Monday, Aug 4th
12:00 - 1:00 pm
US District Court Bldg
385 W Broadway, San Diego

The Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice will hold a silent vigil in front of the District Court Building to resist the greed and injustice of the current political climate and pray for earth repair.  All are welcome.  

Please wear black.  

​Register and learn more HERE.

​Join us to help wrap burritos on Thursday, July 17th from 3:45 to 8:00.
 
We will prepare the burritos from 3:45 to 5:30 in the Common Room at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego in Hillcrest.
 
The process 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.
 
We depart from the Hillcrest campus at 5:30 pm and meet at the South Bay First Church campus to distribute at 6:00 pm.  Folks can expect to return to Hillcrest by 8 pm latest.
​ 
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
 
Distribution Location and Meetup:
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego—South Bay
970 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Funded through the Young Adult Ministry program

Monday, July 28
7:00pm
AMC Fashion Valley 18

Why is it so difficult for some people to give so little and so easy for others to give so much? ABUNDANT explores these questions by entering the world of extreme altruism: non-directed kidney donation. These rare individuals give kidneys away to complete strangers.
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For more information: https://gathr.com/events/a953eb22/abundant-screening-at-amc-fashion-valley-18

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When: Monday-Friday
Where: 880 Front St, San Diego
Shifts: 8:00am-12:00pm or 1:00-4:00pm

Volunteers are needed at the courthouse for a variety of volunteer roles. Detention Resistance is taking the lead on the organizing, and they have been coordinating support for detainees since 2018. They have on-the ground training and volunteer roles for a variety of comfort levels and for people who are and are not bilingual.

Tips: wear business casual and wear a mask to protect your identity
You DO NOT need to sign up anywhere, just show-up.

Email Valeria with any questions.

Every second and fourth Tuesday
Zoom: http://bit.ly/4kxvlqG 

We have formed a support group to share our grief over the relentless, unprecedented changes in the U.S. and the world. After deep sharing, we will explore strategies and rituals for coping. Connect with others who are struggling.
​Questions? Contact Valeria.

Throughout the month of July, our offering is being received in support of Pink Haven Coalition, a collective of organizations and individuals who are committed to trans liberation and to growing community defense and alternative systems of care for gender diverse people. They are working together to create networks of safety and direct support for all those who need to relocate, access healthcare across state lines, or stay as safe as possible where they are. Learn more.

Pride Parade with First UU’s Rainbow Action Group
Saturday, July 19
10 am - 3 pm
Hillcrest Area

Join First UU and sibling congregations for the San Diego Pride Parade in Hillcrest. We’ll meet at Valerie’s truck and trailer, our gathering spot for walking or riding in the parade.

For details about meeting time and location, contact Louise at [email protected]. More info here. 

Sunday, July 13
12:15 pm – 2:30 pm
First UU SD, Bard Hall

Join us for "Hidden Figures", the first movie in our new series Women in Film. These movies will highlight strong female characters.

This free, open-to-all series includes popcorn!

Saturday, July 12
2:30 pm
First UU SD, Bard Hall

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), once widely respected as a defender of human rights, is now facing a “Drop the ADL” movement organized by progressive groups. Jewish Voice for Peace, with support from First UU’s Palestine/Israel Social Justice Team, will host a teach-in to explain the reasons behind this campaign.

For info, contact Steve Gelb at [email protected].

On June 8, we invited our congregation to share what they love most about First UU. The response was overwhelming—heartfelt messages that capture the essence of who we are as a spiritual community.  We collected over 120 love notes total: Read All Love Notes Here!

Here are just a few examples of the beautiful sentiments shared:

"This is my home. I belong here. My appreciation is deep and loving. I don't know of another group of people who care for each other into wellness."

"I love singing together and working together for justice."

"I love the utterly and completely welcoming community we have created here. This is the one place I am accepted and appreciated for everything and every way I am."

"Thank you for the gift of community in a place of alienation - and action in the face of despair."

From celebrating our music program to our commitment to social justice, these notes illuminate how our church family nurtures one another.

​It's been a journey, to say the least! Not long ago, after our church's 150th Anniversary Celebration, where plates piled high with meat were the norm and plant-based options were non-existent, our Climate Justice group saw an opportunity for change. We made a direct request to the Board: let's make plant-based meals the default for church events, with meat and dairy alternatives available only upon request.
We believed this was a crucial step towards aligning our practices with our values of care for creation. The Board, however, informed us it was a ministerial decision, so we redirected our request to the ministers. And guess what? We were told the policy was adopted!
The reality, as often happens, has been a bit slower than the promise. We haven't seen a full, immediate shift to plant-based defaults across the board. But here's the good news: there are now plant-based options readily available at church events. This is definite progress!
While we're still working towards our initial vision of plant-based as the default, the fact that our voices led to tangible changes is something to celebrate. It shows that persistence and clear communication can move mountains – or at least, introduce some delicious veggie alternatives!
What changes have you seen in your community when advocating for more sustainable practices?

