justworks

The  Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is excited to be partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti for seminarians, May 24-31. In the post below, participant Dennis Reynolds shares his thoughts on the journey.

The day was done. We sat in a circle. A dozen seminarians and staff — seekers of a new way of being in community — in community with each other and with the people of this land. Our circle was a check-in, a time for each of us to process aloud key impressions of the day.

In the midst of our sincere sharing, we heard the sound of loud music. It seemed a party had begun here at the MPP training center. We finished our sharing, and after consultations and a bit of pleading to the hesitant, we proceeded together toward the party.

We found the large open-air, main classroom at the training center filled with very loud Haitian rock. We UUs were not wallflowers — we entered the darkened room and danced! Paired with each other and with the people of this community, we danced. American students, the two Brazilian agronomists, and Haitians danced.

From diverse backgrounds and scattered homes, we shared smiles and laughter and we moved to one rhythm, one beat, one common aspiration.

Though the music was too loud to my ear and the humid heat too warm, I danced; we all danced.

The  Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is excited to be partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti for seminarians, May 24-31. In the post below, participant Norm Horofker shares his thoughts on the journey.

Sometimes, particularly when time is limited, you find yourself making judgments based on first impressions of people.

Last night and most of today, we were in the company of Father Chavannes (the title is honorific). Father Chavannes founded the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) in 1973.

 He spoke to us in broken English and through a translator. His voice is rich and deep, and he is quick to laugh.

After dinner last night, Father Chavannes told us of the early days of his work. He spoke with passion about the challenge of dealing with the fatalism and superstition of the peasants. If the crops failed because of lack of rain, it was God’s will. Irrigation, for example, was an attempt to circumvent the will of God and was thus pointless.

The problems we are witnessing — the poverty, the people displaced by the earthquake, the lack of infrastructure — are overwhelming.

But today we traveled with Father Chavannes and heard in detail about his irrigation projects and sustainable gardening. 

Later, we met two families displaced by the earthquake who will be moving into the houses that we were helping to build. 

The impression of the projects and the sincerity and power of Father Chavannes made a strong impression. Father Chavannes is doing God’s work. I have no doubt that first impressions will be validated.

Due to a sudden illness, UUA President Rev. Peter Morales will not be joining the UUA-UUSC contingent in Haiti. Instead, the Rev. Eric Cherry, the UUA’s international resources director, has posted this message from Haiti.

There is a palpable feeling of blessing and gratitude among the service learners who have gathered together for the UUA-UUSC joint JustWorks trip to Haiti. We arrived in Haiti’s Central Plateau on Tuesday after a long day of travel from many parts of the U.S. and began our shared journey with a meal, a time of spiritual focus, and introductions.

The 10 Unitarian Universalist seminarians on the trip are from five theological schools, bringing incredibly varied skills and experiences with them. Very shortly after arriving, it became clear that they were ready to get “down to business,” not only taking care of each other and engaging in service work, but beginning the theological reflection work that is integral to our experiential learning model.

Our day of service included reaming ground on an eco-village project that will ultimately provide 40 Haitian refugee families with an environmentally sustainable home and field for farming. We spent the day with Haitian workers laying the foundations for two of these homes, singing, learning work songs and hymns, and forming relationships.

After the workday was over, the seminarians were joined by nine institutional partners also taking part in the service trip. Representing the UUSC were Bill Schulz, Brock Leach, and John Gibbons. From the UUA were Gini Courter, Dea Brayden, and myself, along with Ned Wight of the UU Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, Lee Barker of Meadville Lombard Theological School, and Thomas Smith of Starr King School for the Ministry.

The gathered community thus became a unique body of organizational representatives as well as seminarians, all with a stake in the experiential learning model being provided. UUA President Peter Morales intended to participate as well, but was unable to join the trip due to illness.

In the evening, two seminarians presented theological reflection pieces to the gathered community, demonstrating the deeply spiritual nature of the experience, as well as the learning that is taking place. Awe bookended the day in faith, and we look forward to the opportunities tomorrow will bring.

Due to a sudden illness, UUA President Rev. Peter Morales will not be joining the UUA/UUSC contingent in Haiti. Instead, the Rev. Eric Cherry, the UUA’s International Resources director, is traveling to Haiti with the group.

