UUFF

Your NWA home for a liberal religion

You are here: Home / Archives for Fawn Smith

Fawn Smith

Feb 10: The Meaning of Physical Incapacity

by

“The Meaning of Physical Incapacity.” Marty Faitak will talk to us about dealing with physical health problems – how our lives can be changed by permanent or temporary disability.

We Shared the Plate with the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, to help fill their Scholarship Fund. “Since its inception in 2000 with the support of sponsors and donors HWOA has awarded 418 scholarships to deserving Latino students many of whom are first-generation college students, encouraging them to pursue a higher education and make their dreams a reality.”​

The Fishbowl Exercise

by

The theme of our 2019 Arkansas Unitarian Universalist Cluster Meeting is Listening, Learning, and Leading. Part of our agenda includes learning and utilizing the fishbowl exercise as a method to allow everyone in a large group to participate in the discussion.

The Fishbowl Exercise

provided by Connie Goodbread, UUA Southern Region Co-Lead

  • Place ten chairs in a circle.
  • Facilitator and Partner sit across from one another at opposite poles of the circle.
  • Eight people join them in the circle.
  • The Rules:
    1. Name the topic and set the allotted time frame
    2. Those inside the circle agree to …
      — stay in the circle until the talking in over
      — only speak for one’s self
      — refrain from name calling, blaming and interrupting
      — listen deeply
      — speak one at a time
      — speak into the circle only ( that is, wait until after the whole exercise to address those not in the circle)
      — allow each person in the circle the opportunity to speak
      — allow each person the choice to pass and/or speak later
    3. Those outside the circle agree to listen and refrain from speaking
    4. Facilitator and Partner agree to …
      — make sure everyone is given a chance to speak (Note: There is no need to “go around the circle” … Each one speaks at will.
      — keep track of time so that everyone has a chance to be heard
      — go back to a person who passes and ask them if they wish to speak
      — take a full minute of silence if the rules are broken
      — lead the debrief conversation after the fishbowl(s), if that is desired and agreed upon by the group

Visit Facing History for additional guidance on fishbowl exercises.

UUFF Thanksgiving Potluck and Games

by

We are delighted that our communal Sharing of Thanks on Thursday, November 22nd was covered by local news station KNWA! The potluck was a wonderful way to support and get to know local residents and anyone who needed food or a place to go on Thanksgiving.

The Justice Team Does Congress (sort of)

by

By Rebecca Bryant

The Arkansas Citizen’s First Congress (ACFC) is a coalition of organizations working for progressive change –- primarily by lobbying the Arkansas legislature. Assisting ACFC in this effort is their tandem organization, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, which monitors all bills in the Arkansas legislature and retains full-time lobbyists on staff.

In 2017, UUFF began supporting the Arkansas Citizen’s First Congress as one of the Justice Team’s picks for ‘Share the Plate’. In 2018, we persuaded the board to let us use that money to purchase a membership with ACFC, rather than simply making a donation. That membership gave us the privilege of sending delegates to the organization’s Congress of members that takes place every two years.

Four delegates (Shermon Brown, Maren Chism, Karl Brown, Rebecca Bryant) attended the 2018 Congress which took place from June 8-10 in Little Rock. On Friday evening, following dinner at the Sheraton Midtown, we heard presentations from member groups, describing why they do their work. Speakers included Alyce Love from the Desha County Social Justice Alliance, Ginny Massullo from the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, and Furonda Brasfield with Decarcerate.

For the rest of the weekend, our mission was to identify five short term goals that would become the focus of lobbying through the next legislative session. Justice Team members spread out through the four caucuses; Civil Rights, Economic Justice, Environment, and Education, taking part in their deliberations.

By the end of the weekend, the Congress had passed five resolutions: 1. Support fair residential landlord-tenant laws (tenants have little protection at present); 2. Support a juvenile diversion program (i.e. try to keep minors out of the prison pipeline); 3. Upgrade Arkansas’s voter registration system (championed by the League of Women Voters); 4. Deter wage theft; and, 5. Support equity in professional licensure (In Arkansas, for a variety of professions, licenses cannot be issued to noncitizens).

I’ve known about the Citizen’s First Congress and Arkansas Public Policy Panel for decades. But, this was my first immersion in their process. Meeting others that are also engaged in the fight for justice and hearing their stories and ambitions was inspiring. Adding the small voice of UUFF to that of nearly 60 other organizations makes us a chorus with a chance of being heard.

Wild and Free Thoughts about Stuff…

by

Four AM wild thoughts time:

I am ruminating on the artificiality of Canadians/USA/Mexicans as “units” competing with each other to live – to have food, water, shelter, and comfort over the other, as if we are not all human beings in need. Governance and economic systems are artificial boundaries, flags and trade agreements are just stories made up to divide and conquer when the central narrative should be “how can we help each other.” Laws are made to legitimize stealing from some to enrich others. The bottom line is not human or humane, but about greed. 

I’m tired of the competitive bullshit, the monetizing of everything to take love and care out of the exchange between people. People compelled to measure themselves as success or failure by bank accounts instead of the art, music, care, thought, cooperation, and Love they bring to life. No wonder we are an addicted society, a broken culture… everyone’s worth and dignity is bought and sold, incarcerated and monitored, monetized and advertised as if it was never ours to begin with.

