By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Maumee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation wants to raise money for and awareness of the Poor People’s Campaign.
And they want to have fun doing it.
On Sunday, Nov. 18 the congregation will hold an art-in from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Rev. Lynn Kerr said that the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio has been working with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. That included helping people register to vote and then helping them get to the polls.
“Though obviously we’re not encouraging them to vote any particular way,” she said.
The proceeds from the art-in will be shared with the Poor People’s Campaign and the congregation.
The art-in itself has two elements.
Art supplies are being donated by local artists and businesses and will be sold at low prices so people can get the art supplies they want.
“The second thing is we have local artists who are sharing their talents where someone can come in do DYI project. But the artists will be there to show them how to do those projects,” she said.
The projects include jewelry making, crocheting, holiday ornaments, and origami. Kerr will be showing how to make ornaments out of birch bark.
“They’ll be doing cool things that don’t take a terribly long time to do,” she said. That way people will be able to complete several over the course of the afternoon.
Food will be available including items from the Share Our Grounds cafe in Whitehouse.
Poor People’s campaign is calling for a moral revival. “We’re just adding art to it to raise awareness. What’s lacking in the country is we need to think about what’s a compassionate act,” Kerr said. “What we’re missing right now is compassion through moral action.”
During the congregation’s 11 a.m. service Melissa Jeter, who is studying to be a lay minister and often speaks on social issues, will give the sermon.
Jeter said that the Poor People’s Campaign is a continuation of the work Martin Luther King Jr. was pursuing in the years before his assassination.
So much of what she sees, from the Flint water crisis to concerns about violence in schools, goes against King’s belief in the need to build a beloved community.
This new call for a moral revival is not a commemoration of the effort started by King. “This is to continue the work that’s not been completed,” Jeter said.
All these issues from the growing income disparity to threats to the environment are part of a web. “We’re all in the same boat.”
That there are still poor people who struggled for life’s basics in this wealthy country “does not seem right, does not seem moral,” Jeter said.
That someone making minimum wage has to work 74 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment makes one question how much value is put on a person’s life. Unitarian Universalists value every individual’s life.
Tying this mission to the arts is fitting, she said.
“It’s a way of reclaiming our own power to create.”
