The UUA Partner Church Program was established in early 1990 to organize a support network of North American churches to help over 150 Unitarian churches in Transylvania, Romania recover from decades of persecution by the Ceausescu regime. Resources from abroad have been essential to keep alive the Unitarian movement in the land where it originated. In the meantime, the Partnership Program has been expanded to provide support to the Unitarian movement in Hungary, the Czech Republic, India and the Philippines.

The Partner Church Task Force here at RRUUC was established in February, 1992, when we were matched with the Unitarian Church of Fiatfalva, Romania. Eight delegations from RRUUC have visited Fiatfalva, with our former minister, Bill Murry, being in the first group.

On January 11, 2007 RRUUC established a second partnership with the Unitarian Church of Kyrdem in the Khasi Hills of Northeast India.

Recent news reports indicate that there is a sea change happening with regard to how animals are viewed. Evidence of this change is provided by the retirement of elephants from the Ringling Brothers circus and the cessation of orca breeding at Sea World. Even the shooting of Harambe the gorilla brought up the bigger question of whether he should have been in captivity in the first place. Recently President Obama signed into law some significant new restrictions on animal testing. Nearly every day now there are stories that inspire hope for a world that is safer and kinder for all types of animals. Many UUs want to be on the forefront of this movement.

The Animal Ministry group at RRUUC has been meeting since March of 2016. Our purposes are to explore the human relationship to pets, wildlife, and livestock who share our world, considering this relationship as a moral and religious issue; and engage in concrete action that bring about change on the individual, family, congregational, community, and societal level.

In addition to our own monthly meetings, we have been in contact with other Animal Ministry chapters at UU congregations and also to the national UU Animal Ministry. We plan to implement joint activities with the Animal Ministry chapter from the Columbia UU congregation, and we intend to offer programs at RRUUC that will be educational for both adults and children. We will also reach out to various animal-related organizations in our community.

As a UUA Green Sanctuary, RRUUC is committed to creating a religious community that has a fundamental, bottom-line, commitment to living in harmony with the Earth and that promotes sustainable lifestyles for its members as individuals and as a faith community.

The Environmental Task Force (ETF) focuses on education and raising RRUUC awareness about environmental justice by inspiring, facilitating and supporting personal, congregational and denominational practices that sustain the Earth and promote justice for those impacted by environmental degradation. Activities are available to fit members’ various schedules and interests

This team was created in order to support River Road’s sponsorship of refugee families through the auspices of Lutheran Social Services. In conjunction with other faith institutions, we provide the support and partnership necessary for one family at a time to find safety and sustainability as they seek asylum here in the US.

The Latin America Taskforce Network (LATN) gives expression to Unitarian Universalist principles by its support of those who seek social, political, and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean and by its humanitarian concern for refugees escaping poverty and conflicts in those regions.

We directly support economic and educational development through funding for university scholarships for high school students from Santa Marta, El Salvador. We sponsor allocations to groups working in those regions and for immigrant programs in the local area.

We also support and work with many national and international organizations to improve conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean and to heighten awareness here in the United States about these regions. These organizations include Guatemala Human Rights Campaign, LAWG, EPICA, and Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The Task Force is a supporting group of Companion Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA), a non-governmental organization located in Indianapolis, IN, that has established special working relations with 6 non-governmental organizations in El Salvador.

We work to engage our members and educate our congregation to persuade Congress and the President to take actions to improve conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our past efforts have included advocacy for the elimination of military assistance to El Salvador and Guatemala, support for the peace process in these countries, closing the School of the Americas, removing the embargo on Cuba, and immigration reform.

In 2013, RRUUC and LATN received an award from Montgomery County for its work in El Salvador and in the local community. Contact LATN at latn@rruuc.org.

RRUUC Volunteers Have Been Serving at Shepherd’s Table for More Than 20 Years!

Shepherd’s Table is a soup kitchen operated as a cooperative effort by a group of Montgomery County faith communities. Located in Silver Spring, Shepherd’s Table has been serving dinner to about 150 hungry men, women, and children every day of the year since it opened in 1983. Counseling, medical care, showers, clothing, shelter referrals, and other assistance are also provided.

Each participating congregation takes responsibility for preparing and serving meals one day each month. RRUUC is now in its twenty-third year of staffing Shepherd’s Table on the second Tuesday of the month. The team of twelve changes from month to month, giving many congregation members an opportunity to contribute their time and energy to this important activity. Each person works for about an hour and a half, with shifts starting at 5:00, 5:45, and 6:30 pm. Volunteers can come once, infrequently, or on a regular basis.

RRUUC also supports Shepherd’s Table financially through the social justice pledging process and with food from the weekly food collection. Visit the Shepherd’s Table website. Kathy and Peter Benjamin coordinate our team and they are always happy to add new volunteers to the RRUUC contingent

The goal of the Middle-East Task Force (METF) is to achieve greater understanding of this important region and its complexities and issues and through that promote peace and social justice. To achieve this end the METF:

Seeks to educate the congregation and legislators about current problems and obstacles to peace in the Middle-East;

Fosters mutual understanding among Christians, Jews, Muslims, and concerned citizens of the world;

Collaborates with coalitions, religious communities, and organizations that share similar objectives;

Supports the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations’ (UUA’s) membership in Churches for Middle-East Peace (CMEP) and Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME);

Updates members on lectures, symposiums, meetings and other events in the Washington area dealing with the Middle East; and

Forwards interesting articles on the Middle East to members.

For over a decade the Task Force has brought speakers to RRUUC with real expertise on the Middle East to talk on most of the countries and issues in the region. It has sponsored courses on understanding Islam and the history and complexities of the Israel/Palestine dispute.