Social Justice is an important part of our ministry as a church. Beginning in 2017-2018, our church began choosing annual social justice themes. The themes are a way for us to focus more deeply on a given issue, and relate programs and religious education and worship events to the theme throughout the year. We encourage all of our committees and programs to find a way to connect to the theme, and we encourage members to create programs and outings related to the theme during the year.
The themes for this year are Voter Supression and Racial Justice. Previous themes have been:
We choose four (or sometimes more, in case of a tie) agencies to hold a special collection for during the year.
The agencies we are supporting this year are:
Other agencies we have supported include:
We hold emergency special collections for situations like natural disasters or crises in the community.
We also have voted to include the following agencies on our list from which we choose agencies to support. These agencies, and the ones listed above, are eligible for us to do social mission activities with or for, without needing congregational or board approval for a project.
We are a proud member of the Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network, or MUUSJN! This state network of UU congregations is actively involved in supporting a number of social justice efforts, including voting rights, LGBTQ+ issues, racial justice, economic justice, and gun violence prevention.
The mission of the Social Justice Committee is “to foster the worth and dignity of people by supporting social justice.”
The responsibilities are:
Educating
Witnessing/Advocating