c. 2008 Religion News Service

Unitarians oppose anti-gay marriage ballot measures

(RNS) Unitarian Universalists ended their annual General Assembly meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with a call to oppose ballot measures in Florida and California that would outlaw same-sex marriages.

Delegates also called for an end to what they called the “present day slavery” of undocumented immigrants.

“Our vision of justice is not limited to concern for one oppressed group,” said the Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, at a rally. “It’s a vision of justice in which all American families are valued. We say that the Beloved Community must have room for all of us.”

UUA members, who have historically been vocal advocates of progressive social justice causes, voted to oppose initiatives in Florida and California that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. California began allowing same-sex marriages on June 17.

Immigrant rights also took center stage during the five-day meeting that ended Sunday (June 29). The assembly voted to join the Alliance for Fair Food, which promotes “socially responsible” food purchasing, and endorsed the efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based advocacy group whose work focuses on improving the conditions of undocumented immigrant farmworkers.

The UUA held a “Community Witness Event” in Fort Lauderdale to raise awareness of the conditions facing predominantly immigrant farm workers. The event also focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

“We claim our identity as border-crossers,” Sinkford said. “We refuse to allow justice to be viewed as divisible. In this nation of religious, racial, sexual and ethnic pluralism, we know that our differences can be blessings, not curses.”

In addition to the resolutions supporting immigrant and gay rights, the assembly passed resolutions advocating a higher minimum wage, alternative energy sources and a single-payer national health care system, as well as opposing military engagement with Iran.

_ Tim Murphy

Angry parishioners storm out of church-closure meeting

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) With food rations and toiletries stacked on a back pew, defiant parishioners of a church scheduled for closure as part of a post-Katrina downsizing plan angrily rejected all talk of closing their parish.

But after a heated meeting on Monday (June 30), parishioners returned to their homes without seizing the church in protest, as they had said they might.

“I think we’re OK for now, but in a heartbeat we’ll let you know if we’re not,” parishioner Alden Hagardorn told more than 150 parishioners as the raucous meeting ended.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans had summoned parishioners of St. Henry Catholic Church to meet with three volunteer facilitators who were to help the church fashion new leadership as their 152-year-old parish closed and merged with two others.

But the meeting broke down within moments. The facilitators were unable to generate any discussion of the mechanics of merger; one after another, parishioners, most of them elderly, lifelong Catholics, rose to denounce the closure plan and vowed not to abandon their church.

“If I have to sit on the front step and put on a hunger strike, I’ll do it,” 85-year-old Anthony LaRocca, a parishioner for 60 years, told the facilitators. “We’re not moving, and that’s final.”

Archbishop Alfred Hughes has ordered that St. Henry be closed and merged with two nearby parishes. The archdiocese says it can no longer staff small, closely spaced parishes because of a growing shortage of priests.

But Hagardorn and other lay leaders have asked Hughes and his aides to consider alternative solutions, including a cluster arrangement in which the three parishes remain open under some kind of priest-sharing arrangement.

Hagardorn and others have said the archdiocese has refused even to acknowledge the suggestions, much less discuss them, which has infuriated parishioners all the more.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey monitored the meeting and had asked television crews to remain outside the building out of respect for the facilitators inside. But the meeting broke down when the crowd learned that cameras were being kept out. They rose and began to chant, “We want the media!” ending the hourlong session.

Parishes resisting the closure plan have until the end of the year to complete their merger, she said. Given the breakdown of the transition process, however, it was not clear what the next step will be.

_ Bruce Nolan

Quote of the Day: Actor Will Smith

(RNS) “That’s painful for me to see. I’ve met very few people committed to goodness the way Tom is. We disagree on a lot of things. … But even with different faiths and different beliefs, at the end of the day, goodness is goodness.”

_ Actor Will Smith, talking to USA Today about how actor Tom Cruise is treated because of his membership in the Church of Scientology.

KRE/PH END RNS