Personal Opinion Letters and Essays are Invited for the FIA Bulletin

A major theme of the first issue of the FIA Bulletinwas our church’s statement of conscience opposing unilateral preventivewar in Iraq. Because of this statement, Faith in Action was able to speak forthe church on this issue and we worked hard to make our congregational voteknown to the press and our congressional representatives.

Shortly after the first issue of the FIA Bulletin was published in mid-March,our country attacked Iraq without seeking final approval from the United Nations.By the time the second issue was published in June, President Bush had declaredvictory in Iraq and our country was in the throes of trying to “win thepeace.” Consequently, the theme of the second issue was speaking to (notfor) the congregation on issues of peace, civil liberties and social justice.

As we approach publication of the third issue of the FIA Bulletin in September,the goal is to expand congregational participation in discussing these issues.It is important for us to understand each other’s diverse views. To helpus do this, I would like to invite the members of our congregation to submitmaterial for possible publication in future issues. Essays, letters, poems,photographs, and other original documents expressing the personal opinions ofchurch members on issues of peace, civil liberty and social justice will beconsidered on a space available basis. Letters and essays may be edited forpurposes of space or clarity. Further details about submitting material forpossible publication may be found in the most recent version of the FIA Bulletin,which can be found at http://www.uusm.org/fia0603.pdf.

The deadline for submission of original material for the next issue of theFIA Bulletin is September 1. Material may be sent to me bye-mail at chaskell@ucla.edu or placedin the Faith in Action box in the church office. Won’t you join our growinglist of authors?

Won’t you share your views, so we can learn from each other?

Charles M. Haskell
Chair, Faith in Action Commission

Lessons Learned at General Assembly

I'm pleased to report that our Faith in Action program was part of a workshopon social action at GA entitled "Outreach Times Three." The workshop was moderatedby the Rev. Karen Stoyanoff of Orange Coast Church in Costa Mesa, with presentationsby Deena Tuttle of San Diego, Marilyn Giss of Costa Mesa, and me (see photograph).

I was particularly impressed by the innovative social action program describedby Marilyn Giss. She described a model developed in Costa Mesa to commemoratethe 50th anniversary of the founding of their church. The congregation was challengedto increase involvement in social action. They called their program the "50-50-50program" because it called for congregants to commit to volunteering 50 hoursof community service and 50 additional dollars to charity for that commemorativeyear, with the dollar contribution to be matched by the church. Their goal wasto coax 50 of their 240 congregants to participate. The program was so successfulthat 70 congregants volunteered, and the church hired a part-time paid staffmember to manage the volunteer effort. To cover the cost of the paid staff member,the church also competed successfully for $6,000 of financial assistance fromthe UU Social Responsibility Fund.

The lessonfrom the Costa Mesa presentation is that UU congregations may be very generousif you provide appropriate opportunities and the right incentives. Our experiencein Santa Monica with our Generous Congregation Program strongly supports thisconclusion. Since we started donating 15% of each Sunday collection to charity,the net collection for our church, after deducting the 15%, has actually increased.

On September 26 we'll have our fourth annual FIA issues election. We'll reviewthe overall status of our Faith in Action program and will vote to prioritizepotential issues for the future. Personally, I'm hopeful we can develop supportfor our own version of a "50- 50-50" program. Wouldn't it be wonderful becomingeven more deeply involved in our community through more volunteer service andmore charitable giving?

-Charles Haskell Chair, Faith in Action Commission