My intentional activism started in high school. Each week we sat in a circle on the large carpet in the Religious Education wing of the local Unitarian Universalist congregation. Our Youth for Nuclear Freeze group gathered to educate each other and plan actions to bring awareness to more people. That summer I helped fold 1,000 paper cranes.
At the heart of my ministry is an embodied social justice, grounded in a vision of collective liberation—this is what gives my life meaning and focus. My deep need for spiritually-grounded justice-making is what pushed me to attend seminary.
I’m excited to be part of a congregation that weaves all five types of social justice action into the intergenerational fabric of congregational life:
- service,
- education,
- organizing,
- advocacy, and
- public witness activities.
Over the years I have been engaged with various actions: from marching for reproductive justice to hosting racial justice conferences, from raising funds for AIDS research to organizing for prison reform. I have long felt called to create the world we want to live in.Â
When my family members and friends first came out to me, I felt warmly reassured by Unitarian Universalism’s embrace of queer folx. This welcome-rooted-in-justice became even more life-saving when I myself fell in love with a woman to whom I would eventually become married. Quite literally, the personal was political.
Given the oppressive structures in our society, these are the sorts of questions I like to explore with people in a covenanted community:
- What spiritual resources do we need in order to engage courageously in the work that will help heal this bruised and hurting world?
- How do social justice actions inform our spiritual lives?
- How do our spiritual lives inspire our work for justice?