GA 2012 ends on upbeat note
The Justice GA closed Sunday night with a rousing final worship. After five days of learning about immigration issues and after Saturday night’s massive candlelight vigil at the Tent City jail, GA participants gathered one last time before heading home to continue justice work there. The service opened with the group emma’s revolution inviting the [...]
Courter: Justice GA has transformed future GAs
In her moderator’s report at the last Plenary of the Justice General Assembly, Gini Courter spoke of transformation. “All over the county UUs expect transformation,” she said. Personal transformation and societal transformation. After Justice GA, General Assembly has been transformed, Courter said. She invited UUs in Plenary to note how they were changed at this [...]
Crestwell: ‘Go home and start a little trouble’
Plenary Hall was nearly filled to capacity on Sunday morning as General Assembly attendees gathered to worship together with song, prayer, and spirited words. Kellie Walker, David Glasgow, and the Rev. John T. Crestwell lead the congregation in song and UUA President Peter Morales offered a welcome to all gathered, saying, “We come to affirm [...]
Citizenship fair draws hundreds of UU volunteers
When Daniel Stracka began to organize a service project helping people complete their paperwork for citizenship for the Justice General Assembly, he hoped to get 200 volunteers. Instead, 600 people signed up. “We were bowled over,” Stracka said. “It was a great affirmation that people wanted to do this kind of work.” Stracka is president [...]
Thousands wage peaceful protest at Tent City
Several thousand gathered outside the Tent City jail complex Saturday night to protest inhumane conditions maintained by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The peace vigil was organized by the UUA, and drew nearly 2,000 people, many of whom arrived in busses from the Phoenix Convention Center, site of the UUA Justice General Assembly. People lined [...]
Fahs lecture: Race, immigration, and religious education
“Children in the preschool years are generally trying to make sense of what they’re seeing,” including what they’re seeing of racial differences, said Louise Derman-Sparks, a well-known anti-bias educator, who delivered this year’s Fahs Lecture on religious education on Thursday at General Assembly. She said children become aware of differences in skin color in their [...]
Religious delegation visits ‘Tent City’
Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales said he was “saddened and appalled” by what he observed inside the Tent City jails, an outdoor jail complex maintained by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio led Morales on a tour of a women’s and a men’s jail Saturday evening. He was accompanied by the Rev. Geoffrey A. [...]
Live reports from religious witness at ‘Tent City’
UU World is monitoring social media about the 2012 General Assembly and curating them on our Storify page. Here are highlights from the religious witness at the Maricopa County “Tent City” jail on Saturday, June 23:
Building the world we dream about
In a three hour workshop on Saturday morning, Dr. Mark Hicks, Angus MacLean Professor of Religious Education at Meadville Lombard Theological School, gave participants a taste of his curriculum, “Building the World We Dream About.” This program for adults “seeks to interrupt the workings of racism and transform how people from different racial/ethnic groups understand [...]
Delegates pick reproductive justice as next CSAI
The 2012 General Assembly chose a new four-year Congregational Study/Action Issue at Saturday’s plenary. For 2012–2016, congregations and the UUA will focus on “Reproductive Justice: Expanding Our Social Justice Calling.” During Friday morning’s plenary, delegates heard from advocates of five proposed Congregational Study/Action Issues for 2012–2016 and cast paper ballots for the proposal they [...]
