Celebrate!
Welcome to the New Year—for those of us who celebrate on January 1st, and also for those the Muslim New Year (Jan. 9th). Hope you are off to a great start on the year, and that the months to come will be full of fun and learning. Speaking of fun and learning, click on the links below to find out about how you can celebrate holidays from around the world.
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We Honor… |
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| All the Unitarian Universalists who participate in the creation of resolutions. Well, not New Year’s resolutions, exactly, but not entirely different. For New Years, people often make resolutions, a commitment to do something differently in the coming year. But Unitarian Universalists as a whole make resolutions each summer at the UU General Assembly, the annual meeting at which UUs gather to worship, learn, play and…vote. Rather than being resolutions to change something in our personal lives, these resolutions made at General Assembly have to do with resolving to make the world a better place. There are two different kinds of resolutions. Congregations around the US are able to propose topics for Study/Action Issues. As you might guess, Study/Action Issues are topics that UU congregations agree to learn about and then take some kind of action on. Delegates to General Assembly vote on which of the proposed topics they think we should take up. Each Study/Action Issue gets four years, so it’s a pretty big commitment. Our current Study/Action Issue is Peacemaking.
The other kind of resolution that gets voted on at General Assembly (GA) is called an Action of Immediate Witness. These are issues that people feel are too urgent or of-the-moment to wait for the whole process for a Study/Action Issue. Delegates can gather signatures at GA to get the issue they’re concerned about on the list for everyone to consider. Every issue that gets enough signatures comes before the big group at GA (called a plenary session). There the delegates discuss and debate and maybe change the language and eventually vote on whether the statement of Immediate Witness is something that speaks for us as UUs as a whole. You can find out more about the 2007 Actions of Immediate Witness, as well as the whole process described above here.
Through these two processes, UUs as a group can resolve to make changes that are bigger than what any one of us can do alone. |
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Act!
Since our current UU Study/Action, our all-of-us-as-UUs resolution, is peacemaking, you might want to personally resolve to try being a peacemaker. You can be a peacemaker at home and at school by using “I statements,” and encouraging other people to do so as well. Remember, “I statements” say how you feel, and ask for what you want. So, instead of saying “You’re so selfish! You never let me have a turn with the ball!” you could say “I feel hurt and left out when I don’t get a turn with the ball. Can we work out a way to share?” Peacemakers practice listening, and work to make sure that everyone gets a turn to be heard.
If you want to find some great peacemaking resources online, have a look here. |
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Nurturing Your Spirit
In January we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian minister who practiced non-violent resistance—changing the world without hating or trying to hurt the people whose actions he opposed. King was inspired to this way of non-violence by Mohandas Ghandi, the great Indian leader who used the Hindu idea of ahimsa, non-violence toward all beings, as the foundation of his work for the freedom of the people of India.
Practicing non-violence can be a very powerful way of changing the world, and of changing your own feelings and ways of looking at the world. One spiritual practice that helps to put you in a non-violent frame of mind is to do a peace meditation. The more often you do it, the more you train your mind, heart and spirit to react in non-violent, peaceful ways. You can find a nice peace meditation here (scroll down to the bright pink box for the meditation itself. |
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Practicing the Principles
Our Unitarian Universalist First Principle of affirming “the inherent worth and dignity of every person” means that we believe that every person is important, regardless of what color their skin might be, or whether they are male or female, rich or poor, or any other category you could put people into. If you think about it, our first principle is really the foundation for peacemaking, because when we truly believe that each and every person is important then we will need to act in ways that honor everyone. It doesn’t really make sense to treat someone violently at the same time that you are honoring the fact that they are a special, one-of-a-kind part of our shared universe.
For a fun way for your family or group to learn about and practice our first principle, Click here for the In-HEREnt Worth Game. |
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