Social Justice

Purposes: The Social Action Committee as convened at OUUF in February 2013 addresses issues around health, education, well-being, and civil rights of individuals and protection of the environment.

  1. SAC serves as a mediator of information overload via OUUF resources such a space in publications, email distribution list, website, Facebook page, bulletin board, administrator’s time, etc. in notifying the congregation about such issues.
  2. SAC explores how faith-based social action may differ from that of other activist organizations and encourages OUUF as an institution to engage in such action. SAC members agree that to have faith is to deeply believe in that which cannot be proven. We have faith that living by the seven principles of Unitarian-Universalism contributes to the arc of the moral universe’s bending toward justice.
  3. SAC explores opportunities for creating or participating in interfaith social action on the North Olympic Peninsula and in the larger world.

Members: Any member or friend of OUUF committed to addressing social issues in the community, nation and world is invited to join the Social Action Committee.

Procedure for Mediating Resource Utilization: Any member of the Social Action Committee is available to accept requests from congregation members to utilize OUUF resources in notifying congregants of upcoming social action initiatives. The SAC as a whole reviews the requests for timeliness and likelihood of congregants not already knowing about the initiatives through general mass media. SAC members have three days to express any concerns about using OUUF resources raised by a request. If there are concerns, the OUUF member making a request is invited to a monthly meeting of the SAC held during potlucks to provide clarification.

Existing Social Action Initiatives: OUUF has completed the UUA process for becoming a Welcoming Congregation that supports civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals and welcomes them into our congregation. Because of congregational endorsement of this move, members of OUUF are authorized to speak on behalf of the Fellowship in support of LGBT civil rights.

Members can, of course, speak in support of any issue based upon their personal commitments to the seven principles of UU congregations. However, they speak for themselves only on any issue other than LGBT civil rights. The Social Action Committee hopes that the OUUF congregation will soon adopt positions regarding other issues so that members can speak with the authority of the congregation on them as well.

As of FY 2013, OUUF as an institution has not adopted a social action initiative for budgetary support other than those related to LGBT civil rights. Individuals and OUUF small group ministries keep the following programs alive at OUUF:

Ongoing projects:

  1. Dream Center, a Serenity House program for homeless youth, receives contributions from individuals through monthly solicitations.
  2. MANNA provides emergency funds to local residents and receives contributions from individuals through monthly solicitations.
  3. Homeless Connect annual service fair is supported through volunteers and sponsorship covered by individual donations and/or a special budget allocation.
  4. Highway 101 clean-up is a project of the men’s group.
  5. Lttle Free Pantry, For more information contact Vicki Sensiba at sensibag@hotmail.com