Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:
A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment
Immediate actions you can take
Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love
Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.
Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.
Democracy
Core Principle: Democracy is not a destination but a practice rooted in interdependence and the worth and dignity of all. While authoritarianism consolidates power, we are the majority—and we must organize to build a truly multiracial democracy.
Update:
Happy Election Day! Across the country, grassroots organizers are working to ensure that every voice is heard and every vote is counted. Black women-led organizations, including the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Black Women's Roundtable, are leading a final push to mobilize voters across eight states and 22 cities through neighborhood canvassing, voter transportation, and community outreach. Meanwhile, the NAACP and Indivisible are coordinating thousands of volunteers to protect ballot access, respond to voter intimidation, and prepare for potential challenges to election results. These efforts remind us that democracy is not sustained by institutions alone. It is sustained by people organizing together to protect one another's right to participate.
As Unitarian Universalists, we know that our commitment to democracy does not begin or end at the ballot box. Throughout the nation, faith leaders with Faiths United in Saving Democracy are preparing to serve as poll chaplains and peacekeepers, offering a calming presence and helping communities navigate fear and uncertainty. Through UU the Vote, our congregations and communities are also showing up to canvass, phonebank, transport voters, and defend the democratic process. Whatever happens when the polls close tonight, our covenant to one another remains. The work of building a multiracial democracy, rooted in collective care, solidarity, and liberation, will continue long after the day ends. Our task is not simply to defend the democracy we have, but to organize together toward the democracy we have yet to realize.
Take Action:
Protect the Vote: Explore Indivisible's Hands Off Our Vote campaign for election protection resources and opportunities to support voters.
Support Voter Participation: Access the NAACP's voting resources to help community members navigate voting barriers and understand their rights.
Resources:
Join: The Gathering: Declarations of Democracy – Election Round Up on November 9 for a post-election conversation about our collective commitments and the organizing ahead.
Join: Architects of Hope Live Event for a conversation about hope, collective action, and the work of building a more just future.
Gender & LGBTQ Justice
Core Principle: Every body is sacred. We affirm that trans people are divine, abortion is a blessing, and no one is disposable. Attacks on identity are designed to divide us—solidarity is our moral and strategic mandate.
The Update:
This election is the first time discrimination against trans people is explicitly on the ballot in several U.S. states, and people in swing states and districts have been relentlessly barraged by anti-trans political ads for months.
To all our trans kindred, we see you and we love you.
Here at the Transforming Hearts Collective we've been working to equip people of faith for trans justice and we've been providing care to trans folks and our families. An exciting upcoming offering is Sacred. Trans. Justice., offered in partnership with Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) and GLAD Law.
A webinar (offered twice, once on November 10 and again on November 17) will feature a panel of MCC clergy speaking deeply about the experiences of trans people, theological and scriptural support for gender diversity, and what churches can do to deepen their commitments to trans belonging and justice in this moment. Additional recorded video content will provide essential background information to help folks understand the stakes. Registration is open to all.
Decriminalization & Immigration
Core Principle: Criminalization and dehumanization deny the dignity of our communities. Safety cannot come at the expense of others. As people of faith, we proclaim a future of care, abundance, and mutuality—not domination.
The Update:
With all eyes on the election, ICE continues to terrorize communities and the Trump Administration is preparing a major escalation in its war on Iraq. The Administration’s values are clear: military spending at home and abroad are more important than thriving and healthy communities at home and abroad. We must be equally clear on our Unitarian Universalist values, summed up in the new framework “Together Towards Love.” May we recommit to our collective work towards a world centering love in our country’s budgets, policies, and actions.
Take Action:
Tell Congress to End the Deadly Merger - stop deeper U.S.-Israeli Military Technology Integration Buried within the annual U.S. military spending bill is a chilling AIPAC-backed proposal, dubbed "the Deadly Merger,” that would integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries (Section 219 in the House and Section 1217 in the Senate.)
In total, the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would:
Increase military spending to a whopping budget of $1.15 trillion amidst a devastating affordability crisis and the ongoing assualt on Iran.
Integrate U.S. and Israeli military technology, intelligence systems, and research through "data fusion" and weapons co-production.
Rob voters of transparency and accountability by shielding the deadly U.S.-Israel military merger from Congressional oversight.
