Category: Mission

A coalition of Conference Ministers is gathering in Washington D.C. in late September for an action of witness and meetings with legislators around the plight of asylum seekers and migrants at our southern border. The key focus will be speaking out against the practice of separating children from their parents and keeping children in unsafe and inhumane conditions.

We need letters from adults and children urging our leaders to end these practices. Can you help? Instructions and a sample letter can be found here: http://bit.ly/UCCNYBorderAdvocacy

The timing is tight. I need the letters by Monday Sept. 16th (Vermont Conference UCC, 36 North Main St., Randolph, VT 05060). These letters will be joined with those collected at UCC churches around the country and then hand carried by the Conference Ministers in attendance. (Alternatively, according the website letters can be mailed directly to the UCC Office in Washington D.C. by September 20. United Church of Christ, Washington D.C. Office, c/o Susanne Breen, 100 Maryland Ave. NE, Suite 330, Washington, D.C., 20002.

In the face of such massive challenges on so many fronts, here is an action we can take together. We can make our voices heard not just singly or as one Church or one Conference but as an entire denomination. Be brave! The “least and the lost” need our voices in such a time as this.

Rev. Lynn Bujnak,
VT Conference Minister

The semi-tractor trailer truck arrived on early on Wednesday morning and Board of Outreach members Polly Sabin and Deb Utton where here to greet it and help load the 500 plus kits donated by 13 different churches around Northern and Central Vermont.

We contributed 27 hygiene kits to that number and the Board wishes to extend their appreciation to you for helping out.

350Vermont is creating a five-day, 53-mile sacred walk for climate justice, called Next Steps. Together we will celebrate solutions to the climate crisis already underway, while also grieving the pipeline, ecosystem destruction, and the ever-growing, multi-faceted injustices of the “Industrial Growth Society.” We invite you to take this journey with us to deepen our connections with each other and the land.

Our plan is to walk from Middlebury to Montpelier, April 5 to 9, 2019. Along the way, we’ll witness the pipeline’s impact on land and lives and witness the creative solutions and changes being implemented — from homesteads to solar panels, from mass transit to mass compost. When we land at the State House in Montpelier, we will escalate our call for a ban on fossil fuel infrastructure. Each day will offer unique opportunities for activism, reflection, and community-building; each day will have a focus connected to place and to healing our world and ourselves.

Why now? we’re walking because we’re in an emergency — a climate emergency, a justice emergency. We’re walking to focus this emergency both for ourselves and the broader community. At this moment, the communities along the Addison County pipeline are at risk because of safety violations by VT Gas. At this moment, legislators are not acting swiftly to pass a ban on fossil fuel infrastructure or other policies commensurate with the crisis at hand. And, also, at this moment, youth are striking across Europe, the Green New Deal is shining brightly, and people across Vermont are seeking fair and equitable alternatives.

Why this walk? especially when the crisis is so urgent? Because creating strong ties between us, the changemakers, are essential in this movement. Because we need to practice working collaboratively in challenging situations. Because we know that our collective power is stronger than our individualist pursuits. Together, we will co-create an interdependent community dedicated to collective liberation, personal transformation, and realizing and reclaiming our power. We’ll share our stories; we’ll listen to each other; we’ll engage in real dialogue and consensus process. We’ll join together in ceremony and shared meals, in silence and in song, with laughter, tears, deep friendship, and blisters.

Curious about joining? We are committed to inclusivity, and all people are welcome in building this beloved Next Steps community. You are welcome to join for one day, five days, or for as many days as you are able. If you are unable to join the walk in body, we invite you to join in spirit – in prayer, in sponsorship, in silent vigil, or in some meaningful act of solidarity. We will also have opportunities for the public to join at our Middlebury send-off, at an outdoor worship ceremony at Geprags Park, and in Montpelier for the final day of action.

Next Steps walking route:

Day 1: Middlebury to Bristol

Reunion: building community and our relationships with each other

Day 2: Bristol to Hinesburg

Resistance: bearing witness to the pipeline

Day 3: Hinesburg to Richmond

Reimagine: shifting consciousness

Day 4: Richmond to Middlesex (Through Waterbury — Monday, April 8)

Recreate: seeking solutions, alternatives, transitions

Day 5: Middlesex to Montpelier

Reform: speaking truth to power

Once again this year on Election day, November 6, you are invited to bring a food stuff donation to the polls to support the community-minded work of the Waterbury Area Food Shelf.  The polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm at the Primary School. Help spread the word!  The word from the food shelf director last week to me was that they are frighteningly low on stock or all kinds.  Your generosity is appreciated.

On October 7, after a morning service of worship that saw three choirs, three congregations and three clergy-folk converge on our church for an hour of really good worship celebrating our similarities and unity, and highlighting our important differences, we headed for the country lanes and took a three-mile walk to raise money for Church World Service and their continuing efforts to end hunger in our world.  Their work is global all while remaining local.  Indeed they live and breathe and work what we expressed on that World Communion Sunday morning, a real unity not just in spite of differences, but precisely because the range of humanity is so beautifully rich.
The weather was cool and somewhat inclement, but we had more walkers than in many years past — approximately 30 people walked!  We had folks from all three churches, plus a few more here in Waterbury, we had students from Crossett Brook Middle School and some of them brought their parents.  It was an enjoyable afternoon.  AND we raised $3221. 
Well done! and thank you to everyone who walked or donated. Your spirit is beautiful.