Social Justice - First Unitarian Church of Chicago

Social Justice/Action

The Social Justice Council

Although our “First Church” has been active in serving community needs since its founding in 1836 (e.g. during Civil War, after the Chicago Fire, city’s first soup kitchen, 1950’s Urban Renewal) the present Social Justice Council [SJC], one of three semi-autonomous church councils, was not established until about 1990. The central purpose of the SJC is to provide opportunities for church members and like-minded associates to “live out our shared values in the larger world” as affirmed in our Mission statement.

The Chair of the SJC is elected annually by the congregation and its monthly meeting attendees include its officers (Chair & Secretary), Task Force Chairs (or designates) and others who are actively involved in community organizations with a strong social justice outreach, e.g. The Hyde Park Interfaith Council.

Task Forces [TF] are groups of three or more members engaged in action or study in specific areas, either on a continuing basis or to accomplish a time-limited task then disband. Current task forces [and their chairs] are:

Environmental TF [Ellen LaRue and Jon Rice]
Nine/Eleven Study Group [Elvira Pelliterri and Jim Proctor]
Peace Action TF [Christen Morrow]
Racial Justice TF [Finley Campbell and Allan Lindrup]
Social Mission TF [Lara Tushla] a Board Task Force

Other Task Forces from the recent past or “pending” are Labor Rights, Criminal Justice, Health Care, Youth Employment, Legislative Ministry and Katrina CAREvan (active in 2006, planned and implemented two weeklong trips to New Orleans for church members & friends, including several from other UU churches, to participate in compassionate reconstruction and establish ongoing ties with the recovering UU churches there.)

The Social Justice Council also sponsors other special church wide events (a First Forum each month, the annual Unity Party, an Emancipation Proclamation Pageant), arranges the Sunday Service preceding Labor Day, and contributes to the Children’s/Youth Religious Education program.

The council welcomes all members and friends of the church to support its mission by joining an existing task force, forming a new task force, sponsoring a special social justice event, connecting us with other social justice groups in the larger world, and volunteering to assist in church activities carried out by the Council.

Ken Schug, Chair of the Social justice Council
November 2007

Racial Justice Taskforce

The Vision Statement

We envision a society which is not color blind but color appreciative, which judges human beings by the content of their character, not the color of their skin or their cultural heritage, a society which treasures human diversity in the context of the "Beloved Community."

The Mission Statement

The Racial Justice Taskforce of the Social Justice Council has three interconnected goals:

To educate our congregation and the public at large, through forums, dramatizations, sermons, classes, etc., about the ways that (the concept of) "race" and (the behaviors of) "racism" affect our lives, both in this country and around the world, in the social, economic, political, and especially the criminal justice, realms of our lives;
To carry out actions opposing racism in all its forms, including letter writing and bearing witness projects, that demonstrate the principles of multiracial unity and our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all people as the only means of bringing racism to an end;
To invite people to join us, both in and out of the church, in building the work of the Task Force to eliminate all forms of racial intolerance and to increase historical awareness of the ongoing struggle against racism.

For information on the Racial Justice Task Force's Action Plan for the current church year, and/or information on its current activities, please contact one of the task force's Co-Chairs: Allan Lindrup at 773-643-8061 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Finley Campbell at 773-752-4019 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Peace Action Taskforce

The mission of the Peace Action Task Force is to educate members of First Unitarian Church to the need for the promotion and support of peacemaking on local, national, and international levels with active involvement in anti-war, pro-peace campaigns by sponsoring forums, teach-ins, film showings and by actively supporting diplomatic solutions to the world’s conflicts. The Peace Action Task Force is committed to involving concerned members of First Unitarian in the process of infusing a multicultural and multiracial character to anti-war demonstrations and campaigns, as it is our belief that there can not be just and lasting peace unless all peoples affected directly or indirectly by conflicts and wars are involved in their peaceful solutions.

Environmental Study Group

Today assessments and predictions about our environment are gloomy, even terrifying. Reaction to the news tends to be on the one hand to do something, anything; and on the other hand to do nothing, because it looks so hopeless. So the Environmental Study Group was formed to study and reflect about the environment and our relationship to it. We turn to books, movies, lectures, discussions, direct experience, and whatever else is useful. We hope in this way to develop a vision and philosophy which will be a guide for effective and meaningful action, and living.

9-11 Study Group

This group was formed after the events of 9-11 by a number of church members who were interested in learning more about the root causes of the terrorist attacks. We began by reading about the Middle East, books such as Good Muslim, Bad Muslim by Mahmood Mamdani, and then on to readings about foreign affairs, international politics and imperialism. On our list have been The Fourth Estate by Gary Hart, Scott Ritter’s book Iraq Confidential about the search for weapons of mass destruction, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, and most recently Philippe Sands’ book about international law, Lawless World.

The group has occasionally become a task force, becoming involved in a variety of service activities. Some of us marched in anti-war and peace demonstrations, such as the ones in Chicago in 2003 and in New York last spring. We provided moral support, by being present at her trial, to a Chicago Muslim woman falsely accused of terrorism. A fundraiser was held at the home of Marge and John Saphir to foster peace in the Middle East by rebuilding Palestinian homes. We have organized special collections for various catastrophic events, such as earthquakes in various parts of the world, the genocide in Sudan, the Sunami, and the hurricane in New Orleans. We have offered support to veterans of the Vietnam war seeking a place to hold group meetings.

Over the years we have shown and attended a large number of films having to do with international politics and racism, and recently we have acquired an LCD projector and begun a film and discussion series. The first three films shown have been Syriana, The Long Road Home, and Fahrenheit 9-11. The showings have been successful, and we will be continuing the series over the course of this year.

The 9-11 Study Group meets at the home of Elvira Pellitteri at 6:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month. For further information, call: 773 955 4156.

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