“You can be angry; you should be angry. But anger without organization is just venting.” – Scot Nakagawa

Each month, Side With Love (the UUA’s Organizing Strategy Team) offers The Gathering. This 90-minute session offers spiritual grounding, political analysis, and collective action. 

But what does that mean? We as UUs often use beautiful and high-minded phrases without recognizing the action needed behind those words. 

The Gathering is Side With Love’s attempt to inspire that action. Having now attended three months of these and additional congregational leadership oriented versions, I want to encourage others in our community to get on the bus! 

After each The Gathering session, I’ve left with a churning brain, actions I am ready to take, and a true sense that I’m part of a global community working for human rights and the democratic process. I am on the same page not only with a handful of family members, plenty of friends, and dozens of UUCCHC members, but with UUs and fans around the world who are fighting for human rights with faith-based principles and ACTION. 

Let me give you a sense of what to expect – I do this selfishly in the hope that I can inspire ALL of you to join the next session. The Gathering is hosted on Zoom once a month at 8 p.m. ET on the second Monday of each month. (The next one is Dec. 8 and you can register here.) You will need to register each month, however, you can do so a few minutes before they start if you forget. 

You might hear live music to start or things will kick off with a reflection and chalice lighting. A moderator will set the stage with some words centering us in the space, inviting you to reflect on your life, world events, and connections to Unitarian Universalism. Then, one or multiple speakers will share thoughts on the topic – thoughts that often include thought-provoking or inspiring quotes from themselves or other leaders. 

There is no attendee verbal participation and being on-screen isn’t required, but chat participation is engaging and encouraged. It can be a way to connect with others who share your interests, but it is always a way to connect with a broader UU population on values. 

This month, the speakers we heard from the most are the three new UU the Vote Leads. These are skilled and experienced leaders taking charge of voter mobilization and training; supporting UU volunteer leaders; and pushing high-impact voter engagement. We heard from Samm Pheiffer, India Harris of the Audre Lorde Project, and Caitlin Breedlove  – three powerful organizers with deep UU roots and organizing experience. In reflecting on current events – of the shutdown, the “deal” made by Democrats, Caitlin shared that, “If they are not going to lead, we have to lead.” This comment made me stand at attention, ready to go! She kicked off the Leads introductions and I was on edge listening to the wisdom that came from each of them.

As a lay-led congregation, it can sometimes feel like we are just a floating little church with no anchor. The Gathering has been, for me, a way to feel connected to the larger UU community. The quality of the programming completely aligned with my thoughts and values makes me so proud of my UU affiliation and the work our small-but-mighty community has done for nearly 30 years. We are NOT alone in this work. The resources available from the UUA are deep, strategic, and stand to be incredibly impactful in the coming years. For a little more than an hour a month, I’ve gotten to learn volumes about what the UUA through Side With Love is doing and how we can translate those activities to our church, our communities, and our homes. 

I’ll leave you with some of the information from the resources email the Side With Love team sends after each call, including the video recording. I encourage you to take time to look back through recent recordings, watch this week’s session, and read some of the links below. 

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If you missed us live, you can watch the recording and view the presentation slides.

As we said at The Gathering, our faith calls us to not only be part of building power for democracy, but also to stay in relationship to collectively boost morale.  Here are the next steps we invited you into: * Ground yourself. What is 1 thing you will do to tend to your spirit and regulate this week? * Amplify. What is something you will share with 3 people tomorrow?  * Tool to take back to your congregation: Prophetic Not Partisan: IRS Rules for Non-Profits Combating Fascisms Without & Within: An Organized UU Response Be sure to read our Action Center Weekly Update for specific actions you can take this week.  We publish the update every Tuesday on our Action Center.