When I go to the Revival...
UU Climate Justice Revival Ahoy! Starting this weekend, congregations across the land are coming together to reimagine a spirit-filled and liberatory future. Through conversations, worship, and advocacy, congregations will work together to realize climate justice and collective liberation in our communities. Let’s GO!
Read on for more info about:
Revivaling Congregations + YOU!
Tune in to the Livestream of President Sofia’s sermon at UU Congregation of Ann Arbor
Sneak peak into UUA’s expanding support for climate justice!
“When I go to the Revival” reflections from Side with Love!
Revivaling Congregations + YOU!
Over 370 UU congregations in 45 states plus Mexico, Canada, the Virgin Islands, and online - over 35% of our denomination - are joining in spirit to reimagine together a world where all communities thrive.
The UU Society of Oneonta, NY is the first congregation to share the outcomes of their Revival. Look at all those smiling faces! Karen Palmer reports,
“We just completed our Climate Revival Saturday Workshop a weekend early due to our schedules. Rev Stacey and I facilitated and we think it went very well. People were very engaged and moved from expressing that they felt overwhelmed and stressed about Climate Change to feeling more positive and hopeful seeing the collective energy that emerged from the event. Thanks for all the work your team did to provide the resources!”
What’s that you say? Your congregation hasn’t signed up to host a Revival yet? Do it now! You can host your Revival later this year or in 2025. Several folks are hosting theirs over Earth Day. Do what makes sense for you but sign up now so we can best support you!
Your Revival will bring together hearts and minds to make the connections between climate and justice and re-imagine what it means to do this urgent work in community. This powerful and transformative event weaves together the threads that have always linked our deepest commitments. The UU Climate Justice Revival will equip UU congregations to enter into a new era of climate action—one that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations that transform our congregations through climate justice.
Watch a Revival Worship This Weekend!
If your congregation is not hosting the Revival this weekend, but you want in on the fun, we invite you to join the livestream of UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt preaching at the UU Congregation of Ann Arbor on September 29 at 8:30am PT / 11:30am ET.
UUA developing new tools for Climate Justice facilities projects at the congregational level
As congregations seek to implement climate justice projects at the community level, we are excited to report that the UUA will soon be offering support and a loan option for clean energy projects with incentives for climate justice. We can’t go into too many details just yet, but put this in the back of your mind as your congregation is Reimagining Together at your UU Climate Justice Revival and stay tuned for more information!
How are you Revivaling?
Hear from the Side With Love Team on what we’re bringing to our Revivals!
“The sign of a health economy should be a drinkable river.” - Li An Phoa
Here in Delaware, none of our rivers and creeks are swimmable, let alone drinkable. Here in my county with the highest number of chickens in the country, chicken waste is spread on our fields and runs off into the water (among other causes for the unhealthy water). If we had drinkable rivers, families be able to play in them! But more than that, getting there would require improved conditions and lives for the chickens themselves, the small family chicken farmers stuck in contracts with the big chicken companies, and the largely immigrant and Black non-unionised workers in the chicken factories. When I go to the Revival, I will elevate the connection between small farms, workers, animals, water, and our health.”
Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Leadership Development Specialist
When I go to the Revival, I’m going to talk about the profound connections between climate justice and building a more democratic society for all people. I think about the opportunities for direct democratic process in Atlanta where over 116,000 residents signed petitions in support of taking Cop City – a militarized police training camp destroying an urban forest to be destructed – and the city’s unwillingness to respond to the demands of the people. I think about what it means when our governing bodies have been bought and sold by the wealthy and corporations – in the case of the Great Lakes, the federal government has not stopped Enbridge from pumping oil through their 71-year old pipelines through the Straits of Mackinac putting 21 percent of the world’s fresh surface water at risk. I am excited for the synergy and opportunity for more relationship and more collective action that will emerge from the Revival.
Nora Rasman, Democracy Strategist
When I go to my climate justice revival, I want to talk about the intersection of the climate crisis and our values. I want to leave able to articulate how our values call us into environmental action. I care about Climate Justice, and I'm already doing so much to end oppression that I want to better understand how this work impacts the work I'm already doing. It all feels so big! I want a space to dream about a better, healthier, and more connected world.
Rev. Amanda Schuber, Disability Justice Associate
When I go to my revival, I will talk about the impacts of climate change on marginalized communities. Many who lack the basic necessities of life and whose livelihood depends on survival are the most likely to suffer the devastating impacts of climate catastrophe. When a hurricane hits or a chemical contamination strikes, low-income people, Black and brown people, trans people, and disabled people lack the financial resources to protect themselves. Worse yet, agencies and government officials fail to craft policies and procedures that take into account the variety of needs and contingencies that will ensure the safety of these communities. A climate revival will not only raise the aware of the reality of climate change but will also raise the awareness of how climate catastrophe impacts all communities and the need to center care for the most vulnerable as we consider sustainable solutions.
Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director
When I go to my Revival, I’m going to talk about disability justice, community care, and the urgency of practicing solidarity with disabled people in this age of pandemics. As we reimagine a world where all beings thrive, in this moment of accelerating mass disablement, death, and climate catastrophe and simultaneous calls to reinvest in pre-pandemic ways of living and organizing, I’m curious about what our movements can learn from disabled resistance, connection, and survival. I’m eager to attend to this need for the many generations of people who are becoming disabled in a very small window of time and to whom our movements are accountable for a place in this work. I’m inspired by the 2024 AIW Centering Love Amidst the Ongoing Impact of COVID-19. What’s possible for our communities when we live into communal interdependence?
Amarin Young, Communications & Administrative Assistant
When I go to my climate justice revival, I want to make sure we find spaces for us to grieve. There is so much violence we are encountering and experiencing in our lives, and it takes a toll on our bodies, minds, and hearts. My heart breaks for my Palestinian siblings who have lost homes, loved ones, and ancestral lands where they have nurtured olive trees for generations. All of us have lost the biodiversity that comes with human-driven climate change. And some of us may feel like humanity has lost its soul, with our extractive relationships to each other and our greater world. I want to make the space for us to name and feel that grief. Because in that grief, we can find our longing. We can find what it is we yearn for, rooted in our greatest imaginings of what our faith tells us is possible. In honoring our grief, we lean into the best of our humanity - our connections to our reality and our commitments to transforming this world into one centered on love.
Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Justice Organizer
When I go to my Revival later this year, I am excited to meet all of the community members we’re inviting to join us. We’re using the Revival materials to bring together as many people as we can from the many smaller communities in our area who are all connected to the same ecosystem we love and social services we need. I plan to elevate the connections between climate change and all of the injustices we fight so hard against as a means of working towards building community resilience together. How can we make sure that everyone in our community thrives? I know that I - alone - do not have the answer, but we - together - can create a vision, a north star, to guide our collective work. Together, with curiosity, humility, grace, and imperfection, we can find the solutions that strengthen our community and protect our ecosystem, all while centering the needs of those most impacted by climate injustice. I bring my lived experience as a person with a disability and my rural, working-class background to this dynamic work. As Chico Mendes said, “Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening.” How can our climate justice work intersect with labor, disability rights, anti-racism, disaster preparedness, and more? My commitment to justice and collective liberation will guide my actions both at the Revival and beyond. No system but the ecosystem, no liberation without love. We’re reimagining together!
Rachel Myslivy, Climate Justice Strategist