Prairie Star District

	Prairie Star District Social Justice Network Newsletter Your “Checkpoint” for Unitarian Universalist Social Action No. 4 — Spring 2007
“[Peace is] not a matter of the absence of tension but the presence of justice.” — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

SJNN is periodic print and electronic newsletter. The newsletter provides information on long-term social justice concerns and suggested avenues for action. The annual newsletter is published in the Spring. Periodic updates are published as needed. Please send contributions for the Social Justice Updates at any time, to Vicki Pratt (Second Omaha) vlpratt@aol.com

Prairie Star District Office:
122 W. Franklin Ave., Suite 303, Minneapolis, MN 55404

Purpose
The Social Justice Network has been established as a way of linking social justice / social concerns committees of the congregations of the Prairie Star District

Social justice has moved from “heroes and sheroes” to systematic approach to change. Cooperative joint action among congregations takes the form of “clusters”, alliances, and community-based congregational organizing (CBCO). This issue of Checkpoints provides examples of these approaches as they have taken form in the Prairie Star District Unitarian Universalist Association.

Clusters maximize resources, fellowship

Several years ago members of the Prairie Star Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network read an article about Clusters in the UUA publication Interconnections. In part the article said,

We found the idea exciting. We took this idea to heart and now we have functioning clusters in Prairie Star. Last fall the clusters meet for a second time. The cluster activities included the following:

• Southern Minnesota/Western Wisconsin Cluster and the Iowa Clusters conducted meetings in October with similar agendas that included ingathering rituals, round table discussion of activities, and strategies for social justice. One outcome of the meetings was the development of a new Featured Social Issues on the PSDUUA Social Justice website.
• The Nebraska cluster got together twice. In October 2006 social justice/action chairs from Lincoln and Second Omaha congregations met in Omaha to catch up on activities of the individual congregations and review goals and objectives of the PSD social justice network. We also kept in email and phone contact with the fellowship in Kearney. All enthusiastically endorsed the concept of knowledge sharing and possible joint actions.
• Nebraska blizzards postponed the next meeting to early March 2007. The Lincoln congregation hosted representatives from First Omaha and Second Omaha. We reviewed proposed bills introduced at the current Nebraska legislative session that would impact the elderly, children, immigration, employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or marital status, health care and prescription drug benefits, criminal justice reform, and energy conservation.

2007 cluster meetings

Cluster meetings are scheduled for fall 2007 according to the following schedule. Be watching the PSD Social Justice website for more details.

September 21-23, 2007
For Western Missouri and Kansas Congregations

The Southern Cluster retreat and camp-out will be September 21–23 at White Memorial Camp near Council Grove, Kansas.

The weekend is designed for congregations of all sizes in Kansas and western Missouri to meet in a relaxed family atmosphere, and share joys, concerns, progress, and problems. The program will emphasize social justice issues that are directly affecting the churches and fellowships in our area. Immigration opposition, and the racism underlying it, is one concern. Another strong issue is the role of a 'peace' church in an area proud of its support of soldiers. The final agenda for the weekend will focus on the issue which the Southern Cluster UU’s identify as most important to their continued development within the Cluster and District.

For further information contact Caron Wells at caronwells@aol.com.

Saturday, October 20, 2007
For Iowa Congregations

The Iowa Cluster Retreat will be Saturday, October 20. . All social justice representatives from congregations throughout Iowa are invited for a day of exploration of our work together. The location and agenda are being determined as this newsletter goes to press.

Saturday, October 27, 2007
For Southern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin Congregations

Congregations in Southern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin will gather at the Unitarian Universalist Society of River Falls, Wisconsin on Saturday, October 27 from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM.

Church address: N8010 State Rd., River Falls, WI 54022.

Roundtable discussion topics:

• What Social Justice work have congregations been up to in the past year?
• What successes have you had?
• What barriers have you encountered and how have you worked around them?
• What strategies have you found helpful to engage UU and community members in social justice activities?

For further information contact Jude Rooney at juderooney@centurytel.net.

June and Each Quarter
For Nebraska Congregations

Congregations in Nebraska and western Iowa meet quarterly with a theme for each meeting. The winter quarter will include a review of proposed bills before the current legislature. Other meetings will focus on the Prophetic Imperative, peace making, and global warming. The June meeting will be at First Unitarian in Omaha, Nebraska. For more information contact James Bennett at actuu@aol.com.

Spring, Fall, and Winter
For Minnesota Congregations

The MUUSJA (Minnesota UU Social Justice Alliance) meets each spring, fall, and winter. The May meeting featured a panel discussion of interfaith work. Future meetings will be listed on the PSD Social Justice website. For more information contact Jo Haberman at jojane@juno.com.

