#4 JBI Kitittas Valley UUC and UUC of Yakima

Part 1 Kitittas Valley UU Church – Ellensburg

KVUUC

Rev. Bill Graves and other justice activists

The Kitittas Valley UU congregation is a wonderfully friendly and energetic group of people from the sample I met with. They are housed in a church which also houses the Quaker and Buddhist groups of Ellensburg. KVUUC has just been recertified as a Green Sanctuary and part of this is dealing with the negative impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) on the environment and aquifer, to the point that water for a new school is brought in because the well is contaminated.

Part of responding to the CAFO issue is a Vegetarian Society with a large vegan contingent. The group worked with the city to pass a plastic bag ban and is trying to get the university to divest from fossil fuel investments. There is also a bee garden on the side of the church and several around town. And they are involved in supporting a local effort to recycle bicycles for children who need them.

The road between Ellensburg and Yakima

Part 2 Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery workshop

at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Yakima

On Saturday I attended a 5 hour workshop on Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery led by Rev. David Hacker of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church with a grant from the Roanridge Foundation. (He had an excellent powerpoint that he is willing to share and I will include a link to it here when it becomes available.) Both he and the Rev. Anne Barton had gone to Standing Rock and had been part of 50 ministers who burned a copy of the Doctrine of Discovery and read denominational letters of repudiation. UU World wrote an article about it.

Part 3 UU Church of Yakima

I attended the Sunday Service by Rev. Ken Jones and am sharing the below quotes which I found inspiring in these dark times.

“An audacious faith in the future.”

“When Armistice Day became Veteran’s Day, a holiday to celebrate the end of war turned into a day honoring perpetual war.”

“Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics, do not know what religion means.” Mahatma Gandhi

Some of the group of justice seekers at UUC of Yakima

The UU congregation of Yakima has a wonderfully large and beautiful traditional church building. They use their space to house several other faith traditions as well as a woman’s shelter. Their is interest in recommitting to bolder and better ways of doing justice. One of the ideas that seems to be percolating with them is to become a Sanctuary Church. The UUA has an issue brief on the New Sanctuary Movement. Their was concern about the Dreamers – the DACA people – getting yanked from their families and their communities. They felt that it would be useful to connect with UU people around Washington state, and that my message was timely.

Part 4 UU Voices Legislative Conference

North End Cafe offered me an excellent room to be part of the Legislative Conference via “Zoom”. There were 60 people from 15 different UU congregations.

Our legislative priorities will be on WA UU Voices for Justice website after those who registered for the conference vote later this week.

All in all central Washington was wonderful and I am looking forward to catching up with the congregation in the Tricities.

Yakima Canyon