International News from the UUA (iNews)

Contents:

• Emerging African Congregations
  
• New International Opportunities for UU Clergy and Seminarians
  
• ICUUW
  
• News from the UU-United Nations Office
  
• Interfaith Youth Core
  
• UUPCC Student Sponsorships
  
• Unitarian Orphanage in the Khasi Hills
  
• Reports From President Sinkford's Pilgrimage to Africa
  
• Faith Without Borders
  
• ICUU Global Chalice Lighting Reading for January 2009
  
• Events
  
• Inspired Faith - Effective Action Blog
  
• International Engagement database
  

UUPCC Virtual Conference
Saturday, January 31, 2009, 1 p.m. EST
Reverend Eric Cherry accompanied UUA President William G. Sinkford on a pilgrimage to six African countries in November 2008. One of the goals of the journey was to meet with old and new colleagues among the Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists of Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa. These meetings were exciting, inspiring and humbling; they also helped clarify a variety of opportunities for engagement.

For information on how to join the conference, please click here.

Tsubaki Grand Shrine Scholarship Program

The Tsubaki Grand Shrine Scholarship is available to Unitarian Universalist seminarians (in candidate status) attending non-UU theological Schools who have an interest in international and interfaith engagement. Scholarship recipients will be provided with expenses for travel to the Tsubaki Grand Shrine (TGS) in Suzuka, Japan, as well as room and board at the Shrine for two to three weeks. Starr King School for the Ministry has a similar program, and Meadville/Lombard is in the process of developing one.

TGS is one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan, dating back to the first century BCE. The long-standing relationship between Unitarian Universalism and TGS has its roots within the International Association for Religious Freedom.

This scholarship was established by Guji Yukiyasu Yamamoto, the 97th guardian priest of the shrine, to:

• promote international and interfaith understanding,
• provide opportunities for Unitarian Universalist seminarians to develop a deeper understanding of shrine Shinto tradition, customs, and practices, and
• further develop close relationships between the Tsubaki Grand Shrine and Unitarian Universalists.

Find out more information about the scholarship and its application process!

UUCP Sabbatical Program

Experienced UUA ministers are invited to consider applying to spend 3- 4 months of a sabbatical with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Philippines (UUCP), providing skill development in these and other areas:

• Nurturance of the UU faith through teaching and articulation of theological concepts.
• Youth and Young Adult Ministry
• Project development, management and community work.
• Church administration, leadership and financial management.

Successful applicants should expect to be engaged in this ministry for approximately 20-hours/week. Contexts will include worship services, traditional classes and less formal discussion groups. The unique skills that a successful applicant brings to this ministry will also be integrated.

The organizing and implementing body for this program will be the UU Church of the Philippines' Religious Education Committee. The UUCP will provide sabbatical program participants with housing and local transportation. Other expenses will be the responsibility of the applicant, with some assistance available from the UUA.

Read more about the UUCP Sabbatical Program and how to apply!

The International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women will be held on Thursday, February 26 to Sunday, March 1, 2009, in Houston, Texas USA.

This is an international gathering of women from all walks of life, including youth (ages 14 and up), adults, and elders from around the world. We are inviting representation from laity and clergy, religious educators and other professionals, plus participation from all UUA districts. Participants will be enriched through our diversity, shared knowledge and experiences.

For more information, please visit www.icuuw.com.

The presentation will take place at the River Road UU Congregation in Bethesda, MD (begins at 7:00 p.m.). For more information, contact the UU-United Nations Office.

Registration for the UU-UNO's Intergenerational Spring Seminar is now open!

Save the Date - April 16-18, 2009 (Youth program begins on the evening of April 15)

"All in the Name of Faith: Rights, Religion, and Responsibility" Join the UU-UNO in exploring the role religion plays in our global fight for Human Rights. Attend to hear excellent speakers, leave empowered with tools to create substantive change in your communities.

Click here to register!

Every Child is Our Child

More than 14 million children under 15 in Africa have lost one or both parents to AIDS. According to the United Nations, that number will rise to at least 35 million children by the year 2010. The scope of this human tragedy is overwhelming. What can one person, or one congregation, do? Plenty! The UU United Nations Office members have begun by making these children our priority.

As part of UU-UNO mission, Every Child is Our Child Program focuses on children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS and works toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of universal primary education, fighting HIV/AIDS, reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting gender equality. This effort is guided by our partnership with the Queen Mothers Association in the Manya Krobo region of Eastern Ghana.

