The Faithful Action Council at First Universalist Church guides our ministry of Faithful Action. The Council provides opportunities for church members and friends to act with humility, courage, and compassion as we work for justice. We act with a racial justice lens, through community partnerships, as we address systemic inequity and create positive change through education, advocacy, direct service, and generosity.

A Community Partnership is a relationship between First Universalist and an organization that shares our vision of love and justice. We work through Community Partnerships in order to leverage energy, commitment, and expertise. We share our resources in service of the organization’s vision. First Universalist currently has six Community Partners: Augsburg Fairview Academy, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, EMERGE, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, Simpson Housing Services, and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Each partnership is led by a congregant Team Lead at First Universalist and supported by a group of dedicated volunteers.

If you are interested in submitting an application for a new Community Partner in which you will be the Team Lead, please plan to attend this informational session:

Info Session: Community Partner Applications for 2018-2019 Year
Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, 10:30-11 a.m. (between services) in the Cummins Room

New and renewing partnership applications for the 2018-2019 year are due April 1 to the church office. More details can be found on our Community Partnerships page.

First Universalist Church will be hosting families from Beacon’s Families Moving Forward August 20 through September 3. During this time, we provide shelter, meals, and comfortable sleeping quarters for families in transition, allowing them to concentrate their energies on finding affordable housing and employment that will sustain them.

The set-up team of volunteers transforms the Religious Education rooms from classrooms to bedrooms, complete with matching sheets, toiletry items, soft lighting and flowers on the table. Families of all configurations arrive at our church around 5:45 p.m. each evening, share a meal with us prepared by volunteers, and engage in activities ranging from family games to age specific activities for children. As our guests prepare to depart at 6:30 a.m. each day, they are greeted by our overnight hosts and offered breakfast.

Your presence matters! We need approximately 60 volunteers each week. Each night we ask for 3 volunteers to prepare the dinner meal, 3 volunteers to engage in evening activities, and 2 volunteers to spend the night (comfortable beds and the opportunity to sleep are provided). We need 12 volunteers to engage in transforming the classrooms to bedrooms and then return them to classrooms at the end of the stay.

Please know that you can be creative in your service. Volunteers have offered to wash sheets from “accidents’ mid-week, prepare a hot breakfast on Saturday morning when our guests can stay longer, or scramble to rearrange a bedroom as one family transitions out and another comes in mid-week.

This is multi-generational hospitality! Families from our congregation have had wonderful experiences spending the evening, whether it be meal prep and/or evening activities. We have observed 10-year olds helping 6-year olds read, 13-year olds turning fingernails and toenails into works of art, 60-year olds and 14-year olds orchestrating a full-blown game of kickball. Come one, come all!

We welcome all people interested to visit the table in the Social Hall following services on Sundays, Aug. 6 and 13. Volunteers can sign up directly online here.

Update Jan. 12: our buses are full! We’re glad so many will be joining us! If you want to meet up with us there, we’ll be holding UU banners in parking lot E of the St. Paul College Parking Lot, along with other UU churches.

On Saturday, Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration, we’ve arranged for buses to take a group to St. Paul for the Women’s March in Minnesota!

For complete details and to reserve your seat on the bus, please register through the Eventbrite page here.

Meet at First Universalist Church at 8:45 a.m. We’ll gather in the sanctuary for singing, introductions, and important information. Buses will leave from the First Universalist Church parking lot at 9:45 a.m., and will arrive at St. Paul College by 10:30 a.m., where we’ll gather with other UUs and march to the Minnesota State Capitol together. All are welcome, including people of all gender identities and children.

Suggested donation: $10 per individual, $20 per family. Larger donations welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

As Unitarian Universalists, we believe in the power of love, the imperative to dismantle systems of oppression, the worth and dignity of every human being, and our fundamental interconnection with all existence. In support of these values , we join with our siblings from around the state to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The March will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world, that women’s rights are human rights.

“We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families – recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.”
– Mission Statement of the Women’s March on Washington and in Minnesota

On January 21, the day after the inauguration, Revs. Jen Crow and Ruth MacKenzie will be heading to Washington D.C. to join the Women’s March on Washington. Rev. Elaine Aron Tenbrink will be joining the march here in Minnesota. March organizers write: “In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.” read more

At its February meeting, the Faithful Action Leadership Council (FALC) identified seven community organizations – each of which shares First Universalist’s mission and values – as official Faithful Action Partners for the 2016-17 church year. First Universalist and congregants will have opportunities to work with these organizations on direct service and advocacy throughout the year.

read more

On Sunday, Feb. 21, we celebrated the success of our 2015 Holiday Giving project and presented a check for $64,884.38 to this year’s recipient, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. Redefining our relationship with the holidays allowed us to make the spiritual choice to redirect half of our holiday spending to values-based giving. Together, our gifts will have a life-changing impact on the people Beacon serves. Thank you so much to all of our members and congregants for their generosity!

PHOTO: Rev. Justin Schroeder and Rev. Jen Crow presented our congregation’s generous holiday gift to Lee Blons (Executive Director of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative) and Michael Dahl (Advocacy Coordinator, Beacon Citizens) during services on Sunday, Feb. 21.

First Universalist works through external organizations like Habitat for Humanity to act on our racial justice and faithful action values in the community. The newly formed Faithful Action Leadership Council (FALC) is excited to announce the new partnership application process for First Universalist members wanting to lead a partnership with a community organization. read more

We invite you and your family to join us as we continue our spiritual tradition of re-imagining the holidays. Redefining our relationship with the holidays allows us to make the spiritual choice to redirect half of our holiday spending to values-based giving. As a congregation, we can have a dramatic, collective impact on our community.

Two years ago we worked together to support “The House That Love Built” through Habitat for Humanity. This year we are partnering with Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative to expand the ways we can give the gift of home. Our goal is to raise $70,000 as a congregation.

The mission of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative:
“Inspired by social justice and guided by our many faiths, creating homes for those in need, building community for all.”

During the months of November and December 2015, we look forward to sharing your ideas about re-imagining the holidays along with communicating many of the specific projects of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative.

At our Sunday, Dec. 20 service, we will be giving our gifts together as a faith community to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative.

You can make your gift online here. 

Flexibility, hospitality, generosity, and letting go of expectations were the spiritual practices at work last week (Sept. 6-13) as we had the joy of welcoming five families experiencing homelessness into a safe place to stay at our church. Hundreds of volunteers sprang into action to turn classrooms into bedrooms, to prepare and host meals, provide evening activities, fund our supplies, and spend the night with our guests. Infants, children, and teenagers – along with their parents – made our social hall and classrooms their home. We hosted a birthday party, made arts and crafts, and had a Labor Day picnic and barbecue. After our guests left on Sunday, we found this note:

We were truly blessed by this experience, and we can’t wait to do it again. Keep an eye out for information on our next Families Moving Forward hosting week and how you and your family can get involved.

Come see ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot Our Youth Movement’ here at church.

It’s a documentary filmed in Ferguson on the day of Michael Brown’s funeral, by Ralph Crowder III. We’ll be screening it on Tuesday, March 24th at 6:30 in the Social Hall, and you will have a chance to meet the filmmaker.

Contrasting with the mainstream media coverage and speculation of the events leading up to his death, you will see, hear and feel the perspective of African Americans there about how he died.

Have you struggled with talking to friends, family or co-workers about how we at First Universalist are beginning to understand how racism really works? Invite them to join you for the film. Because the film deals with a widely covered event, it will help deepen your conversations with them about the white privilege that most of us have been so blind to.