Media roundup: UU astronomer passes Pluto

Media roundup: UU astronomer passes Pluto

A weekly guide to stories about Unitarian Universalists from other media sources.

Rachel Walden

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As Pluto made headlines thanks to NASA's New Horizons mission, so did the Unitarian Universalist who first discovered the dwarf planet. A profile of Clyde Tombaugh notes how his spiritual life connected with his work life as he shared his love of the universe in speeches to the congregation he help to found, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, New Mexico.(Maclean’s - 7.13.15)

NBC News spoke to Tombaugh's children, and you can see parts of the beautiful stained glass window commemorating his life behind them in the photos. (NBC News - 7.7.14)

More on Tombaugh:

“The cosmic legacy of Las Crucen who discovered Pluto” (Las Cruces Sun-News - 7.12.15)

"He found a planet and founded a church" ( UU World- Fall 2005)

UUs tackling racism locally

The Rev. Dr. William Barber notes that Unitarian Universalists joined last Monday’s mass moral march for voting rights in Winston Salem, North Carolina, in memory of civil rights martyr and UU minister the Rev. James Reeb. Barber called Monday’s march a modern-day Selma. (MSNBC - 7.12.15)

Also in North Carolina, the Rev. Robin Tanner of the Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlotte is working with the Rev. Anthony Smith to initiate a community discussion about the origin and meaning of a confederate statue located in the city of Salisbury. (Salisbury Post - 7.8.15)

Jeanne and Don Wright represented Nature Coast Unitarian Universalists of Citrus Springs, Florida, in a protest outside a local government complex in Ocala. They hoped to keep local leaders from replacing a confederate flag hanging out front after it was removed by an earlier protester. (The Gainesville Sun - 7.11.15)

More than 90 clergy came together after a fire was set outside of the College Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event was a show of solidarity and kicked off a "Week of Righteous Resistance" nationwide. Nearly three dozen members of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville turned out for the event. (Knoxville News Sentinel - 7.13.15)

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