The Social and Environmental Concerns Committee uses direct action, advocacy, and educational initiatives to promote social justice and environmental flourishing. It meets every third Sunday of the month at 12:15 pm.
Location: Thomas Room
Contact: Christina Duvander
Those interested are encouraged to attend our meetings and to participate in all activities, whether or not they choose to be regular members of SECC.
Unitarian principles commit us to:
- affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations
- the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all,
- respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
Moreover, the mission statement of our church enjoins us to “take action in the world”.
The Social and Environmental Concerns Committee (SECC) represents the principal means through which UCM works to honor these basic commitments. Among past and ongoing projects supported by SECC are those related to hunger, environment, social action, and fair trade.
The committee focuses its efforts on two major projects each church year, chosen by members in September, while also supporting initiatives which individual members may suggest from time to time. Our principal local project since 2007 has been the refugee centre at the local YMCA. Every Sunday afternoon, volunteers from SECC and the congregation go to the ”Covered Garden”, a room where volunteers and families meet to talk, play games, and get acquainted. In December and January, the whole congregation donates Christmas toys and games for children, and mountains of warm winter clothing for all ages. Each baby born at the Centre – six to date - receives a layette, chosen and presented by a SECC volunteer and purchased with money from the Sunday collection plates.
For 2007-08, our other major effort was a Study/Action project on Darfur. Members presented talks on the history and political evolution of Sudan, and the development of the Darfur catastrophe. The action project undertaken was to raise money for solar cookers for Darfuri women refugees. These solar cookers, costing $15 each, enable women to prepare family meals without having to leave the camps in search of wood, thereby subjecting themselves to the kinds of violence – rape, beating, death – that forced them to seek refuge in the first place. Congregational donations and the sale of specially designed gift cards succeeded in raising enough money to purchase more than 500 cookers for the Iridimi camp in Chad.
After carrying out a concentrated program of action and education related to the environment, the UCM gained official qualification as a Green Sanctuary in 2005, one of the first Unitarian churches in Canada to achieve this distinction. Since then, the Green Team has continued to promote environmental knowledge and sustainable choices. In 2007-08, their activities included:
- a light-hearted skit on “Buy Nothing Day”
- information and “tasting” of organic food choices
- sale of CFLs and ecofriendly (tap)water bottles
- audit of UCM’s purchasing policies re paper and cleaning products
- regular “Green Corner” columns in the Newsletter, featuring both news and practical information on topics such as biofuels, reducing waste, and “green” driving.
