International News from the UUA (iNews)

Contents:

• Join President Sinkford on a Live Webcast During his Pilgrimage to Africa
  
• Congo Sabbath Initiative
  
• Resources on International Religious Freedom
  
• IARF-US Meeting in Cambridge
  
• "UN Sunday" Resources
  
• Faith Without Borders
  
• Congregational Profiles
  
• ICUU Global Chalice Lighting Reading for October 2008
  
• Events
  
• Inspired Faith - Effective Action Blog
  
• International Engagement database
  

In November 2008 Reverend William G. Sinkford, President of the UUA, will embark on a pilgrimage to six countries in Africa. The purposes of the pilgrimage are:

• to meet with old and new colleagues among the Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists of Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa,
• to learn from the experience and wisdom of leaders in Truth and Reconciliation work in South Africa, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
• to learn from leaders of social justice and human rights organizations involved in diverse struggles, including: LGBT Rights, Fair Wages, HIV/AIDS, Women's Rights, and Socially Responsible Investing,
• to visit the UNESCO World Heritage site and symbolic center of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Île de Gorée.

Individual UU's and UU congregations can participate with Reverend Sinkford during the journey in a variety of ways:

by joining a Sunday School "web-cast" in real time with Reverend Sinkford each Sunday during the pilgrimage,

• by following blogposts, reports, news items, photos and video posted during the journey,
• by using the "congregational participation" resource which describes each segment of the journey and the people/organizations Reverend Sinkford will be visiting with,
• by participating in the "Propose a Question" contest - Reverend Sinkford will present the most popular questions to people that he meets with.

Further information about each of these opportunities will be available soon at www.uua.org/sinkfordafrica. Or, for more information, please contact the UUA's International Resources Office.

The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing - whose founder and Director is UU minister Rev. Debra Haffner - has launched the Congo Sabbath Initiative to engage faith communities in educating their congregants about violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Forty-five national religious leaders have joined the Religious Institute in calling on congregations across the country to participate in a Congo Sabbath. A Congo Sabbath project might involve such activities as holding an educational program on the DRC crisis, reading a prayer for the Congolese women during worship, or raising funds to benefit the City of Joy.

Please click here to register your interest in the Congo Sabbath Initiative and to learn more about how your congregation can get involved.

October 27th marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act, which made the promotion of religious freedom a basic aim of U.S. foreign policy. The Pew Forum has assembled a variety of resources on international religious freedom, including event transcripts, Q&As and news clips.

Go to the resource page

Through the Lens of the Young Adult:
Seminar on Religion and Human Rights in Jordan
An evening program featuring a presentation by Hillary Kaell and Stephanie Derrick, both Harvard University students, who will present their journey to Amman Jordan and the August 2008 Conference of RFYN, Religious Freedom Young Adult Network.

Thursday, October 23rd, 7pm
First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist
3 Church St., Harvard Square

The UU United Nations Office has created excellent materials for congregations to celebrate UN Sunday on October 26, 2008. They are available here.

Join with UU congregations in North America to support the UU voice at the United Nations and the 2008 UN Sunday theme: Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for Us All.

A similar UN Sunday resource designed with the "Faith Without Borders" framework is also available here. Please make use of either or both of these offerings.

Introduced at General Assembly, the "Faith Without Borders" program invites congregations to integrate a commitment to faithful global citizenship into many aspects of congregational life.

Participants in the program will receive resources, consultation and celebration from the International Resources Office. For more information, click here.

Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County, IA

The International Engagement of the Main Line Unitarian Church (Devon, PA)

Please take a moment to read about the incredible international work some of our congregations are doing!

The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists announces the 62nd in its monthly series of global chalice lighting readings. Congregations worldwide are invited to participate.

All ICUU-affiliated groups have been asked to submit brief chalice lightings for the project. Every month, a reading will be distributed to Unitarian and Universalist congregations around the world. We ask each congregation to use the reading for at least one worship service in the designated month, identifying it as the "Global Chalice Lighting" for that month and naming the group which submitted it. Readings will be circulated in English and, where different, in their original language.

It is hoped that the ICUU Global Chalice Lighting Project will enhance the worship experience in our congregations and raise awareness of the international dimensions of our religious movement.

This Global Chalice Lighting is to be used during October 2008.

Bless the work that we do,
And the silence that falls upon us,
And the joy that stirs within us.
And let praise rise to our lips
Naturally out of the fullness of our hearts.

-Sheila Crosskey
British General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches

• October 26, 2008: United Nations Sunday
• October 31 - Nov 2, 2008: European Unitarian Universalists Fall Retreat-Traben-Trabach, Germany
• November 8-9, 2008: Tents of Hope for Darfur - Washington DC
• December 1, 2008: World AIDS Day
• December 10, 2008: 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• February 26 - March 1, 2009: International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women
• April 16-18, 2009: UU-UNO Spring Seminar: "All in the Name of Faith: Rights, Religion, and Responsibility"

As part of the UUA's Advocacy and Witness Staff group, the International Resources office contributes to the Inspired Faith - Effect Action blog. Visit the blog for postings on a wide variety of issues. Or, subscribe to an rss feed of international-related posts.

The IRO maintains a database of the many varieties of international engagement that UU congregations are involved with. To date we have records from approximately 150 congregations in the database. Is your congregation one of them? If so, we'd love to update your entry. If not, we'd love to include information about your congregation's international engagement.

Contact Nicole McConvery to check/update your congregation's status in the database.

Or, if you'd like to be in contact with other congregations who are involved with international programs that are similar to yours, let us know and we'll provide you with a report.