Outreach

Social Justice

Social Justice activities take a forefront at the Concord UU Church. We work to engage our congregation and community in various local, national and global issues promoting peace, human rights, and sustainability.

For the 2007-2008 church year the Social Justice Committee will emphasize Food & Environmental Justice, as part of the Green Sanctuary program.

2006-2007 Sampling of Activities & Events
During the 2006-2007 church year, congregants, and in some cases, the wider public, engaged in a variety of education and action programs hosted, sponsored or planned by the Social Justice Committee. 

Family to Family Home Essentials Program. Congregation supported two families affected by Hurricanes Katrina & Rita for 3-6 months to help them get back on their feet. 

Priorities NH Oreo Mobile visit. Visual depiction of discretionary federal spending. Viewers encouraged to see the federal budget as a moral document.

Forever Wild 2006.  Free concert & slide show featuring Walkin' Jim Stoltz with special guests Erica Wheeler and Steve Schuch.  Attendees wrote letters to congressional representatives on behalf of wildlands, wildwaters, and wildcreatures.  The Concord UU Earth Centered Spirituality Group, the NH Sierra Club, and a chapter of Trout Unlimited participated in the event. 

Declaration of Peace Interfaith March & Rally. 

"An Inconvenient Truth".  Global climate crisis film showing and discussion.

Friendly Kitchen nonpartisan voter empowerment project. 

Tom Hayden: Post-Election Strategy for Peace and Justice.  Presentation co-sponsored with NH Peace Action and American Friends Service Committee - NH. 

End the War Peace March in DC participation.

Preventing a New Generation of Nuclear Weapons:  Opportunities and Challenges for the Granite State. Hosted AFSC-NH and NH Peace Action's evening with David Culp, a nuclear disarmament lobbyist with the Friends Committee on National Legislation. 

Spirit of Peace. Opportunity to reflect on the 4th anniversary of the Iraq invasion. 

Drumbeat for Darfur. Justice Sunday service; congregation donated $675 to Jewish World Watch program to provide solar cookers to Sudanese refugees in Chad.

Step It Up National Day of Climate Action. 

Engage Workshop. Weekend Pace e Bene workshop focused on the spirituality and practice of active nonviolence, led by LR Berger and Ken Butigan.

Volunteers For Peace Workcamp:  Hosted 7 young people from around the world at the church for two weeks.  Housed them in classrooms and provided transportation to work sites (NH Peace Action and Audubon).  Congregants also attended welcoming and departure night cookouts and provided the volunteers with homecooked meals and opportunities for relaxation, kayaking and mountain hiking.  Provided church space for workshops on drumming, poetry and singing for peace. The goal of the workcamp was to provide a safe and productive means for volunteers to get to know people from different cultures, interacting on many levels to promote global peace and understanding.