I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…Take away from me the noise of your songs…but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. –Amos 5:21, 23-24
The Social Justice Committee is the central vessel through which our advocacy and accompaniment flows. We seek to engage people in putting faith into action, to practice what we preach. Beyond charity, which we also participate in through our benevolence offering each week, we seek to engage people in ministries of accompaniment — being WITH and LED BY those who suffer from situations of social injustice rather than doing TO or FOR them. At its core, our ministry is about relationships. We also seek to educate ourselves and others about current issues of social injustice through bringing in speakers and using our Sunday liturgy to lift up these issues.
Meeting Times
FIRST SUNDAY EVERY MONTH, after service (12 noon – 1:15 PM). We welcome all newcomers! During COVID-19, all meetings are via Zoom. Contact the church office if you’d like to be connected to the committee chair.
Current Initiatives
The University Church board voted at its July 12 meeting to endorse the CPAC and #PoliceFreeSchools campaigns. You can read the letter the Social Justice Committee and Black Lives Matter-UChurch prepared for the board here.
CPAC: The Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) is a legislative reform proposal currently in the Chicago City Council’s Public Safety committee. This proposal would create a democratically elected group with the sole purpose of ensuring police in Chicago are accountable to the citizens they serve. Here’s a great introduction from Block Club Chicago. CPAC Teach-In Wednesday, August 5, 2020.
#PoliceFreeSchools: This coalition is working to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by removing CPD officers from Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Board of Education recently voted not to cancel the existing contract with CPD, but must vote again in August to decide whether to renew the same contract for next year. Read more about this debate in the Sun-Times, and see also the summary of research that a church member prepared here for more background on why the coalition believes police officers do not belong in CPS. #PoliceFreeSchools Teach-In Wednesday, August 12, 2020.
Ongoing Social Justice Initiatives at University Church
- Fair Trade Treats
Need coffee, tea, chocolate, almonds, cocoa? Stop by the Fair Trade table during coffee hour several Sundays each month where we are selling Equal Exchange Products — goods that protect the environment and workers. We sell Fair Trade because it is a faithful alternative to our present economic system.
Latest Social Justice News & Activities (see below)
We are inviting all of you to consider being a part of a delegation from University Church to attend this year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days March 23-26 in Washington, DC. Our delegation will be joining with hundreds of other people from across the country addressing issues that relate to social justice and our response as Christians. […]
by Barb Havens I don’t have statistics regarding this, but I’m sure that North Americans are the largest consumers in the world. Consumption is our middle name — from food to clothes to televisions to computers to EVERYTHING. For most of my life I purchased those goods without any thought of the source of those goods and […]
by the Angola Partnership Group We have received a letter of appreciation from Rev. Jose and Eva Chipenda acknowledging the impact of our University Church partnership with IECA (Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola. As forwarded to Rev. Jorge Morales, the Conference Minister of the Illinois Conference–UCC, we also want to share it with everyone at […]
University Church has a long history of commitment to international partnerships that reflect our mission “to act for justice and to respect creation” by reaching out to brothers and sisters in Christ beyond our immediate community and nation. For a decade now, University Church has been in partnership with the Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola […]
I went this year thinking it would be my last. I didn’t expect much from the weekend. I went to put closure on something into which for ten years I had invested myself. It had felt as though interest at University Church had waned; it was time for me to find something more local to […]
In his April 10 sermon, Pastor Julian distinguished between actions done for people (disempowering), to people (paternalistic), and with people (accompaniment). Starting on May 1, the Social Justice Committee began an 8-part series at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday in the University Church library to look at the wider church’s understanding of mission as accompaniment. Part […]
