Nine UU’s from three different UU congregations represented the UU Council at the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati on Tuesday evening, November 15. The purpose of the meeting was to select two important social issues for special focus during 2012.
Dot Christenson and Lee Meyer from First Church (Cincinnati) joined Liz Woedl from Hopedale (Oxford) and Joel Araujo, John Chavies, Mel Levant, Tom Lottman, Sean McBride, and MJ Pierson, all of Northern Hills for the three hour planning session. Of the religious denominations present, UU’s had the largest representation.
Approximately 90 attendees were divided into groups, with each group to examine one of five earlier identified issues. The issues studied were Education, Employment/Job Creation & Training, Homelessness/Affordable Housing, Immigration, and Regional Governance & Development.
Representatives then met in groups within their own religious denominations to discuss these issues and vote as individuals to rank the issues. Each denomination/judicatory then summarized their rankings to arrive at a single ranking offered as representative of that denomination. These were then combined to yield a total ranking, with the top two then identified as the issues that MARCC will focus on. Those two issues for 2012 are Immigration and Homelessness/Affordable Housing.
Although two issues have been identified for special focus, that does not mean that the other issues will be ignored. MARCC will be monitoring issues and may schedule meetings on items like public school funding or unemployment, too. But particular emphasis will be on the two issues identified. – Lee Meyer, November 16, 2011
Social Justice Committee, HUUC 