Category: Social Justice
All Ages Worship (8 June 2025)
Please join us on Sunday (8 June 2025) at 11:00 AM for “Juneteenth” with Barbara Deger and friends.
Yes, we are a few weeks early — but to give Juneteenth and Father’s Day each their due — we decided to take this one first.
19 June 1865 was the day that news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally officially reached enslaved people in Texas although enslavers had known it much longer.
Why didn’t more of us learn this in school?
Join us to explore the history of the holiday, as well as current efforts in some cities to cancel the observance.
We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service. Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA 71106 if you are able to do so.
Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.
State-level COVID data can be found on the Louisiana Department of Health’s respiratory virus dashboard web page. The most sensitive metric to follow for current COVID trends is the “Laboratory Surveillance Data” link. The link is currently showing COVID, flu and RSV maintaining a very low level in our state as of 31 May 2025.
Starting on 13 November 2022, masks will be optional indoors at All Souls.
Anyone who prefers to keep wearing a mask is welcome to do so and attending worship through livestream video is also an option.
We will still have KN95 masks available in the foyer for anyone who needs one.
We continue to recommend that you stay home if you have any symptoms, and that you keep up with all available vaccinations and boosters.
We no longer require proof of vaccination against COVID for all attendees ages 11 and up for indoor events.
However, we do strongly encourage that anyone attending our worship services or other indoor events at All Souls be vaccinated against COVID.
If you are recovering from COVID and have no symptoms, you should mask in public until you have tested negative twice in a 48 hour period.
We also ask that you go by the previous CDC guidelines of waiting at least 5 days past the onset of symptoms rather than the current 24 hour recommendation.
And of course — if you have symptoms (COVID or other respiratory illness) — please stay home and take care of yourself.
Our June 2025 give-away-the-plate recipient is the OutNorthLA Film Festival.
And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.
Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education (8 June 2025)
Please join us on Sunday (8 June 2025) for our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM.
Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person in the church social hall and also on Zoom.
Our topic will be Naomi Klein on the rise of end times fascism facilitated by Susan Caldwell and Barbara Deger
We will view and discuss an interview with award-winning journalist, author, and Professor of Climate Justice at British Columbia University.
She spoke with Democracy Now host Amy Goodman about the recent article she co-authored with Astra Taylor (“The Rise of End Times Fascism“).
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor say:
We are convinced that the more people understand the extent to which the right has succumbed to the Armageddon complex, the more they will be willing to fight back, realizing that absolutely everything is now on the line.
Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education (1 June 2025)
Please join us on Sunday (1 June 2025) for our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM.
Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person in the church social hall and also on Zoom.
Our topic will be “How Fascism Works Explained – A Video Exploration of the Book by Jason Stanley” and facilitated by Susan Caldwell and Barbara Deger.
OutNorthLA Film Festival — June 2025 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient
Each month we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to a community organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist values.
For the month of June 2025, we choose the OutNorthLA Film Festival.
This film festival is North Louisiana’s acclaimed LGBTQ film festival which returns 5-11 September 2025.
Two ways to donate:
Online — Go to our donation site using this link. If you are paying your pledge, select “2025 Pledges” and enter that amount for your pledge contribution. Then select “Collection Plate” to give the amount you would like to give to OutNorthLA and then put “GATP JUN 2025” or “OutNorthLA” in the comment section. All online collection plate contributions for the month of June 2025 will go to the OutNorthLA Film Festival.
Offline — Please send your give away the plate contribution checks to All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA 71106. Please put “OutNorthLA” on the memo line of the check if you want to have 100% of your check go to OutNorthLA. If you want less than 100% of your check to go to OutNorthLA, please put the amount you want going to OutNorthLA on the memo line.
25 May 2025 Worship Video
27 April 2025 Worship Video
Donate a Banned Book to the Banned Book Bookshelf
Starting this Sunday (18 May 2025) and beyond — donate a banned book to our congregation’s banned book bookshelf dedicated to the memory of John Tuggle.
Thanks to our Board President Sally Wood (who was inspired by a gift of banned books from her daughter) we now have a banned books bookshelf in the sanctuary foyer waiting to be filled.
Please bring one or more banned books from your home library to donate to the bookshelf.
Want to find out what books have been banned? Check out the American Library Association’s Banned Book Lists.
You may be surprised by some of the books on it and a Unitarian Universalist is probably going to have at least one banned book in their home library.
The Banned Books Bookshelf is dedicated to the memory of our own John Tuggle who (before his death in September 2024) was Director of the Shreve Memorial Library System and a fierce advocate for the right to read the books of our choosing, free from censorship by those who would rewrite history, and even write some of our fellow citizens out of existence.
Let’s work together to build this very fitting memorial to our friend John.
Empty Chair Town Hall Rescheduled (15 May 2025)
Empty Chair Town Hall — Make your voice heard!
Thursday, 15 May 2025 — 6:00 -8:00 PM
Grace Community United Methodist Church
9400 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA 71106
Note — This is a rescheduled event (original event was cancelled due to weather on 6 May 2025).
Whether you’re concerned about cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, veterans benefits, and education, appalled by illegal deportations, or just worried about the state of democracy — come and let your voice be heard in a 2-minute statement that will later be shared with our no-show congressional representatives.
This is a non-partisan, non-denominational event sponsored by 10,000 Women Louisiana, Indivisible North Louisiana, and Indivisible Shreveport-Bossier City.
Click here to register for this event (registration is free).
Shreveport Green — May 2025 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient
Each month we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to a community organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist values.
For the month of May 2025, we choose Shreveport Green.
Shreveport Green programs include:
- Urban Farms and MLK Community Garden
- City Wide Cleanup Days
- Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Days
- A Mobile Market providing fresh food to food deserts throughout our community
- The ShreveCorps program through AmeriCorps
- Trees and Urban Forestry
Two ways to donate:
Online — Go to our donation site using this link. If you are paying your pledge, select “2025 Pledges” and enter that amount for your pledge contribution. Then select “Collection Plate” to give the amount you would like to give to Shreveport Green and then put “GATP MAY 2025” or “Shreveport Green” in the comment section. All online collection plate contributions for the month of May 2025 will go to Shreveport Green.
Offline — Please send your give away the plate contribution checks to All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA 71106. Please put “Shreveport Green” on the memo line of the check if you want to have 100% of your check go to Shreveport Green. If you want less than 100% of your check to go to Shreveport Green, please put the amount you want going to Shreveport Green on the memo line.