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September 10, 2010
Contents:
I. UUSC-UUA Relief Effort for Pakistan Flooding
In response to the massive flooding in Pakistan, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) have launched the UUSC-UUA Joint Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.
Two of UUSC's partners are responding to the crisis in Pakistan, with a specific focus on the needs of women and unaccompanied children. Donations to the UUSC-UUA Joint Pakistan Flood Relief Fund will support their work.
Please consider donating to the UUSC-UUA Joint Pakistan Flood Relief Fund to ensure that women and refugees in Pakistan can access the immediate relief they need. The situation in Pakistan is dire and worsening. Your support can make a big difference.
Donate to the UUSC-UUA Pakistan Flood Relief Fund!
II. UUA President Visits UU Congregations in Philippines
For the first time since the 1960′s the UU Church of the Philippines (UUCP) will be paid a visit by the Unitarian Universalist Association's President. From August 26 - September 2, 2010, Reverend Peter Morales visited with a dozen UU congregations/groups, touring the Visayas and Luzon regions of the island nation.
Continue reading about President Morales' visit to the Philippines!
III. Witness to a Return Home: A Trip to Uganda
In northern Uganda, more than 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes for as long as 22 years. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has worked for two years there with partner Caritas Pader, piloting a unique program that has empowered thousands of people displaced by war to return to their villages.
While UUSC has been working in northern Uganda, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has developed a relationship with Rev. Mark Kiyimba, leader of a Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation in Kampala, Uganda's capital. Kiyimba runs a 400-student school and 20-child orphanage near Masaka and has been campaigning against Uganda's draconian anti-homosexuality bill. On the second part of the trip, participants will meet with the UU Kampala congregation; talk with Ugandan leaders of the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's rights; and visit the school and orphanage the Kampala congregation supports.
Learn more about this joint UUA-UUSC travel opportunity!
IV. EUU Fall Retreat
OCTOBER 29-31 2010
The European Unitarian Universalists (EUU) is happy to invite you to attend the Fall EUU Retreat in Alsace, France, hosted by the UU Fellowship of Paris. UUA President Rev. Peter Morales will be the theme speaker.
Theme
Rev. Morales' retreat theme, "Building a Religion Beyond Belief," will explore religion not as a set of beliefs but as what we love - including the role of religious community and the need to adapt to contexts.
All are welcome
EUU retreats are for people of all ages - we offer a full program for young people as well as adults.
Location
The retreat will be in Mittelwihr, France (near Colmar) on the eastern side of the Vosges Mountains, along the Route des Vins d'Alsace (Wine Route). Nearby Riquewihr is a walled, well-preserved picturesque medieval market town. The province of Alsace is known for its typical wood framed houses, large black hats and regional specialties. As one of the regions of Europe welcoming to Renaissance humanists, Alsace is a fitting setting for our retreat.
Learn more about the retreat and register online!
V. The Way of the Kami
Recently returned from Suzuka, Japan, Barnaby Feder shares his experiences about his stay at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine.
At midnight on Aug. 11, in a scene I could never have imagined, there I was, one American Unitarian Universalist among about 70 Japanese men, standing jet-lagged and barefoot among giant cedar trees on a gravel pathway at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine, a center for Shinto worship for more than 2,000 years. Continue reading
The Tsubaki Grand Shrine Scholarship is available to Unitarian Universalist (UU) seminarians (in candidate status) attending non-UU theological Schools who have an interest in international and interfaith engagement. Scholarship recipients are 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. Applications for the scholarship are due in April each year.
VI. Religions for Peace - Arms Down!
In November 2009, the Religions for Peace Global Youth Network launched the Arms Down! Campaign for Shared Security.
The campaign - led by youth from the world's religions - works to engage religious leaders and believers around the world to unleash the power of multi-religious cooperation through shared action. It also reaches out to international organizations, governments, national assemblies and parliaments, municipalities, media, and all men and women of good will.
Through education, mobilization and advocacy, the campaign advances shared security by working to reduce nuclear and conventional weapons and to reallocate military spending to support urgently needed development, as set forth in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The upcoming North American regional campaign will hold: Day(s) of Advocacy on September 20-22, 2010.
Learn more about the Arms Down! campaign, how you can get involved, and sign the petition!
VII. UUHIP: Partners for Justice in India Video
The UUA International Resources Office is happy to announce the release of "UUHIP: Partners for Justice in India," a great introduction to the work and philosophy of the Unitarian Universalist Association's Holdeen India Program.
UUHIP works with key leaders and organizations of India's most marginalized and disadvantaged peoples in their struggle to secure human rights and economic and social justice. The program supports the efforts of those peoples excluded or oppressed on the basis of gender, caste, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, especially dalits (untouchables), adivasis (tribals), migrant, bonded and child laborers, domestic and home-based workers, and scavengers, helping them to participate fully in the social, economic and political life of India.
Available online for free, as well as on DVD, the video features profiles of 5 Holdeen India Program partners as well as reflections by Program Direction Kathy Sreedhar, former UUA President Rev. John Buehrens and UU minister Rev. Abhi Janamanchi.
For those interested in obtaining a DVD copy of the video, please contact the International Resources Office.
View "UUHIP: Partners for Justice in India" online!
VIII. Events
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