A message from UUA President, Rev. Peter Morales

Dear Friends:

As president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), I am constantly aware of the need for global witness in a world torn by strife, riddled by inequality and calling us to speak out for peace and social justice.  To this end, all UUs can be justifiably proud of the growing stature and courageous voice of our United Nations Office (UNO) in New York.

Bruce Knotts, his board, staff, interns and volunteers have, in a remarkably short period of time, transformed our presence at the United Nations to one of activism, constructive participation and leadership on the world stage.  Whether they are speaking out on human rights, demanding social justice, calling the world’s attention to climate change, advocating for women’s rights or actively seeking peaceful solutions to global problems, they are making our voices heard and speaking truth to power…always.

This critical component of our denomination needs your support.  They have leveraged scarce resources and delivered results far beyond expectations.  Simply put, they have earned our respect and we need them now more than ever.

Won’t you make a generous congregational commitment to the UNO?  I promise you it will make a world of difference.

Sincerely,

Peter Morales

President, Unitarian Universalist Association

Visit uu-uno.org/donate to support the UU-UNO

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-08

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Dear Abby gives a nod to Unitarian Universalism

DEAR ABBY: I recently had a child and would like to join a church for the community, moral messages and the music. I grew up going to one and got a lot out of it.

However, exploration throughout my 20s made me realize that I didn’t believe what was being taught. I tried hard to accept the doctrines, but truthfully, I doubt I ever will. Would it be dishonest to start attending again? — NEW MOM IN ARKANSAS

DEAR NEW MOM: Many people consider themselves to be more “spiritual” than “religious.” And I’m willing to bet that in many congregations there is a range in the intensity of belief among the attendees.

I encourage you to select a denomination with which you feel most comfortable. Some — like the Unitarian Universalist faith (www.uua.org) — have no dogma or creed and support their members in following their own spiritual paths.

(Published July 26, 2010)

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-01

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No Aliens Here: The UU-UNO is Standing on the Side of Love

All of us at the UU-UNO stand with our UUA President, Peter Morales, who was arrested yesterday along with many other Unitarian Universalists who stood on the side of love with the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country who face ever-increasing threats to their safety and families, especially due the clearly unconstitutional new anti-immigration law in Arizona.  There are those who want to make the case that by the very virtue of being in the United States without proper documents, you are a criminal.  Most of us here are.  Most American families came to this country without documents and we set up residence on land that did not belong to us.  Many of our ancestors were brought here by force, also without documents, to work on land that had been forcibly and illegally taken from the original owners.  After a 200+ year history of our ancestors coming to this land without documents nor permission to take land that didn’t belong to them, we now want to stand on laws which we have made up to document our own presence on land that we took by force.

Today’s immigrants come to this land for the same as our ancestors did: to escape political, social and economic oppression.  An area that the UU-UNO is looking at very closely involves the many immigrants who come to this country escaping homophobic oppression in other countries.

The immigrants who are here live here because we wanted them here.  We hired them to do jobs nobody else wanted to do.  We rent them apartments, sell them cars, educate them in our schools, welcome them in our churches and in a thousand ways, as a society, we welcome them in our country until that time comes when politicians turn our heads to make us pull back that welcome.  If we never wanted undocumented immigrants in our country, they could have never existed here for so many years.  They are here because we have wanted them here for so many reasons.

Continue reading ‘No Aliens Here: The UU-UNO is Standing on the Side of Love’

