Category: Social Justice

Please join us at 9:30 AM for the documentary The Minister’s War: The Story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp — the powerful, true story of a Unitarian minister and his wife who rescued hundreds of people from Nazi persecution in Europe (many of them children).

They are two of only four American citizens honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel.

Please join us on Sunday (22 February 2015) at 9:30 AM as we look at the issues Northern and Central Louisiana Interfaith are working on locally, at the state level, and at the federal level:

• The proposed open burn at Camp Minden, and the upcoming rally on Monday (23 February 2015, 7:00 PM) at the Minden Civic Center / City Hall with Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré.
• Seeking payday lending reform through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and how you can help.
• Seeking funding for the Healthy Food Retail Act to help bring whole, nutritious food to “food deserts” throughout our state.
• Looking at remedies to the problem of mass incarceration in our state and — specifically — at our overtaxed, underfunded Public Defender system.

Next Week — Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart.  We resume our discussion with Chapter 7 –“The Empire of Reason.”

We still have one hard copy of the book at church and it is available for both the Nook and Kindle.

If you choose to order the hard copy or Kindle version through Amazon, please remember to go through the Amazon window on the All Souls website.

Please join us on Sunday (8 February 2015) at 9:30 AM for our Adult Religious Education Class.

This Sunday, we will have a discussion session on the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Congregational Study Action Issue on Escalating Inequality.

The Issue: Upward mobility-the American Dream-has become a myth. Concentration of wealth and power has skyrocketed. Dr. King’s dream of justice and equality has fractured. Half of all Americans are impoverished or struggling, as the middle class shrinks and billionaires take the profits. Where’s our commitment to the Common Good?

Its Grounding in Unitarian Universalism: Our Unitarian Universalist tradition places its faith in people to create a more loving community for all, guided by “justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.” Challenging extreme inequality has now become a moral imperative, just as prior generations have led movements from abolition to civil rights and marriage equality.

Our congregation is asked to submit comments on the issue as part of the ongoing effort to raise awareness, facilitate congregational activism, and eventually to create a draft Statement of Conscience on the issue by November 2016.

Next week, we resume our discussion of Nature’s God with Chapter 6, “The Pursuit of Happiness.” We still have one hard copy of the book at church, and it is available on both the NOOK and Kindle platforms. If you choose to order either the hard copy or Kindle version through Amazon, please remember to go through the Amazon window on the All Souls website.

Please join us on Sunday (1 February 2015) as we resume our discussion of Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by  Matthew Stewart.

We will be covering Chapter 5 (“Self-Evident Truths”).  We will explore the philosophical and religious roots behind the “self-evident truths” cited by Jefferson in the Declaration and the people who crafted the American Revolution.

We still have one last hard copy of the book available at the church.

The book is also available on both the NOOK and Kindle e-reader platforms.

If you choose to order either the hard copy or Kindle version through Amazon, please remember to go through the Amazon window on the All Souls website.

Also, just a reminder that if you have not yet read the UUA Statement of Conscience on Reproductive Justice, our deadline for comments is Sunday (1 February 2015).

Send your comments to Melissa Gibson and be sure to include the line number that you are commenting on.