Read the full issue here.

Faithful Action is a way to describe any action we take that is deeply grounded in the values of our faith. It might be protesting in the streets, serving a meal, building a house, writing a letter to the editor, visiting your elected official, or helping to launch a Unitarian Universalist Solar Garden. There are countless ways to engage in “Faithful Action.”

Here are two I hope you will consider:

1. From May 22-June 5, we’ll be hosting up to four homeless families through Families Moving Forward, a program of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. As we did last September, we will open up our church by converting our RE classrooms into bedrooms, creating sacred spaces of refuge and rest, in support of families transitioning to stable housing. We’ll serve breakfasts and dinners. Together, with our guests, we’ll practice the fragile art of hospitality. Over 100 volunteers are needed to extend this hospitality. We need your help! We still have a need for more than 40 volunteers — meal preparers, overnight hosts, and families from our congregation to spend time with our guests. Please go to our FMF SignUp  to pick your spot or stop in the Social Hall following Sunday services to talk with the coordinators and sign up.
2. First Universalist is partnering with 15 Now Minneapolis, an organization working in coalition with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, the Minneapolis NAACP, Black Lives Matter, and many others, to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr in Minneapolis. As a faith community, we are committed to paying all of our adult staff members a living wage of at least $15/hr, and we will be doing so in the new fiscal year. Raising the minimum wage city-wide is a step to begin to address some of the racial disparities in our city, and it will make a huge impact on people’s lives. In May and June, after each worship service, we are collecting signatures to get this initiative on the ballot in November. If you are a Minneapolis resident, we need your help! Please stop by the “Racial Justice/15 Now” table and add your signature to the petition!

This is what Faithful Action can look like. This is the work of our church!

In faith,
Justin

P.S. We are wrapping up our annual fundraising efforts, as we finalize the budget for 2016-2017. If you have not yet had the chance to make your annual financial pledge, you can pledge over the phone, online, or fill out a yellow pledge card in the pew holders and return it to the church office. Thanks for your support!