Public Witness at General Assembly

The 2013 Public Witness event at General Assembly (GA) is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, June 20. The witness will focus on Environmental Justice. Wendell Berry will participate. The public event will be proceeded by an all-GA worship in the convention center.

Thursday Evening Worship
5:45 – 6:15 p.m., Convention Center Hall 2C (GA registration required)
In preparation for our witness on the river, we gather to worship. We witness for Earth, our communities and our future generations. This commitment is central to our faith, our theology, and our respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Presented by the Kentucky/West Virginia Ministers Coalition; featuring Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, Rev. Cynthia Cain, and Rev. Mel Hoover.

Wendell Berry is the author of more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. In April 2012, Berry delivered the 41st annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government has for “distinguished intellectual achievement” in the humanities. He was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal, the Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the Louis Bromfield Society Award. For more than forty years, he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya Berry, in Kentucky.

Where is Our Energy? Witness for Earth, Our Communities, and Our Future

Thursday, June 20, 6:15 - 7:30 p.m., The Belvedere, 485 West Main Street.

Do you know where your energy comes from when you turn on a light switch in your own home? Our climate is changing because of how we harness and use energy and we are causing harm to our planet, our communities, our neighbors, and our future. We need to stop the harmful effects of practices like mountaintop removal, hydraulic fracturing, mining, and drilling. They are hurting all of our communities, and most especially, communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and rural towns. We can find new ways forward together. But in order to change how we get our energy, we must first use the energy within all of us to make a change.

Join Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President Rev. Peter Morales, Wendell Berry—author, spiritual environmental justice activist, economic critic, and farmer—Tim DeChristopher, and interfaith and community leaders in a witness for our Earth, our communities, and our future.

Hear testimonies, join in song, prayer, and a reverse water communion. Learn practical ways for how you can make a difference in your life and in your community. Come and wear your Standing on the Side of Love gear. Let’s find a sustainable way forward together.

We are partnering with Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light, this years’ service project and Sunday collection recipient, and other local and regional organizations.

For the beauty of the Earth and its people—we are building a new way!

We will leave the Plenary Hall together, taking escalators and elevators down to the 3rd Street Lobby, and proceed to the Belvedere plaza for our witness event where we will gather at the river. The Belvedere is located on the riverfront between 4th and 6th Streets, in downtown Louisville. Some seating at the event will be available.

The event is scheduled to use the Belvedere outdoor facility adjacent to the Galt House Hotel (map). It is an open park with ample cement paths, grassy areas, some benches and low cement walls for seating, very little shade. Terrain is sloped but not steep. Restrooms are located in the park, as well as at the Galt House, accessible through the pool area.

2012

Interfaith Witness for Human Rights:
Candlelight Vigil at Tent City Jail

Standing on the Side of Love—Stop the Incarceration and Human Rights Abuses of Migrants!

Over 2,000 people are being held at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous Tent City Jail. Another 6,000 people are being held in other Maricopa County jails in the same areas, south of W. Durango St. To date over 427,000 inmates have gone through Tent City Jail where people are crowded together on wooden planks in broiling heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter.

This facility represents the worst of a culture of cruelty perpetrated in the name of the U.S. government  and is a key component of the federal system of mass detention and deportation. With the passage of SB1070 and copycat laws around the country, and the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement ‘Secure Communities program,’ the climate of fear has reached crisis proportions.

UUA President Rev. Peter Morales, United Church of Christ General Minister & President Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, other interfaith clergy, and local UU and human rights leaders participated. Multimedia coverage.

2011

Standing on the Side of Love with LGBT People Everywhere!

Rev. Peter Morales, Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President, Rev. Mark Kiyimba, Minister of the UU Church of Kampala, Uganda, Ian Palmquist, Executive Director of Equality North Carolina Interfaith, and community partners joined together for a witness to help spread our values of equality and justice, inclusion and acceptance. Event Flyer (PDF)

2010

Standing on the Side of Love for Marriage Equality

General Assembly attendees were invited to join in an Interfaith Community Public Witness Event at the Twin Cities’ Pride Weekend—the fourth largest bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender (BGLT) PRIDE in the nation.

General Assembly attendees joined Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President Peter Morales, interfaith and community leaders in a witness for our values. The event included worship, music, testimonials, and information about what we can do for BGLT equality. Full story.

2009

Members of the General Assembly joined Unitarian Universalist Association President William Sinkford, Bishop John C. Wester, The Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, Rev. Canon Dr. Pablo Ramos, and interfaith and community leaders to Stand on the Side of Love with Immigrant Families.

2008

Public Witness at General Assembly 2008 (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) was Valuing ALL Families: Interfaith Community Witness Event—Immigrant & BGLT Families (PDF).