As we move into the year ahead, and all that it will bring, may we find rootedness in our connection
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NEWSLETTER CONTENTS
From the UUMFE team
Upcoming events from UUMFE
Upcoming events from our partner organizations
This month's recipe
FROM THE UUMFE TEAM
A Call to Connect from our Board Chair
As we move into the year ahead, and all that it will bring, may we find rootedness in our connection with Earth and as Earth. And may this connection support and sustain us in our pursuit of peace, justice, and a world where all beings flourish. Please click here to read the full Embodied Earth Awareness Practice for the New Year blog post by our Board Chair, UU minister and somatic practitioner Reverend Lauren Levwood.
Rev. Lauren welcomes you to share your thoughts with them here.
A Note from our Executive Director
This month I share a poem from Black Nature: Four centuries of African-American Nature Poetry, edited by Camille T. Dungy. The poems and essays collected in this book serve as an introduction to a way of thinking about nature writing and writing by black Americans. I highly recommend purchasing the book or getting it from the library.
—Rev. Kelly Dignan
Man Reading in Bed by a Window with Bugs by Gregory Pardlo
– a second floor window, darkened
but for a single lamp,
winged insects creep through a rift
in the screen as if seeking asylum
on the lamp’s damp skiff of light.
the cicada’s reporting ticker-tape
seems to augur a storm and a frayed cordage
of willow branch blanches in accord
and the brook nods, applauds. the book
is a cat in his lap as he nods
off and leaks through the frayed
screen do to where, in affection,
arches the tall grass the wind
strokes as oak leaves leather
in the yellow porch light and shine
dully, he sets off, each step toward the open
sounds like the running of a page.
when the breeze wakes him he sheets the window,
still imagining himself shirtless in the field.
each pore is a teat, he thinks, each teat a socket
the night plugs in to power its miner’s lamp
hung above oceans of talcum and calamine.
UUMFE EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Save the Date for our Earth Day Worship:
Earth Day Celebration - Kindness Eases Change
April 22, 2025
8:00pm ET • 7:00pm CT • 6:00pm MT • 5:00pm PT
The service title is “Reimagine Together”. Featuring one of the UU Climate Justice Revival art contest winners (Courtney Fishback), we will imagine a world bright with kindness, joy, and climate justice for all. Written worship materials will also be available by March 1, 2025 for your congregation's or group's use. We ask for a donation for those materials. Register for the online service and/or the written materials here.
PARTNER EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
UUA Side With Love:
UU Climate Justice Revival Facilitator Training
January 15, 2025 7:00pm ET • 6:00pm CT • 5:00pm MT • 4:00pm PT
Are you one of your congregation's facilitators for the UU Climate Justice Revival? All facilitators need to join one of our 2-hour Facilitator Training Sessions. Come learn how to be the best facilitator you can be for your congregation's Revival! Register and learn more here.
If you cannot make the January session, scroll down to register for the one happening in February.
30 Days of Love 2025
January 20–February 14
Join Side With Love for 30 Days of Love 2025! Beginning Monday, January 20th through Friday, February 14th, this annual event offers spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice over four weeks. These offerings are for individuals, families, religious professionals, partners, and communities who need soulful sustenance for the work of liberation and justice. Find everything on Side With Love and subscribe to our newsletter to get an update when content is available.
Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation
February 5, 2025
7:00pm ET • 6:00pm CT • 5:00pm MT • 4:00pm PT
Get to know the new Green Sanctuary! Green Sanctuary orientations provide an overview of the process and allow for plenty of time to get all of your questions answered. Come learn how to transform your congregation through climate justice. Register to join us.
Green Sanctuary New Materials Release
February 19, 2025
7:00pm ET • 6:00pm CT • 5:00pm MT • 4:00pm PT
In February, we released the new Green Sanctuary materials which are designed to be more manageable, accessible, and impactful for all congregations! During our March meeting, we'll feature one of the Green Sanctuary teams working through the materials. Learn from each other and build community! --- Come together for shared learning and mutual supports with other UUs transforming our congregations through climate justice! Green Sanctuary Community meetings take place on the third Wednesday of the month at 4PT - 5MT - 6CT - 7ET for 90 minutes. Register to join us.
UU Climate Justice Revival Facilitator Training
February 26, 2025
7:00pm ET • 6:00pm CT • 5:00pm MT • 4:00pm PT
Are you one of your congregation's facilitators for the UU Climate Justice Revival? All facilitators need to join one of our 2-hour Facilitator Training Sessions. Come learn how to be the best facilitator you can be for your congregation's Revival! Register to join us.
Now Hiring: Climate Justice Fellow
The UUA is seeking a Climate Justice Fellow to support the Four Intersectional Priorities of the Organizing Strategy Team by developing and implementing coaching supports and strategies for congregations engaged in the Green Sanctuary 2030 process and the UU Climate Justice Revivals. Hiring qualifications include being a seminary or graduate school student preparing for career in UU social justice ministry. Having climate justice organizing experience strongly preferred. Apply for the role here.
Chalice Community Forum:
Climate Justice at the Intersections: The Interrelationship of Justice Issues and the Possibilities!
January 24, 2025
10:00pm ET • 9:00pm CT • 8:00pm MT • 7:00pm PT
For a long time, the climate movement has focused almost exclusively on reducing our carbon footprint, reinforcing the artificial silos that separate our justice movements. Carbon tunnel vision can cause us to overlook the complex related issues that play into the climate crisis and limit our view of possible solutions. As a movement, we need to recognize the complexity inherent in justice issues like climate change and expand our understanding of climate as an intersectional justice issue. Please register for the forum in advance here.
Iliff School of Theology:
Sacred Earth, Sacred Action: A Climate Science and Spirituality Conference
February 8, 2025
3:00pm ET • 2:00pm CT • 1:00pm MT • 12:00pm PT
In person at Iliff School of Theology and livestreamed. Explore how elemental wisdom can deepen our collective resilience in the face of the climate challenges we face and deepen our collective ability to take justice-driven and spiritually-rooted actions. Keynote is author and poet, Camille Dungy. Workshop by Rev. Kelly Dignan, UU Ministry for Earth. Register to attend in person at Iliff or live-stream here.
THIS MONTH'S RECIPE
Find this yummy winter recipe at PlantYou by clicking here!
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