Back in August, our very own Rev. Justine Sullivan was interviewed by KPBS Public Media on the topics of "Power" and "Agape" in the article titled "Civic Values in the Age of Polarization."

Read the article and watch the videos here, or click on the videos below: 

Dear Fellow Congregants,
I’m looking forward to working with you on the many exciting things happening at First Church this year. The search for a settled lead minister is certainly one of the key projects we’ll be undertaking together and I’m writing to give you an update of where we stand.

Rev. Kristen has been in discernment about whether or not she would like to be considered for the lead minister position. After much thought, she has decided not to pursue the position of settled lead minister. That said, her ministry at First UU has been deeply fulfilling and she has a strong commitment to our congregation’s future. Rev. Kristen is currently Assistant Minister on a two-year renewable contract basis.

Rev. Kristen is beloved, respected, and valued in our church community. We have the opportunity now to acknowledge how much she and her ministry mean to First UU by calling her Associate Minister. Moving Rev. Kristen from a contracted minister to a called minister would demonstrate our appreciation for her work with us and provide her — and First UU—long-term stability as we work our way through the important decisions that lie ahead.

This work will be guided by the Contract to Call process, a framework provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

To begin this process, our Board has appointed a five-person Call Process Task Force to lead the congregation through the discernment process. This team will also be responsible for guiding us toward a congregational meeting where we will vote on whether to officially call Rev. Kristen as our new Associate Minister.

      The members of this task force are:
      • Christy Anderson
      • Leland Beck
      • Susanna Concha-Garcia
      • Martha Hall
      • Mat Kaplan

An essential part of this process will be a series of small group meetings which will be similar in format to the Our Sustainable Future small group sessions we held last year. After these meetings, the Task Force will prepare a summary report for the board, ministers, and the congregation with a recommendation on whether to bring the call decision to the congregation for a vote.

The work of the Call Process Task Force will begin soon, with the small group meetings taking place in October and November. I anticipate that the congregational meeting will be held in January. The process of calling a settled lead minister will begin in February.

Thank you for the energy and commitment you bring to our church community! Please contact me [email protected] if you have any questions.
​
Karen Lamphere
Board President

This month's burrito project will take place on Tuesday, September 30. We are gathering in the Common Room at First UU to assemble burritos from 4-5pm. Next, we will clean up our working area, load the van and drive south together for distribution. Distribution is from 6-7pm. We will return to the Hillcrest campus at 7:30pm. 
​
 
Assembling burritos involves scooping beans, rice, and corn into a warmed tortilla, wrapping the tortilla, placing two burritos into a bag with two cold waters, and then putting the bagged items into a wagon.
 
You are welcome to participate in either the preparation, distribution, or both. 
 
RSVP to Lara Anderson ([email protected])

Prep Location and Caravan Meetup:
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
298 W Arbor Dr
San Diego, CA 92103
 
Funded through the Young Adult Ministry program

Are you interested in participating in future Pilgrimages with UUJMCA? Come help build a home with UU Justice Minbistry of California (UUJMCA)! 

Team up with 20-25 other UU congregants across the state from October 10th to 13th.


​For the past two years, UUJMCA has partnered with Casas de Luz to provide a home for a family living in Tijuana, Mexico. Casas de Luz, a non-profit with UU roots, has organized building small homes in Tijuana and San Diego for 20 years. Between registrations and donations, the total cost of this trip is $15,000. Your support helps keep a family housed and secure.
Local master carpenters guide the project and there are jobs at every skill level to choose from.

IMPORTANT: You will need a current passport or Global Entry pass.

Please contact Mark Chase [email protected] for more information.

Register/donate.
More info.

October 3, Friday
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Room 320 at First UU

Contact Louise at [email protected] for more info.

Saturday, September 27th
7pm in Bard Hall at First UU

Free film event!

Join Veterans for Peace and the Social and Climate Justice teams to view the San Diego premier of the hard-hitting documentary “Earth’s Greatest Enemy”, exploring the devastating impact of U.S. imperialism and the U.S. military on climate change.  

More information: Gary Butterfield ([email protected])​

Saturday, September 20, 2025
9 am - 3 pm
Common Room at First UU

A workshop led by Rev. Sunshine Wolfe
Sponsored by JTW
​ Lunch provided at no cost! Please register.