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-25

  • Live tweeting 2day starting at 10 AM ET from UN ECOSOC session. Covering much-anticipated vote on @IGLHRC consultative status. #LGBT #
  • Seated in the chamber. Room filling up with delegates. All late as usual. #
  • For more information on the amazing work of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission: http://bit.ly/dtuBYC #lgbt #
  • Gavel struck. Meeting being called to order. #
  • First item on agenda moved to later. Discussion on NGOs originally third item. Now second. #
  • Good morning all. Live tweeting now from UN ECOSOC session. Covering vote on consultative status application by @IGLHRC #LGBT #
  • First agenda item (originally second) concluded. Meeting now suspended for 5 minutes. #
  • Resuming session. #
  • Taking up Item no 12 "Non-Governmental Organizations" #
  • Beginning General Discussion #
  • Perm Rep from Belgium delivering statement–speaking on behalf of EU #
  • EU: general statement on NGOs and Civil Society. Expressing concern about NGO Cttee and deviation from procedure. #
  • EU: Strong statement re SOGI orgs. "apps have been systematically delayed" "several rounds of questioning . . . with no end in sight" #
  • EU: "Qs are not supposed to request from orgs details that are protected by privacy such as names, addresses of their members" #
  • EU: "Qs should not be used to pass judgment on the specific views expressed by an org" #
  • Autralia speaking for Canada, NZ and OZ. #
  • CANZ: NGOs shoudl be treated in a fair and equal manner #
  • Delay tactics imposed on certain NGOs (delaying apps for several years) are unacceptable #
  • CANZ: Critical of no action motion after three years of Qs. #
  • US Dep Permanent Rep speaking #
  • USA: Strong statement of support of @IGLHRC #
  • Introduction of draft decision on application of @IGLHRC #
  • US Dep Perm Rep presenting draft decision E/2010/L.19 on @IGLHRC application #
  • Axn on other draft decisions now. #
  • President inviting council to take axn on draft decision on @IGLHRC #
  • US Delegate statement about IGLHRC. #
  • Brazil joined list of co-sponsors. #
  • No statements from other delegates #
  • Saudi Arabia delegate speaking #
  • SA wants vote by placard. #
  • Secretary proposing electronic vote. #
  • Taking recorded vote #
  • SA delegate speaking. ECOSOC should let NGO Cttee no axn vote. #
  • Saint Lucia delegate: Is voting on one NGO priority when there is a big backlog? #
  • SL: Is IGLHRC going to redefine human rights for us? #
  • Israel: Finds that @IGLHRC complies and supports work of UN. #
  • Egypt delegate speaking #
  • do I even have to say what Egypt will say . . . #
  • Egypt just put "efficiency" and "NGO Committee" in the same sentence. #
  • 8 speakers on the list now! #
  • Norway will vote in favor. :-) #
  • Just FYI, no voting yet. Just explanations of votes. #
  • Egypt just interrupted OZ. OZ : @IGLHRC works on rights of LGBT, which R rights of non-LGBT (response to Saint Lucia) #
  • Commencing axn process of voting now. #
  • A little chaos and confusion about electronic voting. What a mess. Point of order now. Sit tight. #
  • Voting Closed: Yes: 23 No: 13: Abstain: 13 #
  • UN ECOSOC Council just adopted a draft resolution E/2010/L.19 granting consultative status to @IGLHRC. #
  • It is indeed a GREAT day for LGBT people around the world as the United Nations just fully recognized @IGLHRC #LGBT #

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Karen Mosoti at FENICC Meeting

This week the UU-UNO was pleased to host Karen Mosoti at our July meeting of the Faith and Ethics Network for the International Criminal Court (FENICC). Ms Mosoti is the Head of the Liaison Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the United Nations. She attended the ICC’s Kampala review conference in June and reported back to us on the results of the conference, as well as the role of her office at the United Nations. We look forward to working with her again in the future. Thanks also to the American NGO coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC) for their contributions to the discussion.

Key points from Ms. Mosoti’s discussion of Kampala:

- Successful adoption of an amendment that defines the crime of Aggression.

- Considerable progress was made on mainstreaming local enforcement of the Rome statute within states’ jurisdictions.

- Addressed implementation of court commitments and voluntary cooperation with the court, as well as enforcement of sentences.

- Complementarity: states creating laws to complement those of the court, and prosecute the Rome statutes.

- Current challenges: how to follow up and make states who made pledges live up to them. The court is already working to create a follow up mechanism from The Hague.

‘UN Women’ – A New Gender Equality Agency at the UN.

Thanks to the work of the international campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR), the UN general assembly will vote today to create a new UN agency for women, to be called “UN Women.”

[From  IPS] “After several rounds of intense eleventh-hour negotiations last week over the structure and composition of a proposed new “gender entity” and its executive board, the United Nations has cleared the last of the remaining political hurdles towards the creation of a separate and distinct U.N. agency for women.”

“The 192-member General Assembly Friday will authorise Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to launch the new entity under the leadership of a yet-to-be-named under-secretary-general (USG), most certainly a woman, holding a third-ranking job in the U.N. hierarchy.”

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More from the official GEAR website