Congregational news

Brief congregational news items from the Fall 2012 issue.
By Donald E. Skinner And Michelle Bates Deakin
Fall 2012 8.15.12

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The Rev. Jill McAllister and the Rev. Craig Roshaven (Nancy Pierce)

The Rev. Jill McAllister, minister of People’s Church in Kalamazoo, Mich., accepted the 2012 Bennett Award on behalf of her church from the Rev. Craig Roshaven, the UUA’s Witness Ministries director. (Nancy Pierce)

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Sheltering the faith, Fall 2012 Brief news items about congregational building programs. Michelle Bates Deakin (Fall 2012)

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People’s Church, Kalamazoo, Mich. (peopleschurch.net)

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People’s Church lauded for social action

People’s Church in Kalamazoo, Mich., received the Unitarian Universalist Association’s 2012 Bennett Award for Congregational Action on Human Justice and Social Action.

“We were inspired by the depth and breadth of your ministry,” wrote the committee that selected People’s Church, a 203-member congregation engaged in more than a dozen social justice programs from non-discrimination to prison ministry to domestic violence. The church is also undertaking a major new initiative to explore multiculturalism and antiracism.

In the past ten years, the congregation has founded a Social Justice Coordinating Committee and worked with the faith-based community organizing network Gamaliel to start a local interfaith organizing network, isaac (Interfaith Strategy for Advocacy & Action in the Community). Church members are involved in isaac taskforces and have led city-wide coalitions that secured major grants for family health and for preschool education.

Other members volunteer as mentors at a local school, sponsor a support group for people just out of prison, and help prepare a weekly meal for homeless people. People’s Church is also a partner with a Transylvania congregation and a new congregation in Bujumbura, Burundi, where it supports a microlending program, advocates for the rights of indigenous people, and helps prevent the criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Phil Kramer, chair of the Social Justice Coordinating Committee, said, “Our social justice work is part of our UU values system. It’s who we are.” (See full story, 6.25.12.)

Rhubarb Fest repeated in Maine

First Universalist Church of West Parish, Maine, celebrated its second annual Rhubarb Festival in May. Warm temperatures led to an earlier than normal rhubarb harvest and prompted church members to hold the festival a week earlier this year. Among the offerings were 40 rhubarb pies; rhubarb muffins, squares, and coffee cakes; pickled rhubarb; and jams.

A press release from the church reported that, “People wait in line all decked out with every manner of pie basket and other containers to tenderly transport their rhubarb baked goods home.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit the church’s electrical and heating systems. Money from last year’s Rhubarb Festival was used to replace the church’s front steps.

This article appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of UU World (page 44).

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