Read more by visiting www.uu-uno.org.

The Daunting Challenge of Human Rights Today

On February 7, 2009, Ambassador Michael Southwick will present "The Daunting Challenge of Human Rights Today"
Ambassador Southwick, a lecturer and consultant on global issues, was our Ambassador to Uganda (1994-1997). He has special expertise in the area of human rights, conflict prevention, and humanitarian relief. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, he managed U.S. policy in over 40 UN organizations.

Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World:
The 6th Conference on Interfaith Youth Work
October 25-27 2009
The 6th Conference on Interfaith Youth Work will convene and equip a community of interfaith activists and advocates who inspire, teach, learn from and partner with one another across faith divides to build the interfaith youth movement. This Conference will convene distinguished guests and presenters from college campuses, faith communities, and civic organizations. Hundreds of academics, religious leaders, foundation representatives, policy analysts, interfaith student activists, media professionals and others will gather to explore new trends in the interfaith field, share best practices for interfaith leadership, tell the story of the interfaith movement, form inspiring partnerships, and build bridges that span cities and countries.

Conference sessions include round table discussions, interfaith service projects, a Day of Interfaith Youth Service Banquet, and over 50 skill-building workshops designed to share valuable tools, teach new models and explore emerging themes across the various sectors of the interfaith youth movement.

For further information please click here.

Many Unitarian and Universalist families around the world live on less than $1 a day. Education is one long-term strategy to break out of the cycle of extreme poverty, but going to school often means walking several kilometers each way, buying uniforms, supplies and often paying tuition. This is beyond the reach for many families.

UUPCC has joined together with U*U organizations in the Philippines, India and Transylvania to identify potential students and to monitor and maintain the personal connections between student and donor(s). We have agreements in place to assure fairness in the selection process and accountability of the use of funds.

Every student who graduates from high school or college will be expected to pay back, over a number of years, 20% of the total received once they have a job. This will provide an additional source of funding for future sponsorships.

Read more about how you and/or your congregation can sponsor a student by clicking here.

Catie Scudera from the UU Congregation of Fairfax (UUCF), VA has been working on the development of a Unitarian orphanage in the Khasi Hills of India since August 2008. You can read about her experiences here: Beginning the A. Margaret Barr Children's Village

The orphanage will start accepting the first group of children in early February 2009.

The UUCF is currently working on a sponsorship program with the UU Partner Church Council (UUPCC) and is currently seeking sponsors for the incoming children. Anyone interested in sponsoring or co-sponsoring a child can contact Dee Idnani, UUCF member, for more information.

Two new reports are now available on uua.org, detailing the experiences of President Sinkford and his companions during their Pilgrimage to Africa in November 2008.

An illustrated, eighteen page report is now available for download on the uua.org/sinkfordafrica homepage. The report describes in detail the journey's goals and how they were met, where the journey took them and whom they met with, and reflections from President Sinkford about his experience at Goree Island.

There is also a slideshow available for viewing on uua.org (42 pages, approximately 53 MB). The slideshow details places and organizations visited and reflections of the journey, framed within the general goals of the pilgrimage and how each of these goals was met. The slideshow also includes embedded video clips from various points on the trip. There is a low-bandwith version of the slideshow in PDF format, with hyperlinks to each of the videos.

The uua.org/sinkfordafrica homepage lists all resources related to the trip, including photos, videos, blog posts, news stories, and reports. Have a look!

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.

The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists announces the 65th 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 January 2009:

Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

-from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office

Related:
The November Global Chalice newsletter is now available for download.

• February 7, 2009: "The Daunting Challenge of Human Rights Today," Presentation by Ambassador Michael Southwick at the River Rock UU Congregation in Bethesda, MD.
• February 7-8, 2009: Unitarian Union of North East India Annual Conference
• February 26 - March 1, 2009: International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women
• April 3-5, 2009: April European UU Retreat in SPA, Belgium
• April 16-18, 2009: UU-UNO Spring Seminar: "All in the Name of Faith: Rights, Religion, and Responsibility"
• April 15-18, 2009: British Unitarian GA in Chester, England
• September 1-5, 2009: ICUU Council Meeting in Koloszvar, Transylvania
• December 3-9, 2009: Parliament of the World's Religions, Melborne, Australia
• June 24-28, 2009: General Assembly, Salt Lake City, UT

As part of the UUA's Advocacy and Witness Staff group, the International Resources office contributes to the Inspired Faith - Effective 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.