Living in the Tension

LIVING IN THE TENSION
the quest for a spiritualized racial justice

Shelly Tochluk
Shelly is the author of Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It & Chair of the Education Department at Mount Saint Mary's University - Los Angeles. She has been part of the leadership team for AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere-Los Angeles) for the last 10 years & co-produces their Unmasking Whiteness Summer Institute
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About LIVING IN THE TENSION
Connections between spirituality and activism are evident within many social justice movements. Often unconsidered, however, is how race plays a role in our beliefs, actions, and collaborations.
What happens when our spirituality results in a failure to notice racial dynamics? Conversely, what happens when we focus only on race? What tensions arise when we pay attention to race and spirituality simultaneously?

Join us for a book reading and discussion

Thursday, June 23, 2016, 6:30-8:30pm

at the

Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester

90 Holden St, Worcester

This event is co-sponsored by the Witnessing Whiteness study group, the Worcester Partnership for Racial and Ethnic Health Equity. the YWCA Racial Justice Task Force, Abby’s House and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester.

Light refreshments at 6:30; talk begins at 7:00

Soular Jazz Festival

The 2nd annual the Soular Jazz Festival will be held on Saturday, June, 18. From 10 AM to 7:30 PM. We will share music, green technology information, demonstrations, food and fun.

Along with music from five fantastic, world-traveling bands, and three top-notch high school bands, there will also be a school solar cooking contest, a kids Sun Fun Parade and a raffle for a ride in a Tesla.

Our goal is to spread the promise of a better future through music and sharing ideas that preserve our planet for future generations. 

The Soular Jazz Festival is free so that anyone can join us.

Anyone who would like to support the amazing musicians who will be playing can make a tax-deductible donation here. These donations make the music possible!

Open Door Award

Put it on your calendars!  June 11th during the Pride Morning Worship at Old South Church in Boston, the prestigious "Open Door Award" will be presented to Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pastor Judy Hanlon, Hadwen Park Congregational Church.

Many of you are familiar with the LGBT Asylum Support Task Force founded by Pastor Judy in 2008 to provide vital housing, food, legal support and other services to our persecuted brothers and sisters who have fled to the US from 16 countries where they are subjected to prison, torture and even death.  As many asylum seekers arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs and most aren't allowed to work during the legal process, the support Pastor Judy has garnered for them is life saving.  

First Unitarian has held a 50-50 offering and individual congregants regularly support this mission.  Please join in celebrating this well deserved honor to Pastor Judy who courageously emulates Jesus, "a social justice warrior". Round trip bus transportation will be available from Hadwen Park church for only $20.  Please contact Gini Johnson for further information: ginijo@aol.com.

Spring 2016 Garden Tours
May through June

Sunday tours of church members' and friends' gardens are back! This year the Garden Tours begin on May 22. The tours will be 4 to 6 pm, when gardens aren't quite too wilted, should be really lovely and a nice chance for community. They'll occur any week it isn't storming. Questions? Email Mary McAlister at

maryalmc@gmail.com

Sunday, May 22 - Peter Haroutian, 676 Pleasant St., Worcester. From church turn right uphill on State St., another right to lights and left onto Highland St. Left at next light onto Harvard/Lynden, up and downhill through several lights, and turn right at lights by All Saints Church onto Pleasant St. Cross Park Ave., to tennis courts and house with enormous tree opposite last court. Park in large driveway and enter back yard.

Sunday, May 29 HOLIDAY Weekend – no Garden Tour.

Sunday, June 5 - The Riggs, 337 Salisbury St., Holden. From church take Salisbury St.. towards Holden, past Salisbury Green on right. Approx. 2 miles later see #337 on left.

Sunday, June 12 – The Mandiles, 779 School St., Webster. From church take Rt. 290 West onto Rt. 395 to exit 1. Go through light at exit and 1 mile to left onto School St. by stop sign. 779 is just after nursing home on left with parking along driveway just before 779, a pink colonial house with red barn.

Sunday, June 19 - TBA

Sunday June 26 - James and Linda Tartaglia, 6 Old Colony Road, Worcester. From church, turn right onto State St. then turn right onto Harvard St. Continue onto Tuckerman St. and turn left onto Salisbury  St.. Old Colony Road is a right off Salisbury St. (heading west) about 3 blocks BEFORE Flagg Street. 

