A Newsletter from UUA Congregational Advocacy & Witness and UU Ministers Council on CBCO - Fall 2009
Dear CBCO News Readers:
We hope you have been having a great fall. We are now up to over 130 UU congregations engaged in CBCO. We are becoming more powerful in our work for health care, housing, immigrant justice and more. The items below will help you and us here at HQ (please fill out our quick CBCO survey) to deepen our organizing, build our power, and win our justice issues!
In faith,
Susan Leslie, UUA Director for Congregational Advocacy & Witness and
Staff Liaison for UU Ministers Advisory Council on CBCO
In this Issue:
Highlight Reports from two UU Congregations
CBCO & Standing on the Side of Love Campaign
Interreligious Organizing Initiative on Immigration Reform
UUA CBCO Survey
CBCO at GA 09
UUFP $ for CBCO Training
1) CBCO Highlights from two UU Congregations
Report from Boulder Valley UU Fellowship in Lafayette, CO: 'Faith-based groups show reform support.'
Member Kathy Partridge writes:
Our minister Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry talked about the need to stand on the side of love of those who need health care in her remarks in Ft. Collins Colorado at a rally of PICO Colorado, part of the Health Care Day of Action in August. We had about two dozen UUs from 2-3 congregations there. We're using the SSL slogan for future local work with PICO around immigration reform, and would love signs and a banners.
The photo is of our CBCO team at Metro Organization for People action for health care reform last March, which included the issues of in-state tuition, health care and payday lending, with Rev. Lydia and our Minister Emerita, Rev. Catherine Harris, and one of our teens as well as other members of the congregation. We had about twenty people go by bus to the action.
2) Connecting CBCO & Standing on the Side of Love of Love Campaign
A great way to strengthen your congregation's commitment to your CBCO work and expand your core team is to link up with the new UUA Standing on the Side of Love Campaign. This new UUA initiative brings the idea of grassroots organizing and standing with marginalized communities to a wider audience of UUs. Bringing the slogan into your interfaith work will be welcomed by your colleagues and bring more UUs to the work as well. The SSL Campaign will help ministers prepare their remarks for press conferences and Letters to the Editor and get OpEds placed as well.
Note Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry's remarks above in our CBCO Highlight and read Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, minister of First Unitarian Church of San Jose, and the PICO Affiliate People Acting in Community Together (PACT) account below:
Standing on the Side of Love with Immigrant Families at PICO Action
The 45-minute press conference at La Trinidad United Methodist Church in San Jose at 11:30 this morning went very well! When I arrived, there was already a bank of still and video cameras pointed at a colorful crowd of Comprehensive Immigration Reform supporters, who were chanting "Si' se puede" and "Family Unity Cannot Wait" and "Janet, escucha, estamos en la lucha" (Listen, Janet, we are here together in the struggle). A press conference and vigil was called because Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was in town. Some of these supporters had arrived by the busload from Southern California, from Oregon, Idaho, and one of the other Western states. A couple of busloads of visitors spent the night on the floor at First Unitarian following the rally in Santa Clara this evening, and we had congregants who spent the night right alongside them to serve as their hosts. What dedication!
The press conference included statements from Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors member and from San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo (council member from First Unitarian's district--a friend of the church!). We heard moving testimonials from families and community leaders directly affected by our unjust immigration policies; Korean, Latino/a, and Indian (Southeast Asian) speakers brought home the universality of the devastating effect that these policies have. I was called on to present the overarching faith perspective on this action, as well as to put out the invitation to join the rally in the evening. Here are my remarks:
In the face of unjust laws that have denied the basic dignity of every human being and that have torn families apart, my religious ancestors-our religious ancestors-have stood on the side of love by harboring runaway slaves, protesting the internment of Japanese Americans, and fighting to overturn those unjust laws.
Well, now this country's current immigration policies are unjust, denying the dignity-the very personhood-of our brother and sister human beings and tearing families apart, right here in Santa Clara County and all across the nation. We people of faith are standing on the side of love tonight to say that Comprehensive Immigration Reform cannot wait. Our local and national leaders have a responsibility to unify and advance our communities, not to divide us from our neighbors simply because our backgrounds differ. Please join us today at 4:30 at the corner of Lewis and El Camino Real in Lafayette Park in Santa Clara , to let Secretary Janet Napolitano know that we want immigration laws that reflect the deepest values of fairness, diversity, and compassion-these core values that each of our faith traditions upholds; the core values that make this country truly great.
3) IOI Report on Coordinated Action for Immigration Reform with Organizing Networks
On Oct. 7th, the Interreligious Organizing Initiative (IOI) hosted a major national meeting to plan a coordinated strategy for immigration reform between denominational advocacy staff, organizing networks and immigration reform organizers. In attendance were national representatives from the organizing networks PICO, Gamaliel, DART, and IVP (and local folks from IAF), the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (representing 25 faith denominations), Interfaith Worker Justice and the New Sanctuary Movement, Reform Immigration for America Now (the largest immigration reform coalition in the US), and staff from several religious denomination including UUA, ELCA (Lutherans), UMC (Methodists), and URJ (Reform Jews) along with funders.
Deepok Bhargava, Exec. Dir. of Center for Community Change, gave a cogent briefing that boiled down to the fact that we actually have a chance of passing immigration reform this year as opposed to 2007 because we will have a better bill, unions are agreed on strategy, and new umbrella organization Reform Immigration for America has been launched. Schumer & Lindsay Graham introducing in Senate early in Jan.; Guitierrez just introduced in House on Oct. 13th January to Mid-March is the window for passing legislation. Much after this is too close to elections. We don't have all the details yet but there was consensus that we Need Large Sense of Scale - Proposed Actions: National Day of Action in January; Major Mobilization In Spring.
There was also a portion of the meeting dedicated to strengthening CBCO among all the denominations. Stay tuned!
4) UUA CBCO Quick Survey
As part of tracking and mapping here at HQ we would like you (if you haven't already) to fill out our survey on CBCO. We can use the information in a variety of ways to grow support for CBCO by reporting to major stakeholders and funders on the 'state of the field' of UU congregations and faith-based organizing. It also allows us to connect UUs in CBCO affiliates working on issues (such as immigration reform) with other UUs who are in or not in CBCOs but working on the same issues. It's part of our effort to bring as much UU strength to bear on our priorities issues as possible.
5) CBCO at GA 09
If you missed GA there was a terrific report on CBCO in plenary from the UUA CBCO Ministers Council, UU Church of Arlington VA who recently helped formed VOICE in No. VA, and the Office for Congregational Advocacy & Witness. You can view it online.
6) UUFP $ for Training
Over 30 UU congregations have received matching grants for CBCO first year dues and for training for clergy and congregational leaders.
Grants for training--for clergy and congregational leaders--are available on a rolling basis (approximately a two week turn around) and for congregations in CBCO or considering CBCO. The grants will cover costs of the training, travel and other expenses, including childcare. Congregations already in CBCO can strengthen their core team and congregational leadership by sending folks to training. Social Justice Councils and Committee folks will benefit as well. In addition to traveling to training, congregations might want to arrange for weekend training in their congregations as well.
Trainings are posted on all the major network sites. See the
UUA's CBCO pages for a listing.
Contact Us:
Office for Congregational Advocacy & Witness
Susan Leslie
Director
Audra Friend
Program Coordinator