When did I sell myself/yourself into this? Probably long ago in childhood while watching tv, seduced by some ad for this or that, inculcated into the mother supremacy culture story. How do I/we buy ourselves back? Maybe by small acts of defiance – by acting as if there are no Mexicans, Canadians, US… just hold onto each other as human beings, as people of the planet – together. That should disturb someone. 

We will find ways to reclaim humanity, we have to. Vote for someone else’s worth and dignity before your own, and we will bend towards justice even a little bit more every time.

A Missional Fellowship

by

To Be Determined,
May 2018
Rev. Jim Parrish

Our Mission: As a diverse, accepting faith community, we promote justice and service while seeking personal and spiritual growth. (2014)

To accomplish our Mission we shall:

  1. Serve as a welcoming religious community for all who practice a liberal religious life in agreement with our Principles and Covenant.
  1. Open our hearts and doors for those in need; share laughter with those celebrating, and comfort those in sadness and grief.
  1. Strive to be a center of excellence for intellectual, emotional, personal, and spiritual learning, and promote growth and dialogue between ours and other sources of religious and spiritual life.
  1. Provide ourselves and the wider community with resources of venue, volunteers, programming, and leadership to make personal and societal changes towards love, happiness, equality, and justice.  

Recently several members of UUFF, and one from our Web of Life affinity group, participated in a University of Arkansas class at the invitation of their professor. The class was nine or so students of sociology, many working towards a counseling degree, and the subject was the attitudes and coping mechanisms of folks who are of a “minority” religion in a region where mainline Christianity was dominant. Mike McMullin, Sarah Faitak, and I would represent our different ways of being Unitarian Universalist, and Ethan Whiting would speak to being “Pagan,” an earth centered religious belief system. The class was run by Professor Mindy Bradley, who is also UU, and we spent a couple of hours having a wonderful conversation about religion, beliefs, spirituality, and dealing with work, social, and community prejudices.

Before we started, I invited the class to introduce themselves to us and tell of their own religious beliefs and journeys. We want to hear who they were religiously, so we could be comfortable when we shared our stories. What we heard was enlightening, and to me missional to UUFF. I would say two thirds of the class were open in their religious journey, and very much Unitarian Universalist in attitude and practice. There was acknowledgement of interest in Earth Spirituality as well. When we visitors began sharing our own backgrounds and journeys to UU and Paganism, we were among folks who could be us. They understood that we were proud to be liberal religionists, that we live our UU Principles and beliefs in our lives while at home, work, and as activists in the community. I felt these students were committed to doing good in the world, and our Principles are compatible with them. And yes, I did give them a copy of our Principles and Sources as reference materials, along with a bookmark with our UUFF address on it. UU evangelism!

So here is the tie into our Mission and its Goals – Many students are our people who just need to know we exist. We need to help them get into the wider world with Unitarian Universalism as their underlying religious community. Some of them may stay in Fayetteville, but many will leave… to go to other cities and towns to join UU churches, or at least help others find us (“Say, you sound as if you are UU, you should check them out!”). If we are going to get the “Nones,” (the religiously unaffiliated who need community but do not want to have their religion dictated to them), as UU, we need to be visible and relevant to them. Many of these Nones on campus are of diverse cultural backgrounds who need to know they have a place and people who accept them.

At the very least… maybe we can be a place that can care for and feed them regularly? Student hunger is a thing. There are many students who are on the edge financially, and soup kitchens for them is not beyond thought, or better yet, a night of food, coffee, study and relaxation in a UU setting. Other churches are hosting community meals at this time.

Here is another thought, if we become visible to the students, we are visible to the faculty who need us as well. We need them to see us too.

UUFF and our Y’ALL group, Young Adults Leading and Learning, have attracted a number of fantastic students these past few years, and we enjoy their time with us – even though we struggle to know what to do for and with them! They have such energy, but have to spend it studying and transitioning their lives from school to the world, and yes, work. Which brings up another point… on top of this student thing, there are Young Adults who WORK in our community! And they need to know we exist and have our support as well… our understanding of how to be a caring religious community for their needs as well!

I think we should ask YA students and workers what they need from a religious community like us, ask ourselves how might we do it, and do it well… so I’m asking. We have this building near campus that needs updating, but it can serve right now to introduce students and working YAs to UU, let them feel like there is a religious community who has their back. Our Y’ALL folks have been doing this for a couple of years now, by gathering to share in entertainment, food, and discussion. How can we support them, how can we do this better?

One of our mission goals is to serve as a welcoming community for liberal religionists. This takes advertising, being found, and providing a proper, consistent and appropriate venue for spiritual learning in community. We have this huge population of students and faculty right next to us to explore and welcome, as well as the cities full of working YAs all around us. I know it has been a tough sell in the past, but I see us as Y’ALL doing it right! The lessons Young Adults can teach us will help with outreach to the rest of Fayetteville as well, to those working YAs who need to know who we are.

This isn’t the only outreach we should consider, but I’m writing this so we start thinking about our mission and where it might take us. The University and Young Adults of all kinds are a possibility of mission focus, and I’d love for us to think of other goals so we can prioritize, marshal our resources, and move our mission forward! UUFF has lots of potential, really a lot that hasn’t been tapped, and I think having missional goals that we can see and feel will draw this potential out.

Like music! More music! A great missional goal… excellence in worship and spiritual development! And Young Adults love music! But that is another article and more discussion, right? Your Board in on it… looking to the future, let’s think about how wonderful it could be, and help it become.

Peace,
Jim

Rev. Jim Parrish