Alliances

Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance (MUUSJA)

The “Alliance”, another expression of the cluster idea, is expressed in MUUSJA. The Minnesota UU Social Justice Alliance is a multi-congregational organization of UUs in the Twin Cities of Minnesota working together for social change. The purpose is to:

1. Build a powerful and lasting organization that empowers UUs to work collectively for social change based on our UU imperative to create a just, equitable, and sustainable world.
2. Organize and wage campaigns with interfaith and secular allies to achieve winnable solutions to systemic social problems.
3. Create a space for UU activists to share and learn from their experiences, especially in relation to our UU faith.

MUUSJA is led by a Steering Committee, with reps from metro UU congregations and working groups. Note: the “M” in MUUSJA formerly was stood for “Metro”; now it is for “Minnesota.” Several actions have been taken by MUUSJA over the past six years.

UU Affordable Housing Partnership (UUAHP) works to address the affordable housing crisis through education, organizing, and public policy advocacy, building Habitat for Humanity housing, and raising money ($100,000 to date) for homelessness prevention and supportive housing. Our current campaign is “Yes, In My Back Yard” in coalition with the Metro Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing. UUAHP meets the first Thursday of the month.

UU EcoMinds promotes lifestyles, policies and technologies that respect and sustain all life. Goals are to (1) advocate for sustainable energy policies; (2) promote UU understanding and adoption of sustainable practices; and (3) help shape UUA’s Statement of Conscience on Global Warming.

UU Worldview/Framing Group engages UU’s in shifting the political climate by learning how to articulate our spiritually progressive UU worldview and skillfully frame the issues we work on in terms of this worldview. The group also coordinates MUUSJA involvement in broader interfaith discussions about worldview locally and nationally.

UUs Building Democracy is a Working Group in discussion. The idea is to engage UUs in a new emerging interfaith effort to shift the political climate, building on our successful UU Voter Registration Campaign in 2004. Activities might include speaking out, educating candidates, registering voters, dialoguing with folks of different faiths and political views, and more.

Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCOs)

By Vicki Pratt

Four thousand institutions in the U.S. are members of 160 CBCOs. Of these 4,000 institutions, more than 100 are UU churches and fellowships.

Donald E. Skinner highlighted UU congregational involvement in CBCOs in his article “Interfaith community groups leverage power” in the Spring 2007 issue of UU World magazine. The Congregational Advocacy and Witness for UUA has also published a resource titled “Congregation-Based Community Organizing: A Social Justice Approach to Revitalizing Congregational Life.” This publication is available from http://www.uua.org/programs/justice/cbco.html.

The material here is based on both these publications plus my own experience with Omaha Together One Community, the CBCO in Omaha. OTOC is affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) national network. Other national networks are DART (Direct Action Research and Training), Gamaliel Foundation, and PICO (People Improving Communities Through Organizing).

CBCOs provide a systemic process for grassroots involvement in making the local community a better place to live by:

• Building community involvement.
• Making concrete long-term systemic change.
• Developing leaders in the community and congregations.
• Building interclass, interracial, and interfaith relationships within the community

Many of our social justice committees feel frustrated and overwhelmed by everything that “needs fixing.” Even the most dedicated committee cannot right their community’s wrongs in one church year. The compromise is often to give money or take direct, short-term actions such as serving meals. While these actions are necessary, they don’t get to the root problem of poverty or hunger.

These issues are better addressed by following the CBCO framework for social activism:

1. Hold house meetings or other dialogue sessions to hear personal stories.
2. From these stories, identify priority issues.
3. Establish a research team to study each priority issue and develop solutions.
4. Meet with the public officials or other power holders to ask for their assistance with implementing solutions.
5. Hold open meetings where officials are asked to publicly state their support.
6. Monitor implementation of solutions and move on to the next issue.

To this framework UU congregations often bring inclusive language, alternatives to opening and closing prayers, and a bridge to other nonChristian congregations. An added bonus for participating congregations is the leadership development training offered by the national network. Skills and experience carry over into congregation leadership roles.

These PSD congregations are known to be currently active in CBCOs:

• First Universalist, Minneapolis
• First Unitarian, Omaha
• Second Unitarian, Omaha
• UU Fellowship, Ames
• First Unitarian, Des Moines
• All Souls Unitarian Universalist, Kansas City

PSD Social Justice Network Cluster/State Representatives

(Phased Terms)

• Caron Wells (Kansas City All Souls) joined the Network in the Fall replacing Kansas representative Mary Westfall (Manhattan Fellowship).
• Southern Minnesota representative Bob Ciernia (Northfield Fellowship) and Network Coordinator Tom Lo Guidice (Church of the Larger Fellowship) are departing in June as their terms end.
• Vicki Pratt (Second Omaha) will become Network Coordinator beginning in July.
• James Bennett (Lincoln) replaces Vicki as the Nebraska representative.
• Betsy Allis and Jo Haberman continue their work with the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance.

Look for future announcements.