In response to last year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) continue to work together to support recovery for all Haitians, especially those overlooked by mainstream aid. We are grateful and proud of Unitarian Universalists everywhere who have helped the people of Haiti rebuild their lives.

Our latest effort is happening now as the UUA and UUSC launch an experiential learning journey to Haiti’s Central Plateau. This UUA-UUSC joint trip allows participants to be part of the UUSC’s unique model of work – eye-to-eye partnerships – through a hands-on building project that will provide new homes for 40 Haitian families.

As we write this, ten Unitarian Universalist seminary students – thanks to the generosity of UUA donors – are on their way to Haiti. They will be providing meaningful service and assistance to UUSC’s partner Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), as part of UUSC’s Haiti Volunteer Program. This reflects our conviction that all those preparing for our ministry should have experience in the developing world. MPP has planned an eco-village for families fleeing the destruction in Port-au-Prince, one that MPP’s Executive Director Chavannes Jean-Baptiste says will provide not just shelter but a means of livelihood from cultivating the land.

Truly, this is faith in action. The seminary students chosen to take part in this program are building not just houses, but a multicultural understanding that is vital to their calling as ministers in the modern world. We are honored to join them, and to have the opportunity to meet with some of the UUSC’s social justice partners in Haiti, as we continue to build a strong relationship between the UUA and UUSC for future social-justice collaborations.

We invite you to follow our on-the-ground updates through UUA and UUSC websites, where we and the students will reflect on how this transformative journey connects to the basic tenets of UU faith and ministry. The group will post on the UUA’s Faith Without Borders blog and the UUSC’s JustWorks blog.

Unitarian Universalism has always been a faith of action and compassion, working for justice, and this JustWorks experiential learning journey exemplifies those convictions. We urge you to take time to follow along as this story unfolds.

In peace,

The Rev. Peter Morales                 The Rev. William Schulz
UUA President                                  UUSC President

The  Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is excited to be partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti for seminarians, May 24-31. In the post below, participant Kye Flannery, a student at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., shares her thoughts on embarking on the journey to help rebuild the homes and lives of earthquake survivors in Haiti.

I’ve been a humanist Unitarian Universalist since about 1997, though I didn’t know it at the time. I did know the UU church felt like home, as I found my adolescent ideas of God as authority and judge were no longer big enough or complicated enough to fit the complexity of my reality. I found myself much more concerned with how humans ought to treat each other than with notions of incontrovertible truth. Committed to walking this path made of questions, I recognized that some part of me is a minister, called to be present to the questions others carry.

This year has covered a crazy spectrum of learning for me. I’ve moved from the mechanics of community organizing to socially engaged Buddhism to the effects of religious law on women’s lives around the world. One of the most exciting things has been the work Harvard Divinity School is doing toward creating a seminary experience that builds our commitment to anti-oppression work, while exploring the true meaning of religious plurality.

All of these things awoke my interest in development and humanitarian aid work. Constructing sustainable living spaces in Haiti will help me to understand more fully what a UU model of development work looks like, and what anti-oppression work looks like in a humanitarian context.

In the last 10 years, as I continued to ask the question of how we might treat each other humanely, I’ve begun to learn more about Buddhism. Mindful presence is the core of this belief system, and in Haiti, I hope to see, to attend, to acknowledge, to ask. Still, my friend Matt asked me why I didn’t just donate my airfare to an organization already doing work in Haiti. I don’t have a satisfactory answer. What good can I do with my presence?

I have done mission work in the past, in places facing abject poverty and religious conflict, and I have more questions than answers about how to reach out in love from a place of privilege. The Zen Peacemakers offer three tenets, however, which may give me a roadmap for responsible presence. The first is Not-Knowing, the second Bearing Witness, and the third, Loving Action.

I attend First Parish Cambridge UU, a church which offers space for my Buddhist approaches to questions of everyday living, as well as opportunities to engage in justice work. One of our institutional partners is the Haitian Coalition of Somerville, a grassroots organization doing justice work with the sizable Haitian community in Boston, which has done its own aid trips to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. In Haiti, I will witness. I will act with love. That is all I can say for certain.