 UU Values Go to Sacramento 
by Brian Kougl

On April 28, I joined a delegation of members from SDOP (the San Diego Organizing Project) on a trip to Sacramento to lobby our representatives on several important upcoming bills that are key in supporting our UU values. In Sacramento, we were joined by about 600 members of our statewide organization, PICO, who came from other local faith-based organizations across the state. It was a fun, informative, and productive whirlwind of a trip, flying out in the morning and returning in the evening. This was a new experience for me and I did learn a lot. The line to get into the office building was long, the line for the elevators was long as the building was packed with people from various organizations. The excitement was palpable. Our SDOP group divided into several smaller groups to meet with our respective lawmakers. My group met with legislative aides for Assembly member Chris Ward, Assembly member David Alvarez (who stopped by personally to greet us) and Senator Akilah Weber-Peterson. We were welcomed by each of them. We discussed with them our support of AB1157, a rent control measure, AB 736, and affordable housing bond, and AB 1231, a bill that offers measures providing resources and support to low-level offenders. In each of our sessions, we received very positive responses. They took notes on our comments and we felt heard. Not only did we express our support for these measures, we asked mindful questions designed to hold representatives accountable, and they gave us thoughtful realistic guidance about how to achieve our goals. One piece of information that I found especially valuable was that whenever we meet with staff in the local field offices, what we say does matter, and that input gets to the lawmakers. After our meetings, there was a press conference and then a march through the streets supporting affordable housing. It was a long, tiring day, but in the end a very productive one. For me, it was a very rewarding experience that I feel privileged to have been a part of!

Brian Kougl is a member of First UU, the San Diego Organizing Project, First UU's Social Justice Executive Team, and a fixture at the South Bay Food Pantry.

 Taste of Hope (2019, directed by Laura Coppens) documents what happens after workers win their fight with multinational giant Unilever to take over the Fralib tea processing and packaging plant in the South of France, near Marseille. In 2010 Unilever announced plans to close down and dismantle the factory, but after 1336 days of resistance, principally by occupying the plant and refusing to leave, the workers at Fralib forced Unilever to turn the factory over to them, and they subsequently resumed production as the Société Coopérative Ouvrière Provençale de Thé et Infusions (SCOP-TI). Taste of Hope observes workers begin to take on the challenges of insuring their product can succeed in an oversaturated, highly competitive market, dominated by giant firms maintaining much greater market power. Major challenges also include doing administrative jobs these workers previously didn't, while learning, from scratch, about marketing, distribution, accounting, and financial management. SCOP-TI also ambitiously strives to make steadily more of their teas entirely from ingredients harvested by local farmers, while manufacturing all organic teas as well as infusions from all natural ingredients. Following our screening of Taste of Hope, on May 8, we discussed examples of other groups of workers who might well be capable of success in owning and managing their own companies, as well as why many people do not recognize these capabilities of theirs. Audience members appreciated SCOP-TI workers and filmmakers honestly depicting the difficulties involved in competing as a cooperative enterprise, founded upon democratic and egalitarian principles, in a capitalist economy, including many disagreements among workers about how best to do so. People appreciated the respect Taste of Hope shows for the dignity of work, for the skill and intelligence of workers, and for the idealism and sacrifice required in order to bring about major changes that sharply depart from 'business as usual'. And we eagerly began to explore the question the filmmakers propose Taste of Hope ultimately poses: 'How do we need to work today so we might live a better world  tomorrow?'

Next in the Social Justice Film Series: From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock

From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock  by Kevin McKiernan
Thursday, June 5th
6:30 to 8pm in Bard Hall of First UU

In 1973, rookie NPR reporter Kevin McKiernan became the only journalist to defy a FBI-imposed media blackout and embed himself with the members of the American Indian Movement who had taken over the historic village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock tells the story of that 71-day armed occupation through the voices of both the AIM members and FBI agents who lived it and shows how this event continues to reverberate through Native American-US government relations, up through the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Free event! Check out the trailer.

Location:
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
4190 Front Street
San Diego, CA. 92103

Saturday, June 14, 2025
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Waterfront Park

On June 14th, Flag Day, the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, and Donald Trump’s birthday, Trump is staging a military parade through Washington, D.C.