We have a critical window of opportunity right now to pressure lawmakers to block these disastrous proposals, and it’s more important than ever that they hear from their constituents. During the next two weeks, lawmakers will decide on which sections to cut from the final text of the annual Pentagon spending bill. We need to make sure Congress hears from constituents before these negotiations end.
Resources:
Read: ‘We Will Not Be Deterred’: Faith Leaders Defend Trespassing on ICE in Vermont: The leaders’ civil disobedience action spotlights the fact that, as some protesters put it, “ICE violence begins in Vermont.”
Resistance from the Borderlands: Arizona Communities Stand Against the Wall, Wednesday, November 4, 1:00 PM Arizona Time (MST) / 3:00 PM Eastern Time. We’ll hear directly from Arizona border communities resisting border wall expansion and raising awareness of its devastating impacts on people, Indigenous lands, wildlife, and fragile ecosystems. Co-sponsored by Immigration Law & Justice Network, United Women in Faith, Arizona Border Communities Coalition, Southern Border Communities Coalition, Sierra Club Borderlands, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, UMCOR, Kino Border Initiative, and the University of Arizona Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry. We hope you’ll join us for this important conversation and help spread the word by sharing the invitation with your networks, friends, and community members.
Climate Justice
Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.
The Update:
On Monday, November 2, in advance of the Midterm elections, and the return of Congress, Unitarian Universalists issued the following statement of opposition to the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA):
Rooted in Justice, against the deregulation in Permitting Reform
On behalf of Unitarian Universalists of faith and conscience, we oppose the version of Permitting Reform being advanced in Congress as S. 5653, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026. It fails to align with our faith teachings and values that call us to hold in love our recognition of interdependence, our need for justice, and our commitment to equity. We find the current proposal favors industry interests over the needs of people, communities, and ecosystems. It perpetuates the structural injustices of environmental racism and strikes at the foundations of the environmental policies that keep our communities safe from corporations more concerned with profit than people and planet. The bill sacrifices the sovereign rights and interests of Indigenous communities, as well as the preservation of sacred and cultural resources, at a time when the climate crisis is already forcing another generation of people from their homes. BAAJA runs counter to decades of Unitarian Universalist Social Witness statements: instead, we say, "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24).
BAAJA shifts away from permitting solutions that respect community needs, democracy, transparency, accountability, and environmental protections. Instead, it functions as a deregulatory push that prioritizes shareholder interests while jeopardizing community agency and prioritizing corporate interests. It locks in fossil fuel use, in exchange for transmission expansion, at the cost of community health and the legal tools impacted communities use to hold industry accountable. The trade-offs are too steep a price. Full text of statement here.
The Unitarian Universalist Association has signed on to the Joint Statement on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA). We are part of 21 UU organizations and State Action Networks, including:
List of joiners*:
JUUstice Washington
MUUSJA – Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance
Oregon Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice
Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry
Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Colorado Action Network (UUCAN)
Unitarian Universalist FaithAction NJ
Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of North Carolina
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland
Unitarian Universalist Massachusetts Action Network
Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Unitarian Universalists for Just Economic Community
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
UU Justice Florida (UUJF)
Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of CA
Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation
UUJusticePA
Virginia Unitarian Universalist State Action Network
Wisconsin Unitarian Universalist State Action Network
If your UU Organization would like to join, proceed here.
We would like to explicitly highlight the portion of the statement that calls out the racism at the heart of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act:
This deregulatory push shows how structural racism manifests as federal policy violence; this is clear if we remember that we, as Unitarian Universalists, stated in 1970: “The thrust of continental policy is now, as it has been historically, the steady expropriation of Indian land and water resources for the benefit of whites in the United States.” In 2021, we reasserted that “Systemic white supremacy is a direct affront to every one of our principles.”
We also know that environmental racism violates the Civil Rights Act. A justice analysis that has been affirmed in foundational documents such as The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice (1991) and The Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing (1996). Our faithful friends in the United Church of Christ said it directly in their 1987 landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites, when they agreed with the National Council of Churches: “Racism is more than just a personal attitude; it is the institutionalized form of that attitude.”
