Urban Disciples

Justice in the Metropolis

The Next Stage of Urban Social Ministry

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 12:15 - 1:30 PM in Ft. Lauderdale.

Over the past two decades we have seen what used to be called “the urban crisis” (urban = inner city) become “the metropolitan crisis”. Older suburbs today experience many of the changes that central cities experienced in the 1960s and 70s: changing populations, loss of Main Street businesses, declining tax bases, and job loss. Many Unitarian Universalist congregations are located in cities and inner suburbs. Urban social justice is a metropolitan concern.

This will be a small working lunch, not a large meeting. It will not appear in the General Assembly Program. We must know in advance whether you will join us on Thursday, June 26, 12:15 - 1:30 PM. If you have received an invitation, please respond by June 12th. If you have not received an invitation and would like to attend, email Rev. Tony Johnson. apjohnson@uuma.org.

We will be meeting outside the port security zone!

Aisha Khadr, Urban Disciple and Director of Religious Education, 1st UU Essex (Orange, NJ) Community Quiliting Party, Spring 2005

An alliance of Unitarian Universalist ministries answering the city's cry for justice and restoration by:

Developing and sharing economic, political, and theological resources;
Organizing in local, national, and interfaith settings;
Advancing diverse models for effective, accountable social change ministries both lay and ordained, with long-term sustainability.

Why Disciples? We are answering a call. We are students of our urban contexts. We seek to engage the calls of the spirit and the work of our ministries in disciplined ways.

The Urban Disciples, Denver, Nov 2004 Front: Deborah Holder, Alma Crawford, Kate Lore, Kay Jorgensen, Carmen Barsody Back: Gregg Dietz, Kurt Kuhwald, Parisa Parsa, Dan Robinson, Tony Johnson

Each ministry is growing the impact and presence of Unitarian Universalism in key urban areas to realize our values through enacting them in the world, thus expanding both their understanding of the values and carrying the Unitarian Universalist name into areas where it has not yet been known. Each ministry has experienced some level of growing diversity within the congregations funded, as well as a high level of participation between congregational members and the social justice ministries done in their name.

We hope that by increasing the number and frequency of denominational conversations about this work, and by producing our own written contribution to it, more UU's will become involved in social change work through their urban congregations. Each project has involved UU's in social change work in its own setting in creative and sustained ways.

Cover of the Urban Disciples 2005 Edition, Theology and Parxis in the Veach Urban Social Justice Ministry Project. © Urban Disciples.

The final edition of Urban Disciples 2006 will be released at the June 2006 General Assembly and will include new theological essays on Suffering, Evil, and Solidarity.