He says it’s to honor the Army. But in America, that’s not how we honor the military. That’s how strongmen do it.

In a democracy, we don’t blur the line between patriotism and personal power. No U.S. president has ever held a military parade on their birthday, because American leaders don’t glorify themselves or our country with weapons of war.

This is un-American. This is authoritarianism. And we don’t do kings in America.

Monday, June 2nd
6 pm - 8 pm
First UU, Bard Hall

Join us as we welcome Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, for a conversation about the ways we are responding as Unitarian Universalists to the pressing issues of our times, the hope we find in stories of resilience and power from UUSC partners around the world, and the solidarity that will make possible a world where all people can flourish. Rev. Mary Katherine also looks forward to learning from our congregation about the ways we are in solidarity in our local community as we find synergy and power in our shared work for justice.

Location:
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
298 W Arbor Dr
San Diego, CA 92103

Friday, May 23rd, 8 pm
Islamic Center of San Diego
7050 Eckstrom Av, San Diego 92111

Islam has a long tradition of caring for the earth and using its resources responsibly.  This presentation (sponsored by the Islamic Center of San Diego and co-sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice) will feature three speakers–Taha Hassane, Imam of the Islamic Center, Dr. Wael El-Delaimy, Professor and researcher at UCSD, and Brother Yusef Miller of the Islamic Society of North County – who will address the religious, scientific and activist aspects of earth care. This event is in person and FREE of charge, open to the public.  Please join us!! 


For more information, contact [email protected]

Thursday, July 24
5:00 - 7:00pm in Balboa Park

Join us for an evening of exercise and socializing.
Meet at the center of Balboa Park's Museum area

Wednesday, May 21st
​6:30 - 8 pm
MAAC Community Room, 1355 3rd Ave, Chula Vista 91911

As members of the Chula Vista Neighborhood Solidarity team, First UU has teamed up with AFSC to bring our South Bay community a Know Your Rights training. This is an immigrant-focused workshop, but all are invited to attend—the workshop will be hosted in Spanish, with English translation available.

"Uprooted, Not Yet Replanted: The Spiritual Struggles of these Liminal Times"​

It’s been disorienting, to say the least. The volatility of Trump’s second term, the crumbling of norms, the destruction of jobs, lives, and institutions has left so many of us no longer being able to rely on “business as usual.” And with COVID, conflict, ministerial transition, and the open consideration of relocation, “business as usual” at First Church has been in flux for even longer. Living in a liminal time, where one way of being has ended and the “new normal” hasn’t quite taken shape, can be spiritually and emotionally painful. And yet, if we practice discernment, it can also present opportunities for us to live in to who we are truly called to be. Join us for a reflection on how discernment might guide us, as people, and as a community, in these liminal times.
 
Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh is First Church’s primary contact on the UUA Pacific Western Regional Staff. Celebrating her 20th anniversary of ordination this month, Sarah has served as a parish minister, a curriculum author/developer (Coming of Age and Our Whole Lives) and as UUA regional staff. Since 2016 she has lived in San Diego with her family and dog.

Tue, April 29th

​8:30 - 10:30 am PST
Not Working for Workers: The First 100 Days of the Trump Administration

11 am - 1:15 pm PST
The First 100 Days: Can Civil Society Defend Democracy?

​On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to fight for American workers and was rewarded with a majority of working-class votes. As we reach the end of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration—a period that has included mass layoffs, executive orders cancelling union contracts and revoking collective bargaining rights, deportations of immigrant workers, and attacks on the independent agencies that enforce labor laws—it’s time to ask how these actions can be benefiting workers. More broadly, it’s the right time to reflect on what it means to support workers in America today and how we can build an economy with good jobs for all.

May 1st at 6pm
​Waterfront Park

Join us and our community partners at Waterfront Park (1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, CA 92101) as we rally in support of workers and immigrant communities and take action in resistance to the Trump Administration’s cruel and racist policies that have torn communities apart. May Day has long stood as a moment to celebrate the rights of workers and immigrants and now is more crucial than ever to rally for those rights to be upheld. More info here.

“Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families” 

This spring, First UU will be participating in the UUA Common Read.  The book, “Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families” is a timely anthology of personal stories.  The last two group sessions will take place on April 24th and May 15th, 6-8PM on Zoom.  

Books can be purchased at the InSpirit Book Store. A limited number of copies are also available to borrow from church. To borrow a copy, email [email protected] 

There will also be handouts for the group sessions.  Handouts and Zoom links  will be emailed out to those who register.  So even if you're thinking that you might participate, you're encouraged to register at: https://www.jotform.com/build/250146308596056