BAAJA perpetuates sacrifice zones and sacrifice constituencies, discarding the inherent worth and dignity of the very communities whom legislators continue to abandon. Poor Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and white folks in urban and rural communities will bear the disproportionate impacts of “progress” for the sake of net gains in emission reductions.
We love our neighbors too much to accept that abundance is dictated through racist and classist policy. Structural and environmental racism is fundamentally unholy, and an affront to our sacred and radically inclusive Love. We refute the notion that people near point-source pollution, or who will see their cherished lands strip-mined and despoiled, must bear the multigenerational costs while the fossil fuels industry is maintained through corporate welfare.
Read the full text of "Rooted in Justice, against the deregulation in Permitting Reform" here.
Take Action:
Call your members of Congress to OPPOSE the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA):
Find their phone number here. Leaving a message counts too!
Sample script:
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [CITY, or "your district"]. I am calling to ask [REP NAME] to reject the so-called "permitting reform" bill, which would be the biggest rollback in environmental protections we have ever seen. It perpetuates environmental racism, sacrifices Tribal sovereignty, and strikes at the foundations of policies that keep our communities safe from corporations more concerned with profit than people and planet. As a person of faith, I live into the courageous call to love every neighbor. Accepting BAAJA would make us complicit in harm to the very lives we hold sacred.
Sign on to any of the following petitions opposing BAAJA:
Resources:
Read:
The Unitarian Universalist 2026 Joint Statement against BAAJA: “Rooted in Justice, against the deregulation in Permitting Reform”
How the Permitting Bill Threatens our Historic and Cultural Sites - Earthjustice
Yes, the Permitting Bill Really Could Lock in Illegal Permits - Earthjustice
Learn:
Join:
Wednesday, November 4, 2026 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET (Please note the Time Zone!)
Drop into any of our monthly Office Hours to ask questions, learn what other congregations are doing, and get the support you need to create climate justice in your community. Offering shared learning and mutual supports, the new Green Sanctuary 2030 process and community of practice are here to support any UU working on climate justice.
Guided by UU values, the Green Sanctuary 2030 community nurtures resilient, thriving communities through climate actions that prioritize justice. When we gather to celebrate progress together, we create a community of shared learning and mutual supports.
To prepare for our time together, please review our short Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation Video and FAQ.
The Green Sanctuary 2030 Community meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7ET for 90 minutes for a conversation about UU climate justice. Green Sanctuary Office Hours are on the first Wednesday of the month at 7ET for 60 minutes.
Wednesday, November 18, 2026 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET (Please note the Time Zone!)
Reimagine Together Again (and again and again...) The Climate Justice revival energy continues with an invitation to Reimagine Together: Fractal Practices for Faithful Climate Justice. Designed to flexibly meet the needs of your congregation or organization, this new curriculum invites us to Begin Together & then proceed in all learning directions, developing and nourishing the skills and connective tissue necessary for participating in the possibilities of a world where all beings may flourish. The Rev. Deanna Vandiver of Ever Unfolding and Rev. JeKaren Bell, UUA, both members of the original UU Climate Justice Revival Planning Team will join us to introduce this encouraging resource. --- Guided by UU values, the Green Sanctuary community nurtures resilient, thriving communities through climate actions that prioritize justice. All are invited to join our monthly community meetings to learn together, support each other, and celebrate progress.
Join the Energy Democracy Project and the Climate Advocacy Lab on November 18th for Public Utilities Commissions: The Growing Fight for Clean Infrastructure on November 18th from 3-4 PM PT/5-6 PM CT/6-7 PM EST.
In the recent fights against data center expansion, more advocates are learning about the often-overlooked forum for decision-making on energy: Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs). These commissions provide state oversight and regulation of utilities like electricity, gas, water, and transit. PUCs are a direct line to those entrusted to protect the affordability, health, and safety of utilities. Learn how local organizations are fighting for safe, clean, and affordable utilities and infrastructure.
In this training, they will:
Provide an overview of the make-up, function, and power of Public Utility Commissions in state government.
Analyze and discuss successful campaigns to push Public Utilities Commissions to further climate justice and climate resilience efforts.
Uplift ongoing climate campaign that participants can plug into
Watch/Listen: Defending Public Lands & Standing Rock Anniversary: Recording & Resources | Side with Love
Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.
