UPLIFT Transgender/Nonbinary+ Monthly Gathering

April 22 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET  Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings focused on trans, nonbinary, and other not (completely or at all) cis UUs. Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary UUs and co-create support and community across our faith. All you need to bring is yourself (and other trans/nonbinary friends, if you’d like)! Expansive definitions of trans, nonbinary, and UU all apply. If you are interested in this space, and you aren’t cisgender, it’s a space for you. NOTE: This space is intentionally multi-generational. It is open to and welcoming of trans/nonbinary elders as well as children, youth, and young adults. Standard UUA online safety measures apply to ensure all people under 18 are able to attend. We’re glad to have you here! Register here.

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RE:  Eliot Institute 2025 Camp Information

I am hoping this email has reached the right person, or that you will forward it on to the person in your congregation who is responsible for posting flyers, talking with your DRE, and/or doing tabling.  We hope to let your congregants know about a very fun UU experience.  If you haven’t heard of Eliot Institute, it is a UU organization that creates magical multigenerational camps four times a year, held at the beautiful Seabeck Conference Center in Washington. https://www.eliotinstitute.org

I am reaching out to you with a short article (attached with some picture options), links to printable handouts about the 2025 camps, information for DRE’s and parents about the children’s experience, and even a video that gives a visual feel for the experience waiting for campers.  Hopefully you have a place and time where these can be printed, posted, handed out, and the video shared with your congregation directly.  Perhaps you could include the article with your choice of picture in your newsletter, on your Facebook page, or in other ways that you get out the news.

Our committee is actively looking for former Elioteers to become Eliot Ambassadors, to personally spread the good news about their experiences at camps and encourage fellow congregants to come be a part of our incredible camper community.  You may hear that someone in your congregation has agreed to be an Ambassador and is willing to be the lead to distribute this information.  If not, perhaps there is someone who might be eager to wear that hat!  We would love to hear from them.

Thank you for helping us bring this information to as many people as possible.  Eliot Institute camps at Seabeck have created lifelong friends for over six decades and we hope to continue for many generations to come.

Our appreciation from the Eliot Communications and Marketing Committee team.

Jean DeVenney, Chair

Calyn McLeod

Janelle Durham

Xander Simmons

Rory McLeod

Ann Carden

Eliot Institute – Camp / Retreat for Unitarian Universalists, friends, and familyyoutu.be

 

 

 

Indivisibles, For the last few weeks, we’ve gotten some version of this question over and over and over again: When do we hit the streets? When’s the mass march on Washington? Today, we can give you an answer: April 5.   Learn More >> Day by day, the energy has been growing. People are waking up to the threat Trump, Musk, and MAGA Republicans pose to our rights, our livelihoods, and our democracy. Dozens are showing up at Tesla dealerships weekend after weekend. Hundreds are turning out for town hall meetings with their Members of Congress. Thousands are coming together for protests at state capitols. Now, the time has come for a massive, coordinated show of defiance all across the country. A core principle behind Hands Off! is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. The message Americans are fed up with the Musk-Trump power grab and want an end to the lawless raiding of our government. “Hands off!” is a simple rallying cry against an administration that’s dangerously overreaching and throwing our democracy, our economy, and for many — our private lives — into chaos. Hands off our Medicaid. Hands off our Social Security. Hands off our public lands. Hands off our jobs. Hands off public education. Hands off veterans’ benefits. Hands off our undocumented neighbors. Hands off our trans siblings. Hands of Ukraine aid. Hands off our diversity programs. Hands off Canada, ffs. Hands off our reproductive rights. Hands off our democracy. Hands off _____. The plan As of today, you can already register to attend protests in cities across the country, with more being added daily. That’s just the start. Indivisible leaders and partners are working to confirm protests in every major metro area in the country. And we anticipate hundreds of demonstrations in towns and smaller cities nationwide. Where should you go? If you can make it to DC, we want you there. If you can get to an event in the closest metro area, that’s the next best thing (we’ll keep you updated as events are added). And if you want to host a smaller demonstration in your town, we’ve got a toolkit to help you do that, too — we’re also holding an informational meeting for hosts on Friday, March 21, at 3pm ET/12pm PT. The important thing is to show up on April 5, where you can, so that we can make our collective power felt. What’s next Over the next few days, we’ll be adding more events to our map in major cities across the country. Regular folks (maybe you?) will be stepping up to host events in your communities, and we’ll be there to help. If you’ve already got an event near you, please help push it out on social media. If not, you can share the link to the mass mobilization hub. Every protest planned between now and then is an opportunity for recruitment. Every town hall event during the congressional recess provides a chance to bring ticked off constituents into our mass mobilization Trump and Musk think they can rule like kings while the people they’re stealing from sit back and let them get away with it. On April 5, we’ll show them how very wrong they are.  In solidarity, Indivisible Team

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UUA Joins Multifaith Lawsuit Asserting That ICE Policy Violates the First Amendment

February 11, 2025

On February 11, a multifaith coalition and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection announced that they had filed a lawsuit challenging ICE’s “sensitive locations policy.” Churches (along with schools and hospitals) had previously been protected from the agency’s enforcement actions, but a Department of Homeland Security memo rescinded that protection on January 20th.

“Our sacred spaces must continue to offer sanctuary to those who face oppression, violence, or alienation, including immigrant communities.”

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is proud to announce that we are a plaintiff in this lawsuit. We join this multifaith coalition to challenge the ending of ICE’s sensitive locations policy, and oppose any interpretation of law which would allow immigration raids in houses of worship and religious ceremonies.

The suit asserts that subjecting places of worship to ICE enforcement actions without a judicial warrant substantially burdens our religious exercise in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). These enforcement actions at our places of worship interfere with our religious activities and our ability to fulfill our religious mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.

Of the lawsuit, the UUA’s Executive Vice President Carey McDonald said, “As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), fighting for justice and liberation for all people is at the heart of our faith tradition, which recognizes the spark of the divine inherent in every person; our sacred spaces must continue to offer sanctuary to those who face oppression, violence, or alienation, including immigrant communities.

UUs are united in our commitment through a set of shared religious values, which include interdependence, pluralism, justice, equity, generosity, and transformation, all of which revolve around Love at the center. Compelled by those values, we will continue to do what Unitarians and Universalists have done throughout our centuries-long history – use our voices and our actions to side with love and help those who are in the greatest need.”

UU congregations include members who are immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Many of our congregations provide social ministries that serve immigrant communities in church spaces, such as through food and diaper distribution, ESL classes, a migrant-focused early learning program, and other tutoring and skill-building. And a large proportion of our congregations are located near the coasts, U.S.-Mexico or U.S.-Canada borders, or in cities where immigration-enforcement actions have recently occurred.

For Further Reading

• Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) Press Release: More Than Two Dozen Christian and Jewish Denominations and Associations Sue to Protect Religious Freedoms (PDF, 7 pages)
• UU World: UUA, Other Religious Groups Sue Trump Administration to Halt Immigration Arrests at Houses of Worship

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