District 3 Councilman Chris Ward
By Mario A. Cortez
This week a local church opened up its door as a safe space for members of the community facing the threat of deportation.
First Unitarian Universalist Church in Hillcrest held a press conference at its campus to announce its decision to become a sanctuary congregation for immigrants who are at risk of being deported from the United States.
The new “sanctuary congregation,” as the arrangement is dubbed, will offer a place to stay for those who have an active order of deportation and undergoing hearings, provided that they have legal representation. The church hopes that by providing a place to stay for immigrants facing their process that the respective legal processes can happen at an adequate pace and not be rushed.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
The Unitarian Universalist Church in Vineyard Haven meets online. Sam Moore
In the days after the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, it seemed a good idea to gather with and listen to what some Islanders were feeling and thinking, so I joined the Unitarian Universalist Church’s online service on Sunday, Jan. 10. As always, they were welcoming and warm with introductions and greetings. I have to say even though we aren’t all gathering in places of worship, it was nice to visit online and to see all those smiling faces.
The guest speaker that Sunday was Dr. David Martin, someone I had heard before and so I knew the discussion would be interesting. Martin was there in 1961 when Unitarians and Universalists voted to merge; he was a seminarian, and guarded the ballot box, Peter Palches explained at the opening of the service.
David Gardiner - Buddhist
David Gardiner is an associate professor in the Colorado College Religion department, specializing in Buddhism and religions of China and Japan, and is co-founder and director of BodhiMind Center.Â
âPoliticalâ refers to actions well beyond the activities of elected officials, to include all good work that members of a community do to enhance one anotherâs lives. Thus, âall politics is local.â I pray for more sincere, deep listening. What we hear is conditioned by the sources we choose for information, from electronic and print media to the people with whom we speak. We all have some power to impact our choice of sources to diversify what we can learn. Moreover, we have a responsibility to practice deep listening by temporarily suspending judgment so we can truly learn to understand how other people experience this vast world. I pray that our minds become more still, our ears listen more fully and our hearts expand in compassion
FILE - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his I Have a Dream speech during the March on Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963. A new documentary âMLK/FBI,â shows how FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used the full force of his federal law enforcement agency to attack King and his progressive, nonviolent cause. That included wiretaps, blackmail and informers, trying to find dirt on King. (AP Photo/File)
There is still work to do in achieving the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of more than 50 years ago, Valley clergy and activists say, as they view present-day upheaval in Washington and protests in American cities following violent police encounters with blacks.
rsmith@tribtoday.com
Staff photo / R. Michael Semple
Lea Dotson of Warren, one of the founders of IVote Black, a political organization formed in Warren in 2020 that focuses on making sure political leaders and organizations work on issues affecting black communities and their progress, stands by the gazebo at Courthouse Square.
Work still needs to be done to achieve the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of more than 50 years ago, Valley clergy and activists say, as they view present-day upheaval in Washington and protests in American cities following violent police encounters with blacks.
That work, they note, entails putting people in office and holding them accountable to the black community, working for policy changes, involving youth in local discussions and addressing covert racism.