The First Parish Defending Democracy Working Group’s mission is to uphold our democracy consistent with Unitarian Universalist values and principles. We are action and education oriented. We are non-partisan (we do not advocate for a political party) but we do advocate for policies that strengthen democracy and oppose those that threaten democracy. We believe that our democracy and freedom are under serious threat at this time, and that it is our responsibility to address the threat through our faith community. We are called to living our faith through action.
We engaged the First Parish congregation through:
- increasing voter registration to get out the vote. We collaborated with UU the Vote and the Center for Common Ground and sent out 3,500 postcards to key states
- offering educational workshops on networking with personal contacts in order to engage others in defending democracy
- Two for Tuesday emails with suggested actions
- participating in UUMass action with policy-oriented actions
- co-sponsoring community events, such as a youth voter education and registration event at Arlington High School in October, 2024 AHS Civics Day 2024
- participating and collaborating with UU Social Justice and other local congregations’ efforts to defend our democracy
Contact defendingdemocracy@firstparish.info if you are interested in joining our efforts.