Date/Time
Date(s) - February 17, 2020
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana Champaign - Children's Chapel
Categories
UU the Vote calls for UUCUC members and friends to Vote our Values in 2020!
UU the Vote is a national UU project to engage our church community and our neighbors in organizing and mobilizing voters around actions and issues that reflect our UU values. Such actions and issues will involve voter registration drives, canvassing neighborhoods to encourage get-out-the-vote, standing against voter suppression, and sponsoring community workshops and discussion groups to encourage reaching beyond the partisan divide. UU the Vote will also encourage focus on issues of climate change, LGTBQ rights, immigration, racial justice and more.
For more information, contact Sherry Bohlen, Director of Congressional Engagement.
Ten Things We Can Do Now to Support UU the Vote & Voting our Values in 2020!
- Have a conversation with Rev Florence about the goal of extending our congregation’s welcome beyond partisan division. Let Rev Florence know that you are willing to help serve this goal now and in the future.
- Consider the welcome words shared at weekly worship services. Do they invite across partisan differences? Consider requesting the addition of a phrase that does. One option is: “Whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever your identity, age, ability, political affiliation or history, know that you are welcome to bring your full self here.”
- Join and invite others to join the “Love Reaches Out and In – Beyond Partisan Division” Facebook page and engage with the resources and the conversation. This is a forum not for conservative Unitarian Universalists but for all, with the goal of reaching beyond the partisan divide.
- Offer to work with Rev Florence to develop a worship service engaging the theme of reaching beyond partisan division.
- Listen reflectively to the thoughts you hear delivered during worship services. Listen especially for exclusivist terminology, like “All of us here support…” or “We all want …” Do what you can to advocate for the disenfranchised within your community.
- Listen reflectively to the thoughts you hear delivered in social congregational settings. Often the most damning partisan affronts occur in these informal arenas. Be prepared to speak up for the voices that are not present or not heard.
- Out yourself. As you become an advocate for widening the welcome in your congregation, across the partisan divide, you will be “outed” and recognized by the disenfranchised. You will be approached and likely, thanked, by those who thought they were alone.
- Do the personal work. Consider the partisan divide and the way it affects your life. Pay attention to your own responses to partisan rhetoric. Study the emotions you experience when you engage in partisan debate. Work to serve a justice that is bigger and bolder than any political party.
- CLICK HERE and let the UU the Vote Working Group know you’d like to join the group to help plan and carry out the “Beyond the Partisan Divide” Workshops and Discussion Groups, voter registration, canvassing, and more.
- Come to the next meeting of the UU the Vote working Group and get involved!