The Story of an Asylum Seeker

This month’s 50/50 offertory will benefit the LGBT Asylum Task Force.  This agency helps LGBT asylum seekers who have fled their home countries because of threats of violence and death based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity.  All donations will go to providing housing, food, and spending money for asylum seekers in Worcester.  

On Sunday, we heard from an LGBT asylum seeker from Uganda.  Because his friends and family in Uganda could be at risk if his name appeared online, we are using his alias, “John”.

My name is John. I am 29 years old.  My mother died shortly after my birth.  My dad died when I was 12. I was raised by my mother’s brothers and sisters.  I came to realize I was gay at 17, but it is illegal to be gay in Uganda, so I claimed that I was shy and studied all the time.  I was pressured to find a wife.  

My uncle called me and asked me if I was gay.  Boldly, I said “YES!”, in hopes of having his support.  Instead, my honesty only brought me two unending scars, one on my head, and one on my forehead.  It also cost me the love of my uncle and a place to live.  He did promise not to repeat my truth, which was a favor, as families in Uganda who do not turn in their gay children could go to prison for 14 years.  He told me to go far away and get help or I would be imprisoned.,

After years of struggling and hiding, I was no longer a homeless teen, but a self-sufficient man. I got a good job and fulfilled my dream of being a TV producer. All that time, I had witnessed LGBT community members being harassed, killed, raped, and imprisoned. The lucky ones managed to flee the country.

In 2014, I met an old friend of mine who was a music director and a member of the gay community.  We wanted to make a documentary film on the LGBT struggle in Uganda.  We did, even though creating mob scenes in hiding took a lot of money and risks. We decided it would be safer to submit the film to festivals around the world. We won two awards in America and I came to accept the award in Baltimore Maryland.  During that time, someone told me about the LGBT Asylum Task Force in Worcester.  I contacted Pastor Judy and we stayed in touch by email.  I returned to Uganda, determined to take the message to my people.

Bravely, we decided to put our film in Ugandan theaters.   My life was never the same. The police came to my work place with video clips and accused me of recruiting youth to be gay.  I was fired.  After that, theaters would not buy our movie. 

I was arrested and thrown into prison, starved and beaten.  They tortured me to give the names of my friends.   I did not.  They tortured me to tell them where I got the funds to produce the movie. 

The torture increased, so I pretended to be ill so that I would not be killed.   I fainted, begged for medicine, and they sent me to a hospital for a checkup, wishing to keep me alive for more information.   That night, I escaped from the hospital.

I was so committed to bringing human rights to Uganda, that I agreed to help in one last film shooting at a hospital in Kampala, Uganda.  I should have known!  We were arrested and the torture resumed.   A man in prison traded my escape for my camera.  It broke my heart to give it away, but I wanted to live.

I planned to go to Kenya for a while until the situation calmed down. Then, I heard that the co-producer who was running to Kenya had been chased like an animal and beaten to death.   I faced my darkest night. This was my friend, with the same dreams of freedom that I had. 

I had to leave.  My visa to the United States had not expired, so I sold all that I had and booked my flight.  I got in contact with Pastor Judy. Sadly, she said, the Task Force did not have the money to take me in.   I tried everywhere.  No one answered.  As I travelled the United States looking for help, I spent my nights sleeping in train stations.  Pastor Judy kept emailing me to see if I was okay. 

On Sunday, February the 7th of 2016, I got on a bus and came to worship at Hadwen Park Church.  I figured I would just live in a homeless shelter and be close to the church and the Task Force.  I had $50 left in my pocket.  Pastor Judy sent an email to the church and two women offered me a spare room and a mattress.   I am still there, as the Task Force has not raised the money to find me my own place.

Maybe you, in this church, can help to financially support me.   It costs the Task Force $7,000 a month to keep 12 asylum seekers housed and fed.  The Task Force only supports us during the time we are not allowed to work, usually about 9 months.  Then, we move on to self-sufficiency and employment and another asylum seeker takes our place.

No matter what, since I found Worcester and the Task Force and all of you, I know that I will survive.   It is still my desire to tell the story of Uganda’s abuse against LGBT people.  

Thank you for listening and may God bless you as God has blessed me.  