As Unitarian Universalists, our revolutionary values include hospitality and equity rooted in the belief that every person has worth and dignity. In an ever challenging political and social environment in the United States, our commitment to this needs to deepen, but how? What we know is that we practice at church what it means to live our values so we can model it in the world. How do we transform anti-racism work from the individual to the community? What tools can we use to bring that change? How do we stay committed in a world that can be overwhelming and uncertain?

This workshop will focus on tools for bringing your community into this important work with heavy emphasis on how First UU Church of San Diego continues the decades long work to become the world we
dream about. Rooted in play, information, and creative emergence — plan to work and play hard in community together.

Rev. Sunshine Wolfe (they/them) is the Regional Lead of the Pacific Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association. They have been a religious professional for 23 years, first as a religious educator and then an ordained minister. Rev. Sunshine specializes in Antiracism/Anti-Opression/Multicultural work with a heavy emphasis on equity, belonging, and change. They have preached and taught at over 120 UU congregations across the country including working in two regions at the UUA over the past eight years. Rev. Sunshine believes in the importance of transformative joy to bring about what CB Beal calls “preemptive radical inclusion.”

If you have questions, contact any JTW Core Team Member: Martha Davis, Bill James, Brian Kougl, Steve Howard, Valeria Aguilar.

Even more info here.

Friday, Sept. 26
7:00-9:00 PM
The Gathering Place of the Church of the Brethren
3850 Westgate Place, San Diego 92105

A Panel Discussion moderated by Michael Brackney (Peace Resource Center) featuring:

Yusef Miller (ICEJ) – A faith perspective on war and militarism
Scott Kelley (SDSU Professor) –The climate crisis background
Jim Rine (Veterans For Peace) – Militarism and climate change
Gary Butterfield (Veterans For Peace) – Militarism in San Diego

The military industrial complex is an existential threat to all life on planet earth. San Diego County is home to the highest concentration of active duty military service members in the world and has a robust defense industry component in its regional economy.  

Yet the US military is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels and emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world.  With the military budget exceeding $1 trillion, at the expense of all other social spending, and the effects of the climate crisis manifesting daily, as well as an ongoing international arms race, isn’t it time to carefully examine the military’s contribution to the climate crisis?

Sponsors: Activist San Diego; CleanEarth4Kids; Climate Reality Project; CodePink; Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice; Pax Christi; Peace Resource Center; and Veterans For Peace.

Free event. Register here.

Thursday, September 18th
6:00 - 8:30 pm
Bard Hall at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego

We Have Just Begun, 77 minutes, Directed by Michael Warren Wilson, 2023

Free event. Discussion following screening. Check out the trailer.

In 1919, Black workers' decades-long efforts to challenge their exploitation and become landowners in the Arkansas Delta culminated in the nation's deadliest racial massacre and labor battle, an event which was then buried for 100 years. We Have Just Begun is the result of over seven years of investigation into the suppressed history and legacy of the Elaine Massacre and Dispossession and explores the continuity of exploitation and domination in the Delta from before 1919 to the present. 


In the Reconstruction era, Philips County became the sharecropping capitol of Arkansas, with capital flooding into the region as it became a global hub for hardwood and cotton. Amidst this massive influx of wealth, Black laborers still found themselves paid less than their white counterparts for the same work. Robert Lee Hill, a sharecropper's son, attempted to organize a union of Black farmers, landowners, and business owners in the region, which also included WWI soldiers who had returned home from fighting for freedom abroad to find discrimination still rampant at home. Whipped up into a frenzy by a growing Black business class and rising labor movements vilified as the product of foreign agents, white communities enacted the "Red Summer" which saw startling increases in KKK membership and lynchings, and would manifest in its deadliest form in the Elaine Race Riot.


Challenging the official narrative that Black workers instigated the riot by shooting a white police officer, and that only a few dozen workers were subsequently killed, We Have Just Begun assembles striking new revelations by descendants, recordings of eyewitnesses, and original research to portray a region and people brutally stripped of land and resources and forced to relocate to areas where their descendants remain to this day. Immersing the viewer in a community wrestling with its own legacy, the film reveals previously untold layers of the episode, including unearthed documents that illuminate the true motivations for and scope of the massacre and subsequent mass dispossession. A lyrical composition of oral histories, primary sources, and original compositions by musician Joshua Asante, We Have Just Begun is a portrait of rural struggle toward emancipation, despite brutal attempts to suppress it, and the ways in which the present continues to be shaped by the past.