Joins
Interfaith Activities - How to Get Your Congregation Involved.  

 

President Sinkford Joins Interfaith Leaders at Riverside Church in NYC
for Culminating Events on April 4th - Anniversary of Martin Luther
King's Speech Calling for an End to the Vietnam War.

 

For information on organizing a vigil or an event on March 20th see
www.unitedforpeace.org/faith.

 

PLEASE SEND ME REPORTS & DIGITAL PHOTOS of YOUR CONGREGATION'S ACTIONS
to feature on the www.uua.org <http://www.uua.org/> . 

 

 

On April 4th, a major event at Riverside Church to protest the Iraq War,
with a variety of speakers and linking of three issues raised by MLK,
racism, militarism, and materialism. We will ask local religious groups
around the country to plan a demonstration on April 4 to coincide with
event at Riverside Church in NYC. After service, those at Riverside will
walk down Broadway to Times Square military recruiting office.  

 

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5) New Resource for WELCOMING HOME THE TROOPS

 

>From the UUA Washington Office for Advocacy:

 

Welcoming Veterans and Military Families in Our Congregations and
Communities

http://www.uua.org/uuawo/new/article.php?id=589.

 

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6) Breaking News! THE TACO BELL BOYCOTT IS OVER! The Coalition of
Immokalee Workers and Taco Bell have reached an historic agreement!

 

The Boycott's Over...and We've Won!  Reads the headline of the Coalition
of Immmokalee Workers (CIW).  Amidst the growing momentum of the 2005
Taco Bell Truth Tour and after nearly four years of a national boycott,
the CIW and Taco Bell have reached a historic agreement! 

 

March 8, 2005 (IMMOKALEE/LOUISVILLE) - In a precedent-setting move,
fast-food industry leader Taco Bell Corp., a division of Yum! Brands
(NYSE: YUM), has agreed to work with the Florida-based farm worker
organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to address the
wages and working conditions of farm workers in the Florida tomato
industry.

 

Taco Bell announced today that it will fund a penny per pound
"pass-through" with its suppliers of Florida tomatoes, and will
undertake joint efforts with the CIW on several fronts to improve
working conditions in Florida's tomato fields. For its part, the CIW has
agreed to end its three-year boycott of Taco Bell, saying that the
agreement "sets a new standard of social responsibility for the
fast-food industry." To read more see
http://www.ciw-online.org/we%20won.html.

 

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As always, send me your congregation's news!

 

Susan Leslie

Director for Congregational Advocacy and Witness

Unitarian Universalist Association

25 Beacon Street, Boston MA  02108

(617) 948-4607; sleslie at uua.org

www.uua.org/justice

Subscribe to SAC-News, Advocacy-News & SRI-News at
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