Date: Passed: Sunday, October 25, 2020, All day

On United Nations Sunday, we celebrated the work of the U.N and our Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations (UU@UN). 2020 also marked the 75th anniversary of the U.N. The theme for this year’s celebration and for our service was “All In for Climate Justice: People, Power, Planet.”

Climate change is a human rights issue. The increase in extreme weather conditions in just the past few years makes it clear that we need to work together to make our world more livable. Our UU faith can provide the ethical and spiritual grounding to sustain us as we create a new way of being in relationship with all life and our planet Earth.

Our UN Sunday service was an intergenerational service presented by a team of nine Fellowship members: Scarlett Trippsmith (technical liaison); Annette Gurnee Hull (pianist); Suzanne Kimmel (Worship Associate); Allison Bronkall (Story for all Ages); and 5 speakers: Slate Taylor, Ann Kilby, Savannah Tarlton, Sydney Bronkall, and Sue Lee Mossman (Message/sermon).

The following four supportive documents are included in this Supportive Materials document (PDF):

• The Order of Service. Please note the relevant introductory remarks.
• Remarks and readings by the Worship Associate, Suzanne Kimmel for Chalice Lighting, the Aspiration, Transitions to the Message/sermon, and Closing.
• The text from the book, “We are Water Protectors”, for the Story for All Ages, which was read by Allison Bronkall.
• Also included are the lyrics for the recorded music/video, “The Tide is Rising”.

The service can be viewed at the HUUF website.

The introductory remarks in the Order of Service and the Worship Associate’s remarks served to introduce the theme of the service.

For the Message/sermon, five Fellowship members shared their thoughts on aspects of the work being carried out at the UN, by members of the HUUF Climate Action Campaign, and by the UU@UN on climate justice.

Slate spoke of learning about the UN and how the world community can work together at the UN to address global issues through several years participation in the Montessori Model of the UN; Ann related the personal motivations that brought Fellowship members together to put our UU and personal values into action to address climate change via the Climate Action Campaign; Sydney and Savannah expressed that the existential threat of climate change is the motivation for their UU faith inspired climate actions; and Sue described briefly the work of the UN and that of the UU@UN which is to help the UN “shift global policy towards peace, justice, and liberation for all,” and to bring to every table for example, issues of climate justice, social equity, and human rights.

At the conclusion of her presentation, Sue offered the congregation an immediate opportunity to address climate justice and act on our UU values by making an offering to a special collection for the UU@UN.

(Posted on behalf of Sue Lee Mossman)

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