Sunday, October 15th – Service – ” The Carter Legacy: Waging Peace and Keeping the Faith – 11:00 – Noon – 184 Longview Hts., Athens, OH
Pete Mather will share what he learned about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s lives, faith and humanitarian commitments through his time working at The Carter Center. Pete will focus on President Carter’s sustained work in the areas of Human Rights and Conflict Resolution. This topic is especially timely due to the emerging war in the Middle East.
Immediately after the SERVICE, at NOON, please stay and join us for writing postcards in support of Ohio Issue 1, the proposed reproductive rights amendment to the Ohio Constitution. We’ll have addresses and postcards from two non-partisan organizations for you to choose–the ACLU as well as the big group, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, which Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio and many other groups have endorsed as the leader of the Issue 1 campaign. If you wish, join in ordering pizza, or bring a brown bag lunch. Thanks!
UUFA Choir is still forming…Please join us. We meet Tuesdays at 6:00 pm at the fellowship sanctuary. Thanks Nellie Werger for serving as our director ! There is much joy in singing together , frankly it feeds the soul and brings light into our lives.
What is happening this week at UUFA:
Executive Board meeting this Saturday beginning at 10:30 am – all are welcome to join! We will meet virtually, via zoom. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/82340676520
Visit our calendar for details about this week’s events –
https://uufa.elvanto.net/calendar/
Statement from UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt Regarding the Conflict Between Israel and Hamas
October 7, 2023
Beloveds, I invite you to stop what you are doing if you can and sit with me in the depth of this tragedy. How to reconcile the cost of occupation and of war? How to nuance two very real histories of oppression and violence? I am holding close the words of U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland who said: “This is a dangerous precipice, and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink.”
We as a people of faith can condemn violence against civilians while at the same time engaging the full legacies and histories of oppression that shape such devastating conflict. As a faith tradition, Unitarian Universalists have long worked for peace, and our principles and values call for the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. At the same time, we have not engaged the tangled issues surrounding Israel/Palestine in community since 2018, and our last engagement resulted in severed relationships, and deep pain.
I pray for the people of Israel and Palestine. I pray for leaders around the globe who must respond to this latest flare of violence and the untenable ethical considerations that abound. I pray for Muslim and Jewish UUs who experience the impact of this long strife acutely. I pray that those of us less likely to know the trauma of unending brutality and harm will not turn away from generational loss, from the devastating realities and their root causes, or from the relentless tragedy of war and occupation. Be gentle with yourselves when you need to be, but do not turn away unless you must. We are one global family living tenuously on the same human-impacted Earth. Let us center ourselves in justice as we call for peace.