First Unitarian Universalist Church

Social Justice Task Groups

Through our religious convictions as expressed in our UU values and principles, all of us impose on ourselves four social justice imperatives:

1. to help those in need;
2. to learn about social justice issues;
3. to speak out publicly and passionately; and
4. to work for change to secure justice and to eliminate the causes of need.

These imperatives apply within our church, within our neighborhoods, within our community, within our state, within our nation, and within our world.

The mission of the Social Justice Council is to build and maintain a social justice organization with a distinctly moral voice, based on our UU values and principles, that will provide this church the means to fulfill those four social justice imperatives.

We will do this by facilitating the congregation's involvement in a focused set of social justice issues, by forming and empowering task groups to work on those issues, and by engaging the congregation in dialogue regarding the selected social justice issues from the standpoint of UU principles.

We are beginning our work under this organization with five task groups:

• the network of 50 or more volunteers working with the Interfaith Hospitality Network;
• the network of volunteers working with the Community Food Response;
• the Social Justice Discussion Group;
• a new environmental issues task group; and
• a newly forming group addressing homelessness, housing affordability, and poverty.

If you would like to participate as a UU in any of these task groups, or if there is another issue that you would like to form a task group to address, please let Doug Petty or Phil Wheeler know.