Connect with UUMFE at General Assembly 2019
UU Ministry for Earth was at the General Assembly in Spokane, WA, June 19-23rd, and hosted two very exciting side events, an exhibit hall booth (#324), “table talks” in the exhibit hall, and presenting at a poster session and in numerous official workshops.
Special Events
The Procession of Species & UUMFE 30th Anniversary Dinner Celebration
When: Thursday 6/20, 5:30 – 6:45 PM
Where: Convention Center; Procession to Spokane Riverfront Park (see map below)
UUMFE invited UU congregations and communities to bring a symbolic artistic representation of an endangered or threatened species from your area to General Assembly for a “Procession of the Species” from the Convention Center down to the Spokane River where there will be a prayer at the water and a 30th Anniversary Dinner Celebration at a pavillion in the Riverfront Park.
RSVP for Dinner in the ParkIf you are making a costume or piece of art for the Procession of Species, please check out the full “Call to Arts” resources and notify UUMFE about your plans.
We met at the lawn outside the convention center at 5:30 pm, immediately after the last workshop of the day (see picture below).
“Necessity: Oil, Water, & Climate Resistance” Sneak Preview Film Screening
When: Saturday, June 22, 2019 9:00 PM
Where: Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W Main Ave, Spokane, WA
After the General Assembly Closing Ceremony, at the Magic Lantern Theatre, where UU Ministry for Earth held a sneak peak screening of Necessity: Oil, Water, & Climate Resistance.
Necessity Trailer from Jan Haaken on Vimeo.
Grounded in people and places at the heart of the climate crisis, “Necessity” traces the fight in Minnesota against the expansion of pipelines carrying toxic tar sands oil through North America. The story unfolds in a setting where indigenous activists and non-indigenous allies make use of the necessity defense in making a moral case for acts of civil disobedience. The film calls into question whether legal strategies are sufficient in responding to the scale of the global climate crisis.
Official GA Programs
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019
10 am-12 pm – Effective and Relational Justice Work in UU Spaces
Offered by UUs for Social Justice in the Middle East
Social justice work is central to Unitarian Universalist identity and is often controversial. UU activists must be effective in making a difference and relational in showing respect while being courageous and prophetic. This program will examine how these goals can be met in UU congregations and organizations.
Speakers: Rev. Amanda Weatherspoon – Aly Tharp – Rev. Kate Lore – Rev. Wendy Von Courter
#215 – Convention Center 100A
1:30-2:30 pm – Community Arts & Embodied Prayer for Ecological Justice
Offered by UU Ministry for Earth & Church of Our Common Home
We joined in spirit, in song, in play, and in prayer for ecological justice. This workshop will be a worship service open to all ages, celebrating the interconnected web of all existence and creating a “procession of species” with ecological artwork from groups and congregations across the UUA.
Speakers: Rev. Bonnie Tarwater – Aly Tharp Songleader: Rev. Maddie Sifantus
#233 – Davenport Grand Meeting Room 10
4:30-5:30 pm – Mobilizing for Climate & Environmental Justice
Offered by the UU Coalition to Create Climate Justice
This session was for UUs actively working with their congregations and community ministries to address global warming and environmental injustice, or UUs wishing to get more involved in this work. Come connect with the UUA and UU Ministry for Earth and prepare to mobilize together to Create Climate Justice!
Speakers: Aly Tharp – Amelia Diehl – Rev. Karen Brammer
#276 – Davenport Grand Birch Ballroom
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
12 – 1:30 pm – Poster Session: Organize & Create Climate Justice
Exhibit Hall
We connected with the creators and sponsors of the Create Climate Justice initiative to learn more about the initiative’s priority campaigns and issue areas, the networking platform CreateClimateJustice.net, and the ways you can get involved to catalyze a powerful UU Climate Justice Ministry.
SATURDAY, JUNE 22
1:30 – 2:30 pm – Who Are We? The 2020 Challenge
Organized by The 2020 Taskforce
The year 2020 includes the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 400th anniversary of Plymouth colonization. What’s the message in your congregation? Native Americans and environmental justice advocates discuss the challenges ahead as they bring communities together to celebrate justice, peace, and beauty for all nations.
Speakers: Rev. Dr. Clyde Grubbs – Rev. Karen Brammer – Rev. Gary McAlpin – Aly Tharp
#417 – DoubleTree Grand Ballroom I-III
3 – 4 pm – Effective and Relational Justice Work in UU Spaces
Offered by UUs for Social Justice in the Middle East
Social justice work is central to Unitarian Universalist identity and is often controversial. UU activists must be effective in making a difference and relational in showing respect while being courageous and prophetic. This program will examine how these goals can be met in UU congregations and organizations.