“John” 

Asylum Seeker to Tell His Story

Our 50/50 beneficiary organization for March is the LGBT Asylum Task Force.  This wonderful organization is based out of the Hadwen Park Church in Worcester.  The Task Force provides support those for who are seeking political asylum in the U.S. based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.  

This Sunday, March 13, you will hear a brief story from “John” an asylum seeker from Uganda who arrived in Worcester on February 7.  He fled from his home after being imprisoned, starved, and beaten for producing a movie about LGBT persecution in Uganda.  John, another asylum seeker, and Polly Laurelchild-Hertig, Executive Director of the Task Force, will be available for conversation about their experiences and the Task Force after next Sunday’s service.

Since 2007, the Task Force has helped more than 100 individuals. Asylum seekers are vulnerable and traumatized individuals who have fled to the U.S. in fear of being killed or harmed in their countries of origin due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. The violence resulting from homophobia and anti-homosexuality laws in many countries in the world is rampant.  There are laws against homosexuality in 88 countries around the world.  In 72 countries, you could be imprisoned if you are part of the LGBT community. In 7 of those countries, the punishment is the death penalty.

Because most asylum seekers are not permitted to work during their legal process, they do not have the means to support themselves. They often arrive in the U.S. with nothing but the clothes on their backs having used all of their resources getting here. Moreover, they remain particularly isolated because frequently they cannot turn to people from their own country in the U.S. for assistance or support, as it is their fellow countrymen from whom they are fleeing.

The LGBT Asylum Task Force operates on a shoestring budget of approximately $7,000 per month.  This allows them to support 12 asylum seekers at a time, though there are many more who need help.  The 50/50 offering for the Task Force will be on Sunday, March 20.   http://lgbtasylum.org/home.htm

Winter Fun Afternoon

Mark your calendar for Sunday February 28! 

After Church, there will be a Winter Fun Afternoon at the Mirick Farm on the slopes of Mt  

Wachusett in Princeton.  We’re planning on sledding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing now that we’re finally getting snow this winter.  There will be a bonfire, and a cooking fire by the lean-to for make-your-own s’mores, and hot drinks. 

Plan to leave the Church about noon.  Bring your own picnic lunch, which you can eat in the dining room before leaving, in your car on the way (the drive is about 25 minutes), or around the fire after you arrive. 

This is an intergenerational event!  Bring your own sleds, toboggans, snowshoes, and skis.  There are lots of slopes – some steep and some gentle – all kinds of fields and lanes through the woods for cross-country skiing, and lots of walks through the woods for those on snowshoes.  You can stand on top of a beaver lodge, follow animal tracks through the snow (moose tracks if you’re really lucky), scout for places where the deer have bedded down, and just enjoy an afternoon outdoors.   If you get chilly, you can warm up at the cooking fire at the lean-to or around the bonfire. 

Of course, dress for winter weather:  layers of clothing, boots, hats, and gloves. Consider a small backpack for lunch, snacks, and odds and ends.  And if you have little ones who may get wet when playing in the snow or along the brook, put a change of clothes for them in your car.

Princeton is just 17 miles north of Worcester.  The quickest route from the Church is to pick up I-290 in Lincoln Square, to I-190 north to Route 140 and then Route 62.  You can also get to Princeton using Route 31 from the center of Holden.  We will pass out maps and “Can’t Miss” directions on February 28.  If you were on the Mt Wachusett climb in October, the route will look familiar:  Mirick Road is parallel to Mountain Road, where we started on the trail up the mountain.  The Mirick farm has a large red barn on the west side of the road, and a white colonial house and other outbuildings on the east side of the road.  For those who use a GPS, plug in “160 Mirick Road, Princeton MA  01541”

Park in front of the barn – head-in parking, please!  If you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, you can also park in the field to the right of the barn.  And if everything else is filled up, then parallel park along the edge of the road, but leave room for cars to get through.  The bonfire and lean-to are a couple of hundred yards down the lane to the right of the barn, past the pond, and over the brook (there’s a bridge!) to the right when you come into the meadow.

Join us for as much of the afternoon as fits in your schedule and your energy level!

Bad Weather Date:  If February 28 is terrible, we’ll move to the following Sunday, March 6.

Questions?     Call John or Diane Mirick 978-464-2313  

Emails: jmirick@mirickoconnell.com or dianemirick8@gmail.com