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UU ministers in Ohio (such as the Rev. Christine Jones-Leavy, above) joined other religious professionals to help assuage tensions at the polls during the election. The Rev. Joan Van Becelaere, executive director of UU Justice Ohio, co-developed the non-partisan Ohio PeaceKeeper for the Polls project, which trained clergy and social worker volunteers for early voting and election day. ( New York Times, FOX8, 11/1/20)
The Rev. Jennifer Nordstrom, senior minister of FirstUnitarian Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, describes the training offered to 125 members and friends of her congregation to prepare for attempts to undermine election results. ( WisconsinExaminer, 10/29/20)
The UU Church of Norwich, Connecticut, provided buses to polling places in partnership with the NAACP. (The Bulletin, 10/31/20)
UUs appeared in several articles about “Count Every Vote” rallies around the country.The Rev. Claudia Jiménez, minister of faith development at the UU Congregation of Asheville, North Carolina, spoke at a local rally; Count Every Vote protesters also rallied on the lawn of First UU Society of Burlington, Vermont. ( WLOS, Seven Days, 11/4/20)
A story about faith leaders responding to the election quotes the Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer, lead minister of First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who said that before we can talk about healing, “we first have to get to a place of some kind of basic peace, so that the sides that are at war can communicate without continuing to cause each other harm.” The article also quotes UUA President Susan Frederick-Gray, who was “incredibly buoyed” by voter turnout. (Boston Herald, 11/7/20)
The Hill unpacks the nineteenth-century Unitarian roots of a famous statement by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which President Joe Biden invoked in his victory speech. Learn more about the abolitionist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker. (The Hill, 11/8/20)