Speakers: Rev. Amanda Weatherspoon – Aly Tharp – Rev. Kate Lore – Rev. Wendy Von Courter
#438 – Convention Center 100A
People of Color Dinner Gathering – meet at 5:30 pm on Saturday, 6/22
The UU Ministry for Earth invited UUs of the global majority who are passionate about ecological and climate justice work to come together for a dinner gathering being convened by Rev. Sara Green. Meet Sara at the UUMFE booth (#324) in the exhibit hall around 5:30 pm on Saturday, 6/22.
UUMFE Table Talks
Table talks are 30-minute facilitated small group conversations in the GA Exhibit Hall, focused on particular topics. Gather at the UUMFE Booth #324.
Thursday, 12:00-12:30 p.m.
Artful Activism & Solutionary Rail, a “Yes!” Campaign for a Just Transition, Bill Moyer, BackboneCampaign.org
Bill leads an organization that has a vision and takes to the streets. Transportations choices have consequences; Solutionary Rail addresses the many environmental justice issues of our current mass transit infrastructure with a people-powered campaign to electrify America’s railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future.
Bill is also the mastermind behind the large inflatable Orca and Salmon included for the UUMFE Procession of the Species on Thursday afternoon.
Friday, 12:45-1:15 p.m.
Together we find the political will for a livable planet: Citizens Climate Lobby, Diane Hansen & Karen Stucke, Valley UU, Chandler, AZ, citizensclimatelobby.org
Diane and Karen will focus on current opportunities to engage in policies that encourage carbon-neutral choices for business and individuals.
Friday, 12:45-1:15 p.m.
Breaking Our Obedience to Injustice: The Building Community Rights Movement for People and Planet, Kai Hushke, Kai Huschke, Northwest and Hawaii Community Organizer, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, CELDF.org
Kai’s work is democracy in action. Learn more about his work to pass a Community Bill of Rights that recognizes the rights of neighborhoods, the environment, and workers as superior to corporate rights in the City of Spokane.
Friday, 12:45-1:15 p.m.
Book discussion: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben, Leonard Higgins, Valve Turner, Extinction Rebellion organizer – https://rebellion.earth/, and UUMFE Board member, UUMFE.org
Bill McKibben states that he lives “in a state of engagement, not despair.” How can we feel ‘game is over’ some days and still return to engagement in climate crisis work?
Leonard is a father of 5 adult children and grandfather of a fourth-grader and a second-grader, is retired from state government after 31 years as an information technology manager, and is a full-time climate activist since 2011. Leonard’s home UU fellowships are in Corvallis and in Eugene, Oregon. His work is firmly rooted in the UU 7th Principle and Joanna Macy’s Work-That-Reconnects. He is currently serving 3 years of probation after his third major act of civil disobedience for climate justice in 2016. He agrees with Howard Zinn that our problem is civil obedience, further that we all instead should be challenging and resisting the wrongs being done. As a co-founder of 350 Corvallis and member of the Eugene 350 community, he deeply appreciates and participates in Bill McKibben’s and 350.org’s work to return to a stable climate with 350 part per million or less of carbon in our atmosphere.
Friday, 1:30 – 2 p.m.
How to connect groups and issues using CreateClimateJustice.net, Aly Tharp, Program Director, UUMFE.org
Aly gave a tour of CreateClimateJustice.net and offer tips on how to use the platform to support your personal efforts, groups, and mobilizations.
Aly Tharp is the program director at the UU Ministry for Earth and has been with UUMFE since 2014, initially serving as the network coordinator for the UU Young Adults for Climate Justice. Aly lives in Austin, Texas, and in their free time is an arts-activist and community organizer supporting a local food forest on public parkland and Gulf South climate justice movements.
Saturday, 12:45-1:15 p.m.
Strengthen Local Climate Commitments, Doris Marlin, All Souls UU, Washington, D.C.
Doris Marlin brings her academic background in Water Resources and 30 years of experience in Environmental and Project Management to this Campaign to connect UU congregations with local governments already starting to develop policies to address the climate crisis.
Doris has been active in UU Social Justice since 2003, and in Climate Justice since 2013 organizing in DC, Maryland, the DC metro area and nationally. She’s been a UUA observer at three of the UNFCCC Climate Accords and is currently the Lay Leader for Strengthen Local Climate Commitments; A campaign within Create Climate Justice. She has served on the Green Sanctuary Advisory Board since 2018.