The March special collection raised $570 for JUUstice WA, which strives to inspire, educate, empower, and nurture the capacity of Unitarian Universalists (UUs), as well as our community allies, to collaboratively advocate for and undertake social and environmental justice initiatives. They support legislative change that aligns with our UU values in Washington state and beyond.
Our next special collection will be during the service on Sunday, May 16 to raise money and awareness for Circle Faith Future, an organization chosen by the WUUC youth group. Circle Faith Future provides a healing presence to organizations and communities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho by offering chaplaincy, presentations, workshops, crisis intervention, and/or local conversations addressing climate change, incarceration, poverty, trauma, racism and healing. One of their programs, the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition, seeks to provide quality, innovative, and stable programming and services to court-involved youth. Their motto is “listen, listen, love, love” which supports their core values of listening, cultivating community, anti-racism awareness, and practices of peacemaking.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
By John Hilke The Declaration of Independence talks of inalienable rights – inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some might take these as natural rights or “God given” rights. Another wording might be the right to vital participation in the context of reality.
We are all familiar with human rights as a term defining natural rights for humans. The term “rights of nature” might be less familiar, but it has similar roots. Wikipedia identifies rights of nature as a legal and jurisprudential perspective that describes inherent rights associated with things like ecosystems and species, similar to the concept of human rights.
Proponents argue that laws grounded in rights of nature direct humanity to act appropriately and in a way consistent with modern, system-based science, which recognizes that humans and the natural world are fundamentally interconnected. Proponents of rights of nature argue that, just as human rights have been recognized increasingly in law, so should the rights of other natural systems be recognized and incorporated into human ethics and laws.
This claim is underpinned by two lines of reasoning: 1) the ethics that justify human rights, also justify nature’s rights, and, 2) the survival of humans depends on the health of systems of which we are a part.
Thomas Barry, and many others, have contributed to the understanding and acceptance of the rights of nature, a concept that has critical resonance with the cultural, religious, and ethical precepts of indigenous peoples globally.
Rights of Nature laws increasingly are being adopted in various jurisdictions, some by treaty with indigenous nations and some independently. Wikipedia puts the count of such jurisdiction to date (2021) at 17 nations (including Canada), plus dozens of U.S. cities and First American Indian Nations.
As a result, a record of associated judicial ruling under these laws is developing in which natural ecosystems are given standing by the court and can be legally represented in disputes with individual or corporate entities.
John Hilke for WUUC’s Advocates for Social Justice Climate Justice Ministry, John Hartman, Chair. Many thanks to Chuck Fowler for reviewing an earlier version.
I am currently a nurse with Fircrest Residential Habilitation Center. I have been a nurse for seven years and at Fircrest for two years. My life long passion has been to work with people with intellectual and physical disabilities.
I began this work when I was in college when I started to work at group homes to earn money for school. I then worked for 11 years as a special education teacher for students with significant medical needs and saw how much the nurses were able to assist them in feeling better and even prolonging their lives. Late in my teaching career I had a student in hospice care and saw the wonderful care the nurse provided her and her family, and this was the final inspiration that made me change to nursing.
A memorable moment of the past year was when one of my clients with multiple medical needs was diagnosed with COVID. It was amazing to see the whole team jump into gear to do everything we could to keep him comfortable and safe. I could see the worry of not only his biological family but his family of roommates and caregivers as well. He had to be hospitalized, but survived the ordeal. I will always remember the relief and joy that everyone had when he was able to return home.
The nursing field has always had to struggle to get and keep people in the field. I think that one of the things that people don’t realize about nursing is that you don’t have to work in a hospital if you don’t want to and that you can work in environments that are not all blood and gore. There are so many different specialties and things to learn within the field that you can keep yourself challenged for a whole career.
WUUC offers numerous opportunities to get to know one another, delve more deeply into spiritual topics or just gather for song or conversation. If you’re seeking connections, the first place to try is here.
