The entire UU ecosystem is organizing for climate justice action. Over 300 UU congregations across the country have signed on to hold a Climate Justice Revival–in fact, many already did so in 2024. These kinds of things don’t happen often. Our churches all stand alone and apart. Collaboration is difficult. But there is power in numbers! The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greensboro have heeded the call and will create a Climate Justice Revival together. We’ll be part of the national UU conversation moving our climate work forward.

 

Through facilitated dialogue and activities we will:

• Recognize opportunities for climate justice in our unique context
• Develop a vision of a flourishing future
• Identify a clear set of potential actions that we can take to realize this vision
• Enable participants to understand their roles in the interdependent ecosystem of creating climate justice and collective liberation

Please join us for this exciting weekend event!

UUFWS & UUCG Climate Justice Revival

Saturday April 5, 2025 Workshop and Youth Camp
@ The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem
9:30 am – 2:00 pm (Doors open at 9:00 am)
*In person only event

• It is for ALL ages! Child care will be provided for younger children as well as a Climate Justice Camp for children in First Grade through Middle School age. High schoolers will participate with the adults in the workshop.
• You do NOT have to be an “environmentalist!” ALL ARE WELCOME! We need all kinds of passionate thinking. We will explore how climate issues intersect with other justice issues. This event is designed to kick-start our activism and ongoing engagement in climate justice work.
• A vegetarian lunch will be provided.
• There will be a special Sermon focused on climate justice on the Sunday after the Revival!

This workshop and camp are part of an entire week of UUFWS Climate Justice events. More information is coming soon!

In January of 2025, we kept building the theological house that holds us together amidst our different beliefs, values, experiences and identities. We focused on our roof, the structure that give us protection. We asked, what do we need to be sheltered and protected from, and how are we protected?

We acknowledged that what we need protection from is what many would call evil, and some would call sin. We found meaning in a classical definition that this if found in separation. Separation from self, from others, and from whatever is ultimate for us (higher power, deeper power, truth).

We reflected that we are protected from this evil by connection, and by the connection that can happen under our roof. In the time we take for personal and communal spiritual practice. In the time we take to foster real relationships within our walls and outside of them.

We acknowledged that to be with others deeply and fully, we need to be brave enough to be with ourselves fully and deeply. We sang that we have the power to carry our presence and love into our hardest moments, and that we can do this with others too. We committed to fanning our flames of joy and fostering these in community, just as we kindle safety and warmth.

And we remembered the ways we can continue to lean on tools that help us to do this. That so often come from music, words, and the example of those who came before us and are among us:

We were moved by music:

• Centering Song “A Place for You,” Melanie DeMore
• Our choir singing “Eleanor’s Midnight Ride“ from Women of Courage by Mary Lou Prince
• “Courage,” by Eric Bogle and inspired by Anti-Apartheid anthem from South Africa
• “People of Hope,” by Darryl Loiacano and performed by our own Steve & Brook Jones, David Bowen & bandmate
• Hymn “May Nothing Evil Cross this Door“

And by words:

• “Breathe Into Me the Courage to Make Something New,” by Rev. Ted Loder
• “Community Means Strength,” by Starhawk

And by the example of other individual lives and the lives of organizations:

• Septima Clark, “mother of the civil rights movement” (information from SNCC’s Digital Gateway; including interviews and citizenship school class workbooks)
• Highlander: The Movement School

We were moved and grounded too, by all we’ve done and will do in community together.

I look forward to continuing this project of constructing the house of belief we can reside in together. I look forward to moving with you all in February, when we construct our Windows, how we view the world and interact with our neighbors.

Now more than ever, our communities needs us clearly rooted in who we are so we can stay rooted and clear in purpose as we offer our gifts to our world so deeply in need of them. 

In Faith and Love,

Rev. Kayla

The Social Action Council, in conjunction with Pam Lepley and Rev. Kayla, shares that we are trying a new way of doing our monthly Share-the-Plate program. This is the time in our worship service when our offertory ask provides information about a local organization, and the offertory collection is split with this organization and our Fellowship.

In order to make our contributions meaningful and represent our mission effectively, the practice of nominating monthly recipients for sharing our plate collections will be changed to a rotation of our key community partners. The recipients will rotate throughout the year, enabling the Fellowship to make larger contributions to each. This also allows us to take the offertory ask time in our service to not just inform all of the group, but invite us to deepen in relationship with the work they are doing.

The definition for community partner remains the same – the entity must be a non-profit organization that benefits Forsyth County, and must align with the Fellowship’s values.

For 2025, we are focusing on the key community partnerships we’re already working with. They all contribute significantly to some part of our mission, strive to make the daily lives of Forsyth County residents better, and reflect an ongoing relationship with the Fellowship:

• UU Justice NC
• Flourish
• Forsyth County IAF
• Easton Elementary

We may also make temporary additions to the slate of recipients during the year to respond to emergent crises, including natural disasters.

In fact, we are already planning on doing another collection in January for continued Hurricane Helene relief efforts, to include organizations some of you all have informed us of. We’re also considering that we have a longstanding and newer relationship forming with two organizations that we’d like to continue supporting with our time, talent and treasure:

• Piedmont Environmental Alliance (longstanding relationship)
• Housing Justice Now (forming and deepening relationship)

Stay tuned as we live into this new way of sharing our plate! We strive to balance a commitment to deepening relationships and support of our key community partners, flexibility to respond to emergent needs, as well as longstanding and new partnerships. If you have any questions about this, or would like to discuss further, please contact sac@uufws.org and/or worship@uufws.org.

Thanks for your willingness to try a new way!

Social Action Council, Worship Weavers, Pam Lepley (Director of Faith Formation), and Rev. Kayla Parker (Minister)